Let’s do this Letterman-style, shall we?

10. Go deep-sea diving. The idea of being underneath that much water…no, thank you.

9. Eat brains, neither as a culinary delicacy or because I’m a zombie. (I’d be the rare vegetarian zombie.)

8. Live in a small, rural town on anything more than a very temporary basis. I’ve been there, done that, and you know what? I’m a city girl. I kind of love crowded urban sidewalks and driving on freeway overpasses and tall buildings and having multiple libraries and malls and movie theaters to choose from. I can see why some people like small towns or the country, but I just go stir-crazy.

7. Get a facial piercing. I love the way they look on other people, but they’re not for me.

6. Be on a reality TV show. I can’t even watch reality TV because many people on those shows annoy me so much that I want to hurl the TV out the nearest window. Troy banned me from watching reality shows years ago because I get so worked up. Luckily, there are plenty of good sci-fi shows to keep me occupied.

5. Illegal drugs. I’ve never smoked, I barely drink. I’m just too law-abiding and not thrill-seeking enough to do drugs. I grew up right smack in the middle of the Just Say No era, and the message sank in. Plus, did I mention that they’re illegal?

4. Have a Freebie Five list. Yes, I totally understand that people make those lists for fun and that most (some?) of the people who make them wouldn’t be expected to actually follow through in the unlikely event they had the chance with one of their Five, unless they were a character on a sitcom. Knowing someone has a List doesn’t make me think they’re a terrible person, or anything like that. It’s just one of those things I don’t do. My design doesn’t allow for it, kind of like how I have zero understanding of what makes gambling fun. (Sure, you go right ahead and blow that $50 on slots. I’d rather spend it on books or movies, or possibly yarn or pottery-painting or a new camera lens. Heck, even a nice dinner out makes light years more sense to me than handing it over to a casino.)

3. Go skydiving or bungee jumping. I like just a little bit of adrenaline. Driving on a busy freeway in a new city? Sounds like fun! Standing on a tall structure and looking down? I love heights. Make a new recipe for the first time when company is coming for dinner? Bring it on, I’m confident of my cooking ability. Go hang-gliding? Hmm…maybe. I’m definitely intrigued by the idea. Jumping out of a plane or off a bridge, even when I logically know I’m equipped with a parachute or safety cord? No. Just…no.

2. Go to a tanning booth. Skin cancer runs in my family. Not remotely worth the risk.

1. Say never. Hey, life can be unpredictable.

What’s something YOU would never do?

I’m taking part in a blogging group called Reverb Broads that will be suggesting daily blogging prompts this December. It’s unlikely that I’ll do it every day (I missed Days 3-5, including a prompt I suggested) but I’ll be using them occasionally throughout the month as they tickle my fancy. If you want to join in, feel free! Go here or here to learn more.

I have very healthy self-esteem which allows me to blithely forget the stupid things I do. At least, I assume that’s what happens, because I know for a fact that I do stupid stuff all the time (ask my husband, I’m sure he could tell you a story or ten), but nothing is jumping to mind from this past year.

However, I do vividly remember the moment I realized that looking stupid and being embarrassed was not only not gonna kill me, but that it in fact was even kinda fun. I was 10 years old, it was the last day of fourth grade, and my class was playing games and goofing off after we helped move the chairs and desks from our classroom to storage (I went to a small parochial school so the students were also occasionally slave labor). My friend Jenny, who was super outgoing and hilarious and had inexplicably picked me to be her best friend in our class, offered to lead everyone in the motions of some song we were singing, and without asking she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the front of the class with her.

Now, back then I was shy. I hated being the center of attention. I hated being looked at. I didn’t like being singled out for criticism or praise. I just wanted to be left alone to read my book and fade into the wallpaper. The fact that Jenny had dragged me up to the front of the class with her to wave my arms and jump around like a giant dork in front of everyone should have made me freeze and then run for the hills like a scared rabbit. But over the course of that year I had slowly changed.

Being friends with Jenny was a big part of that change. She was so confident and unafraid to be weird and silly, and she was awesome. If someone like her thought it was okay to risk being laughed at, maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. The other major component of that change was that I’d moved from a big public school where there were three classes of 30 kids in each grade to a small school where my entire grade only had 12 kids in it. So not only were there fewer people for me to embarrass myself in front of, but they were people who had not known me my whole life. They didn’t have preconceived notions of who I was and what I would or wouldn’t do. It’s always a little easier to break out of a rut when everyone around you doesn’t keep pushing you back into it.

