As we all know, I can’t resist stuff like this. Christy gave me five things she associates with me. I’ll write about them below. If you’d like five things I associate with you that you can then write about in your own journal, just comment here!
Hedgehogs – My obsession with hedgehogs started in college. My friend Dave’s girlfriend had been to Russia, where they were popular as pets. He thought that was awesome, and found a hedgie in Mankato that was looking for a new home. Dave named him Reggie the Hedgie. After we left Mankato, he decided that hedgehogs were stupid pets, and he came to live with me. I had him about a year before he died (cancer). After my divorce, I got Annie, who I had for about a year and a half before I woke up and she had died. After Jeff and I got married, I got Furrow from a hedgehog rescue, and had him until a few weeks ago, when I had to find him a new home. Since I”m pregnant, I couldn’t play with him, and he freaked Jeff out, so he needed to be with someone who could play with him and give him love.
Once you have a weird pet, and let it know that you think everything related is cool, you have a collection. I have so many hedgehog things that the baby’s room is going to be decorated in Hedgehog. I’m sure our child will end up hating them.
Thrifting – Oddly enough, something else I learned from Dave’s ex. Having grown up in a rich suburb, and raised by a mother that only likes old things if they can be considered “antiques” and purchased in the appropriate stores, I did not know how awesome used could be. (My grandmother actually told me once that she wouldn’t buy anything on sale because sale stuff was “of lesser quality”. Huhwhat?) For a long time, I dressed primarily in thrift (until I got a job that required suits and shit, and then it got harder as I got fatter). Most of my furniture has been thrifted. I fully plan on buying most of my kid’s stuff used (why buy new for that shit? It’s just gonna get puked on and trashed.) Since Christy and I are both unemployed and cheap/poor, we have spent all sorts of time in the thrift stores lately. Yay!
Stroganoff – I make the best stroganoff, ever. Hands down. You think yours doesn’t suck? It might not make someone puke, but I assure you that mine is better. My recipe has evolved over the years, and keeps getting better. Last year I even perfected a tofuganoff for the vegetarians in our crowd. Also did not suck. I made it for dinner the first time I saw my dad after 22 years, and was surprised to learn that the base recipe that I have used for years initially came from him. The stroganoff circle is complete.
Knitting – I do that. My grandma taught me to knit when I was about seven. She was my daycare, and I think that she taught me to keep me quiet for a while. I never learned to “make” anything – she would cast on for me, and I’d just knit giant shapeless things, and she’d bind it off for me. I gave it up for a long time, and took it up seriously after my divorce. I have not been without a knitting project since then, and have even started a knitting group when I couldn’t find one for younger urban knitters. Right now, I have two sweaters on the needles, a scarf (those are my UFOs – Unfinished Objects) and a blanket for my little one. After this, another blanket and a scarf for my dad (and a hat if there is enough left). My house and my person often have fuzz on them.
Sawatdee- Not just a Thai word and restaurant in my world. Little Sawatdee is what Jeff and I have called our future child since before s/he was conceived. (You can see more about that at our baby blog, LittleSawatdee.) I don’t know what more to say about this – I feel like I got pregnant it’s all I talk about, and the word Sawatdee is uttered dozens of times a day in our house. Have I mentioned yet that I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next 23 weeks?
Christy also thought these words applied to me:
IKEA 
Easy-Off BAM!
Being swell
Being my landlady
Hard Times Cafe
Ireland
This one won’t let me copy it, but go take a look – it just tickles my funnybone!
