Tag: Sunday Stealing

Alphabetically Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing is still on vacation, so here’s an old one.

A – Ambition: To actually be able to retire. That’s not looking likely. And lemme tellya, if Trumpty-Dumpty and Apartheid Clyde try to do anything to Social Security and Medicare, I will join whatever class-action suit needs to be rendered against them.

B – Birthday: October 21

C – Computer: PC, always. Currently a Dell that is 5 years old. I really should buy a new one before any tariffs kick in. Maybe after Christmas but before the coronation.

D – Dream: I love the one I have of Marko Saaresto (front man of Poets of the Fall) in which we’re standing in a famous D.C. bookstore called Kramer’s and he asks me to help him pick out a book for a child relative back in Finland. I pull out my tablet and type in a line from one of his songs–“I’m secretly grateful you’re sharing this moment with me” from “No End, No Beginning”–and he says “thank you” and we pick out a book and then have lunch and people-watch. Now pardon me if I cry for a second because I was supposed to be at this concert and one in Manchester with my friend Tracy while on vacation in England for a week, but my heart attack said otherwise.

E – Exercise: Cardiokickboxing, interval training, interval treadmill, and The Firm because I’m old school like that.

F – Favorite Food: Today it’s grapes. Tomorrow it might be something else.

G – Garden: Would love to have one. Wouldn’t love to work on it.

H – Hobby: Coloring. And I still have not finished that stupid snowflake!

I – Idol: Joaquin Phoenix. His compassion for animals humbles me.

J – Job: Health writer. Oh, excuse me, I write for clinicians so they’re calling people like me medical journalists now.

K – Kids: Too gamey.

L – Location: Virginia

M – Military: Should only be deployed as a last resort.

N – Name or Nickname: T-bird

O – Optimist or Pessimist: Cynical optimist. Yes, there is such a thing. Ever hear of “plan for the worst but hope for the best?”

P – Pets: I miss mine.

Q – Quote: I hate writing. I love having written. — Dorothy Parker

R – Reads: Mystery, horror, historical.

S – School: Gee Dubya, Class of ’88.

T – Travel: Yes, please.

U – Unfulfilled ambition: One day I will get some fiction published. Or poetry. Or something other than journalism.

V – Vacation spot: I used to love ski resorts. No idea now. I haven’t had a real vacation where I go somewhere far away for at least week in years. Many years. Might have been my honeymoon in 2001. I can’t remember. See: crying, above.

W – Wardrobe: Mostly athletic wear for hiking and the gym.

X – X-tra facts about me: White people say my eyes are brown. People of color say my eyes are hazel. People of color are correct.

Y – Years online: 25

Z – Zodiac sign: Libra sun, Aquarius moon, Sagittarius rising.

Well, that was fun!

A few entries ago, I wrote of my mother’s mistaken belief that Emperor Penguins were six feet tall. Speaking of huge penguins…

I wonder if Pesto will ski, like today’s ornament, one of my new ones from this year.

A Christmas ornament featuring a skiing penguin.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing is on vacation, so I did an old one I clicked on at random. I also forgot to post this last night so as soon as I post it, I will post another. Double the fun!

I am looking forward to:

My week off at the end of the month. I need it desperately.

Least favorite words:

Moist. It just sounds gross.

Demure. No, I don’t care about the meme. I’ve hated that word since the teachers in high school said that if our dresses were not “sufficiently demure,” we wouldn’t be allowed in at prom. It was 1984. Little did the teachers know what prom dresses in 2024 would look like.

Lovemaking. It’s the Drakkar Noir of terms for sex: Too much and used by smarmy guys. It’s sex. SEX, okay? SEX. You can use the word SEX.

If I ruled the world:

People wouldn’t be allowed to use the three words above.

Favorite websites and blogs:

They’re personal journals and I don’t blab secrets.

Things I do for myself:

Work out. Avoid the sun. Don’t smoke. Eat right (or try to). Pursue hobbies. Maintain a social circle.

Weekly rituals:

I don’t really have any, unless you count laundry.

DIYs I want to try:

I don’t have any in mind. Every once in a while I get the urge to buy a piece of furniture to put together but that’s about it.

On my shopping list:

Canned vegetables. No joke. I live in the D.C. area. I sense unrest coming when he gets in there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the country ends up under martial law at some point. I’ve already started stocking up. Fresh and frozen will go bad after some time in the event of a power outage. Canned veggies you just have to rinse and eat.

Places to see in your town:

In my county, Arlington National Cemetery. In D.C., the Smithsonian museums, the monuments, the Kennedy Center, and all the fun non-touristy places I’d take you to if only you’d come to visit your Auntie Zen.

Road trip must-haves:

Powdered or chocolate-covered mini-donuts. I don’t know why, but it’s not a road trip unless you have those.

Guilty pleasures:

I don’t believe in those. Anything you enjoy is a bit of self-care, whether it’s sleeping late, reading trashy fiction, or eating dessert. Despite what certain religions tell you, we are not here to suffer.

Things I’d rather be doing right now:

Skiing. Hiking. Stargazing out in a meadow. Birdwatching. Burning down the patriarchy.

Books I’d like to read this year:

Let’s go with next year.

The Eric Carr Story, by Greg Prato. about the second drummer for Kiss, who just seemed like a really cool guy. He died too young, just 40 years old, the same day Freddie Mercury died.

The Serpent and the Pearl and The Lion and the Rose, both by Kate Quinn. She did a great job with the Empress of Rome series, so I’d love to see how she handles the Borgias.