When Jenny pulled me to the front of the class so I could sing and do the motions to a silly camp song with her, my heart was pounding and my mouth was dry and I felt like I might throw up. But I threw caution to the wind and did it. I sang the heck out of that song (strangely, although I can remember the moment perfectly in other ways, I have no memory of what the song was) and I acted out the stupid motions while everyone was looking at me and laughing good-naturedly as they sang along.

When we were done, I felt idiotic and shaky and completely exhilarated. I couldn’t believe that I’d done it. I’d looked moderately stupid in front of a bunch of my peers and I was still standing and breathing and if anyone was making fun of me I didn’t even care, because at that moment I started understanding that when you’re willing to risk looking stupid sometimes, life is a lot more fun.

I’m taking part in a blogging group called Reverb Broads that will be suggesting daily blogging prompts this December. It’s unlikely that I’ll do it every day, but I’ll be using them occasionally throughout the month as they tickle my fancy. If you want to join in, feel free! Go here or here to learn more.

At naptime today, Elliora nursed and then declined to actually go to sleep. So we got up and played with Photo Booth instead.

(0:58)

In this one, you can hear her saying “yeah,” one of her favorite words; and you can see her bottom teeth pretty clearly a couple of times. Every time she leans forward, she’s touching the monitor where she could see her face, and occasionally banging on the keyboard.

(1:07)

When I say “ow” in this one at the :49 mark, it was because she flung herself backwards so suddenly that her head connected with my cheekbone rather painfully. I don’t know if, when she says what sounds like “back,” if she was actually saying that word. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to repeat it and move her back to the laptop. At the end when I tell her to say bye-bye, she actually says, “ha,” which means “hi.” Contrary little twerp.

(0:39)

If you only watch one of these videos, watch this one. It’s the shortest, and there’s lots of laughing (plus me pulling faces) in it.

pretty: I like playing with the shutter speed when there’s a fountain around. This one is in the main park in Erin and Rocco’s downtown.

happy: Annalie loved this ziplining thing on the playground in the same park. She went on it over and over and over again. There was a similar piece of playground equipment on the playground at our old church in Maryland, and she loved that one too. And she was pleased as punch with herself when she was able to go all the way across the rings on her own.

funny: Silly ice-cream posers. And goofball me, posing on Annalie’s scooter with Elliora on my back.

real: This is what happens when you accidentally fall asleep with wet hair when you’re putting the baby to bed for her afternoon nap.

Pretty, happy, funny, real is about capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. Via girlwithgreencard.

I haz a ball!

I shall ignore all the toys and play with the ball.

Hey, did you see? I got a ball!

Rainball, you say!?

Nom nom. Taste the rainball. (Hee!)

What happens if I shake it?

Oh. It got away from me. Ball, where are you going?

I can…almost…reach it…

Grrrrr!

Did you see how it got away from me?

Ball, stop getting away from me!

Hmm. It got away again. Maybe if I yell at it.

Ball! Get over here!

Reeeaaach.

Almost.

Got it. I must become one with the ball.

Heh. Not really, of course. But doesn’t it look like Elliora is getting ready to catch a mini-Annalie!? This cracked us up when we saw it.

Can anyone out there think of a better, more hilarious caption? There might be a prize in it for you if you come up with a really good one. Maybe some dottery or something crocheted. Wow me, I dare you!

(DISCLAIMER, because I know some of you are looking at this photo and thinking, “Aack!”: No babies were harmed during the taking of this photo. It was safer than it looks. We have a king-size bed, and Elliora was on one corner with me right next to her, while Annalie jumped straight up and landed on the pillow in the opposite corner, about six feet away. Elliora wasn’t even jostled.)

I’m sure someday I’ll actually care about blogging again. Right now I can’t seem to be bothered with it. I’m sure it’s because life is just full, what with having a nursing baby and homeschooling Annalie and Troy working crazy hours and cooking and laundry and crocheting baby blankets and sometimes meeting friends to paint pottery and mailing out the occasional care package. Not to mention how we seem to keep taking turns being sick.

It’s not that I don’t care about blogging, even. I want to blog. I guess I just want to do those other things more. Or they’re easier, or they are more necessary, or they give me more personal satisfaction, or they’re easier to do while wearing Elliora in the Ergo and bouncing on an exercise ball. I don’t know.

I guess I have blogged recently, but it doesn’t feel to me like I have. Maybe because recently my posts have either been short or photoless or kind of vent-y? Or maybe because I have thought of a hundred posts I would like to write in the past couple of months but have not had the time or energy to write them in a timely fashion. Especially when they involve getting photos downloaded, edited, and Flickr’d all on the same day.

