stealing a tag: Friday Fours

Liz has tagged my Loopy with "Friday Fours."

Since this blog lately has had a number of heavy posts about depression & angst, alternating with attempts at light-hearted posts that still clunk with depression & angst, I thought I'd steal this tag (not that Loopy shouldn't do her own—presumably tags, like Shmoos, can be infinitely divided & shared—hey, has anyone ever seen any Shmoo porn? but I digress) and try to make something genuinely fluffy.

We shall see.

Four jobs you've had in your life:
1. babysitter
2. book re-shelver at Widener Library (beware the movable stacks!)
3. graphic designer
4. Web Development Director (a title! wow!)

Four movies you could watch over and over again:
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. Bringing Up Baby
3. Grosse Pointe Blank
(never fails to make me laugh...)("Should've brought my gun."..."What???"... "Uh, I said, this looks fun!")
4. Bourne Supremacy

Four places you have lived:
1. Tucson
2. Tokyo
3. Boston
4. New York

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Firefly
2. Project Runway
3. Mad About You
4. The L Word

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Bloglines
(Lets you subscribe to blogs and read them all in one place. So, you can immediately see who's posted something new, plus, save time by not revisiting blogs where nothing new has been posted)(particularly handy with folks like Shakha and Rie who periodically fall silent for weeks at a time, then pop out with something cool and interesting that I wouldn't want to miss even for a nanosecond)
2. Flickr

Uh.... that's really all. But believe me, that's plenty.

Four of your favorite foods:
1. casseroles & one-pot meals
2. interestingly flavored chocolate (e.g., curry, wasabi, violet, absinthe, etc.)
3. tapas-style "small plates" especially those featuring raw tuna
4. pasta with light and fresh-tasting accoutrements, such as with crisp veggies, or pesto, or something other than tomato sauce (I like that too, it just wouldn't make my top four)

Four places you'd rather be right now:
I'm going to change this one, & combine it with the next one ("Four places you've been on vacation"), because right at this exact moment, I'm okay with where I am. Except, I should probably be in the shower, becuase if I don't get going I'm going to be late. But that's another story.

Four favorite places you've ever been in the world:

1. The Shetland Islands in Scotland, especially Hermaness National Nature Preserve on North Unst. Click through to my photo on Flickr for more of a description.




2. Bodnath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal...you can climb up and sit on the dome... and sitting up there in the evening light, you're surrounded on all sides by the Himalayas and the sky, and the dust and chaos and misery of the streets seem far away...you can hear the prayer flags fluttering in the wind, and their light and color surround you... you can hear tin prayer wheels of all sizes being spun—big prayer wheels in the walls around the stupa, small hand-held prayer wheels spun by pilgrims circumambulating the stupa below.

In the evening the refugee Tibetan community gathers and circles the stupa together, laughing and talking and just emanating this warm hum of voices that are glad to see each other. It's incredibly peaceful.

View of the stupa	view from the stupa

There's other places I could add that are architecturally or naturally wonderful and tranquil, serene... (Horyuji in Japan)... but I'll switch gears here.

3. New York City. Still feels like home after more than five years away from it.




4. The house we live in now.

Probably won't ever love living in another house as much as this one, and that's okay. Housing perfection isn't my highest priority. But oh, I do love this house and its surrounding woods!




Four bloggers you'll be tagging:
Hey, take it away, anyone who wants it—tagging seems sort of like a popularity contest, and/or, can be burdensome or irritating if the person doesn't want the tag. Also, who says four people will read this?

So, if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. If you want to be. & have fun.