And this bad boy right  here, as I’ve never read any Lovecraft and the few oddball pages I’ve skimmed here and there look fantastic.

A book, The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales by H.P. Lovecraft.

Lessons learned:

Take people as they are, or don’t take them.

You don’t owe anyone any explanations for your choices in life, such as whether to date, marry, or have children; whether you have a religion; who you voted for; your career path or lack thereof; and how you spend your free time. Add how you spend your money to that if you’re single and kid-free.

Shared DNA does not imply family.

No job is worth sacrificing your health, peace, relationships, or interests for.

The United States is not the greatest country in the world. I don’t know which one is, but we’re definitely NOT.

Vacations to take:

Italy. Finland. France. Wherever my hiking group decides to go. Right now Bulgaria seems to be hot. Would like to see more of Poland. England. Germany. Norway. The Netherlands. Iceland. Austria. Hungary. I could go on.

I’ve given up on posting a snowflake a day. I’ll post them as I finish them. As for Christmas, here are some poinsettias from the staff lounge at work. Note how there is no t after the n in poinsettia. That’s one of those holiday-related peeves of mine.

Poinsettias on a holiday table.

Holidailies 2024!

Happy Holidailies! Holy smoke, Holidailies is 25 years old this year. This is my favorite writing project, and I’m glad to see it’s still going. Last year’s was a blast, so let’s see if I can add to some of the magic.

You may or may not notice that this website looks a little bit different from last year. I couldn’t bear to see Inigo’s name get smaller and smaller in my tag cloud, so I got a new template. Or, a new-to-me template as this one is Twenty-Fifteen. This one makes more sense to me because the place to leave a comment is at the end of the entry so folks don’t have to scroll up to the top to leave one. See also, I can still fool around with background images and color schemes without having to deal with block editing and all of that other stuff that drives me batty about WordPress.

Anyway, it seems the random prompt generator thingie at Holidailies isn’t functioning, so I thought I’d kick off with a Sunday Stealing as it’s about one of my favorite topics: books.

Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes?
Yes. Bambi by Felix Salten. I read it when I was nine years old and it shaped the way I view animals.

Do you prefer to read fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction. I read a lot of medical journals for work and that’s enough non-fiction for me. When I read for pleasure, I prefer to escape into a different time and place.

If you could be a character in any novel you’ve read, who would you be?
I wouldn’t. Novels are based on one of three types of conflict (human vs human, human vs environment, or human vs self) and good writing involves depictions of a fair bit of suffering, and I wouldn’t want to endure either.

Has reading a book ever made you cry? Which one and why?
Yes. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Let’s just say a hawk is involved.

How many books do you read a year?
Not nearly enough. I’m very pressed for time, so if I read three or four, I call it a win.

Name a book you had to read, but hated. Why did you hate it?
I’ll catch hate for this, but the Bible. Twelve years of Catholic school can do that to you. Plus, the writing is just so bad with all the ye, thee, thy, and thine stuff. Unto you I say BLECH.

If someone wrote a book about your life what would it be called?
You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me: Tales of a Long Island Girl Inside the Beltway. The dust jacket would say something like, “Washington, D.C. is full of blowhards, mansplainers, and pretentious snobs who think their doo-doo doesn’t stink. Enter Zennie. She’s snarky. She’s real. She doesn’t have time for their hot air.”

Have you ever written (or started to write) a book?
I’ve partially written three. Never did finish them. That’s one thing I absolutely hate about being a reporter. When I get home from work, I don’t want to write anymore unless it’s something like a blog or journal entry. Fiction requires a lot of thought and I just don’t have it in me. It wasn’t like that with every writing job I had, but my current workload takes a lot out of me.

If you could pick a book you’ve read to make into a movie, what would it be?
I wouldn’t. The movie is never as good as the book.

What was your favorite book as a child?
See Bambi, above.

What are you reading right now?
I’m reading two books, actually. The first is Dawn Empress by Faith L. Justice, about Pulcheria, sister to the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. I absolutely dislike the protagonist, though—she’s religious and that’s a turn-off for me in reality, fiction, and historical fiction about real people—so  when I had to take a trip for work, I downloaded Breakdown, an Alex Delaware mystery by Jonathan Kellerman, and am enjoying it much more.

Hmmm… Going back to that question about being a character in a novel, I suppose I wouldn’t mind being Alex Delaware’s girlfriend Robin Castagna. She makes guitars for a living and I can think of a few rock stars I’d love to have as clients, though if memory serves me correctly, she was a target in one of the novels.

In other news… The National Christmas Tree will be lit on Thursday, so as soon as I get down to the Mall and the Walk of Peace, I will start posting photos of the state trees like I did last year. I’m not sure if I’m going to post my own ornaments this year. I have to take a look at them when I put up my tree, which probably won’t be until either December 7 or 14.

However, I got the Finch app this weekend and one of my daily goals is to do something that makes me happy, so here’s a snowflake I colored with glitter gel pens. Sorry for the bad photo. I already started the next one and forgot to take a picture of this one before I folded the book back. Oops. Looks like the white glitter ink doesn’t photograph, either. Really, those spaces are colored in! Live and learn! The book is 50 Snowflakes to Color by Kameliya Angelkova. Gel pens are Tanmit 80/160 in the cloth case, currently selling for about 20 bucks on Amazon, 80 colors with one refill each. (No affiliation, but sometimes folks ask.)

A snowflake colored with glitter pens.