Right now there are photos on my camera that I could write a lovely post about. I took them today, in the rain. Annalie was outside playing and splashing and dancing around exclaiming over all the violets and daffodils, and Elliora was quiet and big-eyed as she took the world in and listened to the rain pattering on the umbrella above our heads.

But the problem is, they’re still on my camera. And I’m tired. And I have a couple hundred photos from my Omaha trip already on my laptop awaiting editing and posting, and I hate doing things out of order. So that post will likely never get written, and that makes me kinda sad. But I know that right now, I cannot do it all and stay sane. I just can’t. I have to let some things go.

Not to mention that there are lots of other things going on in my life, or at least around me, that I couldn’t blog about anyway. And that always puts a damper on my desire to write here, when I have to hold things back. Nothing terrible is going on, lest you worry. Just stuff that isn’t mine to talk about. You know how it goes. I guess I’ve actually been writing a lot lately, just all of my writing has been to friends or family in emails.

Anyway. I should end this post before it gets any more random and rambly. It’s entirely possible that this crappy-blogging streak is all in my head, because I know about all the posts I’ve wanted to write that have not happened, but you guys don’t. In any case, I hope y’all don’t mind if I occasionally throw a bunch of random photos up here and call it a day.

The blanket I’ve been furiously crocheting for Jen‘s Three is done! I finished it in the wee hours of this morning because Elliora is apparently teething and needed to be held and consoled when she was awake from 9:30 last night till 1:30 in the morning. Yes, you read that right. My babies come out of the womb with superhuman stay-awake powers. (Troy: “Gee, I wonder where they get that?”) You might think staying up till 4am to finish a project is nuts. But I am a night owl, and the blanket was so very close to being finished, and I’m leaving tomorrow for a week-long trip to Omaha with the girls while Troy stays home and works crazy hours to finish some project. I wanted to finish it and get it shipped before I leave because Jen could theoretically have the baby before I get back home! Here’s hoping.

My shirt is from ThinkGeek.com, in case you’re wondering.

And hey! The good news is, this blanket is baby-tested and -approved! It was actually sitting next to us, and Elliora reached over and grabbed it and wouldn’t let go. Then she tried to stuff it in her mouth.

Okay! So now that’s done. Here’s my to-do list for today:

The only one I might have trouble with is that last one.

I only have to hit Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, and South Carolina and I’ve been in all 50 states. I’ve actually spent the night in 39 of these, and all the rest I either spent significant time driving through or stopped and did something touristy. (Saw this on kc’s blog.)

UPDATE: I remembered that I have driven through Mississippi! Last winter when we were driving from San Diego to South Texas to DC, we passed through and I almost got to stop and meet Sam but the timing ended up being wrong.

My friend Jill posted a short video of herself on her blog Jill Will Run, reading a list of words and answering some questions with regional-specific answers. She saw it done first at Healthy Tipping Point. I thought it was a really fun idea, so I made a video of my own. I can do that, now that we have electricity in our house again, after a snowstorm knocked out our power Wednesday night (along with thousands of other people in the DC metro) and we were without power for 47 hours. I’m wallowing in the luxury of having electricity again, and being able to do things like make videos and upload them to the internet.

Just for background, I was born and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. When I was 21, I married Troy and moved to San Diego. Since then, I’ve lived in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Tempe, Arizona; Southern Maryland; San Diego again; and the Washington, DC, metro area. I tend to pick up accents and regional expressions wherever I live. By the time we left Ottawa, I was saying “eh?” at the end of a lot of sentences, and then I picked up “y’all” when we lived in Virginia Beach. Someone listening to me during that time would have been very confused about where I was from.

bethany actually sounds like this – the accent vlog from bethany actually on Vimeo.

Wow. Watching this video, I was struck with how much I really do resemble my brother, not just in looks but in facial expressions and speech patterns. Also, I can see more clearly how much Annalie looks like me when I watch videos of myself. Weird.

Anyway! Here’s the list of words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And here are the questions:

• What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
• What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
• What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
• What do you call gym shoes?
• What do you say to address a group of people?
• What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
• What do you call your grandparents?
• What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
• What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
• What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Do you have a special name for rain falling while the sun is shining? I don’t know a term for that, but I do have a rain term that as far as I know is specific to my family: when it’s raining so hard that the drops of rain are creating circular ripples and then bouncing back up, my family calls that raining ballerinas, because if you squint it kind of looks like a ballerina with a tutu. I think my brother or I called it that years ago, and it just stuck for some reason.

Feel free to play along. If you do, please let me know in the comments where you post your videos so I can watch them! If you don’t feel like making a video, just tell me about a weird regionalism of yours.