Seven sevens

Thanks to Moonface for tagging me to do this meme. I'm very grateful to have something to post, actually, because I've spent the weekend scouring the house and baking cookies needed for various upcoming functions and haven't had a recreational thought to speak of for the last 48 hours. Plus, I've never done a meme! Unless you count my turning the 100 Things meme into 100 Things to Eat. I'm not even totally sure how to define the word meme, though I'm getting an idea of what it is more or less. But I certainly know how to answer questions--love questionnaires of most varieties, in fact. Dorky, I know. So here goes.

Seven things I hope to do before I die:

1. Take a few months and go on a tour of the entire country, east to west and north to south. I'd like to do this with our kids while they're still actually kids. We'd stop to hike out West, tour candy factories wherever we found them,...
   
2. Learn to speak fluent Spanish, and not just the present tense-only, kitchen variety that I know now.
3. Have one more baby.
4. Turn our little piece of land into a stunning garden full of not only year-round flowers and/or fruit but also birds and good bugs and small wildlife. Our house is small, but I don't want to move from it til at least the kids are grown.
   
5. Go on an archaeological dig in either the Greek islands or somehwhere in Mexico or Central America.
6. See my kids grow into happy, intelligent, together women who manage to by-pass the pitfalls of teen-age hood in our little town where kids seem to grow up very fast indeed.
7. Become a really expert quilter and sewer.
   

Seven things I cannot do:

1. Sail on the ocean without becoming violently, gut-emptyingly sea-sick. I can't even float around on a sea kayak in the sound without getting queasy!
2. Stop feeling bitter about my ex-husband and his mother's role in my daughter's life. I wish very much to get rid of this.
   
3. Make exercise a priority in my life like I know I should. It's a good thing I fidget. Apparently, fidgety people burn up to 300 more calories per day than non-fidgeters. Also, I bustle.
4. Go back to being a vegetarian, despite knowing there are all sorts of moral reasons to do so.
   
5. Avoid putting my foot in my mouth at least once at a party.
6. Tell a lie convincingly. I can't stand falsehood of any kind, though sometimes a white lie is helpful. Can't even do those, though.
7. Write fiction.
   

Seven things that attract me to my spouse (significant other, best friend):

1. He's got the most appealing mix of erudite, articulate, and raunchy. I love that.
2. He thinks of himself as a provider. My animal brain totally digs this, feminism be damned!
3. He has interests that he is passionate about that have nothing to do with me.
4. He is completely enthusiastic and supportive of my own interests, despite them having nothing to do with him either.
5. He is incredibly sweet with our baby, and has always taken care of my daughter from a previous marriage as if she were his own, too.
6. He is the voice of reason to my own intemperateness and impetuousness. Even when it means being brutally honest and saying things I don't want to hear. It frequently pisses me off, but I would never change this about him.
   
7. I SO love his sense of humor. He is very witty.
   

Seven things I say often:

1. "No no no, Bean! Don't eat Mama's plants!"
2. "How was school today, m'dear?"
3. "Oh, does this baby want to nurse? Yes, she wants to nurse with the Mama!"
4. "Sister, please come get your kitties/tea set/notebooks and crayons and put them where they go. You know, if you put everything in its place you won't lose things so often."
5. "How are we ever going to get this baby to sleep through the night, hon? This is getting ridiculous."
6. "Damn cats...!"
7. "No biting! No biting the Mama!"
   

Seven books or book series I love:

1. Black Sun, by Edward Abbey
2. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, by Charles Pellegrino. (This is a book of archaeological evidence for various happenings in the Bible. SO interesting.)
3. Aztec, by I think Gary Williams. This is an incredibly trashy, titillating novel set in the time of the European conquest of Aztec civilization. One of my guilty pleasures.
4. 100 Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I've read this countless times at this point, and plan to read it countless more.
5. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," which is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It is crystalline sharp in its description of the last afternoon of a man dying of a gangrenous leg in Africa. A perfectly written story.
6. It's been awhile, but my favorite book used to be Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller. Yes, some people think he was an unapologetic misogynist and anti-Semite, but I used to really love his writings. I should really go back and see if this still holds true now that I'm 10 years older...
7. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, LONG before Viggo Mortensen entered the scene.
   

Seven movies I could watch over and over again:

1. Um...The Lord of the Rings trilogy, because of Viggo Mortensen.
2. Henry and June, about Henry Miller, his wife June, and Anais Nin in Paris. The costumes are superb and Uma Thurman is a very convincing June Miller.
   
3. Wild at Heart. "The whole world is wild at heart and weird on top." Indeed.
4. Spirited Away. One of the few children's movies that isn't totally insipid. My husband, daughter, and I were all totally taken when we first saw this movie.
5. The Big Lebowski. Good for easy laughs, and eminently quotable.
6. Damage, with Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche, if I'm in the mood to have a good freak-out cry. This movie is awful and so, so good.
7. Big Night. Have I mentioned how much I love food?
   

Seven people I would like to join in this “Seven Sevens” meme:

1. My old pal, mommygoth.
2. One of my new favorite bloggers, The Resistant G.L.H.M.
3. MotherGooseMouse of Goosie, Mousie, Daddy, and Me.
4. The acerbic Imperfect Mommy.
5. Lauren at Dream Kitchen.
6. The lemur-loving, Malibu rum-drinking Ventura Mom.
7. The erudite, thoughtful Bluestocking.

Can't wait to read others!