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Oh hey, I got tagged for a meme. I don't think that's ever happened before.
1. What are your nicknames?
When I was a kid, my nickname was Mim, up until the point where I decided that I didn't want to be Mim any more because that was a little kid's nickname, and insisted that no one call me Mim any more (except for this one guy at church who's the dad of one of my friends, who apparently doesn't talk to me enough to pick up that memo, and still calls me Mim). I don't mind it any more, though, although generally no one calls me Mim because everyone who remembers calling me Mim also remembers how anti-Mim I was, and everyone else has always known me as Miriam.
And there was a period when my cousin D had dubbed me Miyam, but he can say Miriam now. I'm trying to remember what N, the two-year-old, calls me, and can't remember.
One of the fencers first year called me Murms (Mirms?), but that never really stuck. The coach sometimes calls me ridiculous things, but those change weekly.
I'm occasionally referred to as The Dread Pirate Roberts.
But no, I don't really have a nickname.
2. How do you style your hair?
Style? I don't style my hair. I let it dry, and then I braid it or put it up. Or sometimes I don't wait for it to dry, and just put it up anyway. Every few years I cut some ginormous amount off and donate it (except for that one time when I let the stylist convince me that I single rubber band would be sufficient, and then I just had to throw most of it out because it was crazy-tangled), and then it only goes down to my chin and I feel that it's really short (at which point I use a headband), and then it grows, and eventually I cut it off again.
3. What's new in your life right now?
Um, I'm in Spain. That started about four months ago, though. I wore a spaghetti-strap dress for the first time on Tuesday (not to anywhere; I was just trying it on. I will wear it out on Monday-week, though). What else is new? I went to cooking class and Madinat Al-Zahra today, and enjoyed both. But that was more ruins and more Spanish food, neither of which is terribly unusual. I'm going home in a month.
4. What are you wearing at the moment?
A hair tie, socks, pants, underwear, and my magic weather-changing sweater (really! It's Australian! And every single time I've worn it in Spain because it's COLD outside and it's the warmest top I have, the weather has been nice and warm. Maybe I should just wear it all the time.)
5. Do you need music to study/write?
No, but I like music, so long as it doesn't have distracting words. And while I often forget that it's there, I really missed it when my hard drive crashed and I didn't have any.
6. What was the last book you read?
I'm currently reading Jane Eyre online. Does that count? If you want book-book, the last one was La Bética Romana (er, The Roman-name-for-southern-Spain in Roman times) Though that's kind of short. More of a booklet. The last novel was La virgen de los sicarios (Our Lady of the Assasins, aka Death Crumpets Book. And the last book-book for pleasure was Una colleción de ciencia ficción española, though I didn't finish that one. Or the Silmarillion, which I was reading before that. So the last book-book that I read for pleasure that I finished was Terry Pratchet's Mascarada (in Spanish).
7. Do you cook a lot?
At school, no. At home, I probably cook at least half the meals, particularly since I'm home at a time appropriate for the preparation of food, and my mom often isn't.
8. Do you have a crush at the moment?
No.
9. Is there anything that has made you happy these days?
That's an odd way to frame a question. But things that make me happy these days include:
Friends, sunlight, vegetables, certain smells, ruins, fun food, that amazing chocolate mousse thing that Pepi just made, jamón serrano, bookbinding, hot water, warm feet (which is to say, my feet being warm; I don't really care about anyone else's feet, warm or not, provided that they're properly attached and functional. Disembodied feet would be gross), warm days (even if I'm wearing my sweater) . . .
10. What was the last thing you ate today?
A piece of apple. It was a granny smith apple, which I usually don't like, but it was a nice bit of tartness after the very chocolaty truffle. There may also have been some small quantity of white wine clinging to the piece of apple, since I picked it out of the sangria.
11. What’s your morning routine?
It's different in Spain than at home. But here it usually consists of waking up, turning off my alarm before it progresses to the more annoying beep, turning on my bedside light, considering the fact that I probably won't be this cozy/warm again all day, pulling clothing under the covers with me to warm it up, sometimes lying there with the light on not going back to sleep (if I don't have somewhere to be IMMEDIATELY or I didn't get enough sleep), getting dressed, sometimes combing my hair with the blankets wrapped around me to pretend that I'm still in bed, going to the bathroom, brushing teeth, washing face, investigating the possibilities of breakfast. Of course, if I don't have to get up for anything in particular, the whole first bit is generally lazing around, getting dressed, and going to the bathroom, etc.
And at home, where I go to bed at more-or-less the same time most nights and my room isn't freezing, getting up generally happens quicker.
Of course, some mornings I shower, and that's a different procedure.
12. What websites do you visit daily?
Pre-getting-work-done: lj, gmail, groupwise, and aol. If I'm killing time, I'll also do webcomics and some blogs and sometimes news or whatever else takes my fancy.
13. What classes are you taking right now?
Arquelología, Historia del siglo XIX, De texto a cine, Andalucía romana. Also bookbinding, cooking, guitar, chorus, and voice.
14. Which languages do you wish you spoke?
Way too many to list.
15. What do you want for Christmas?
American milk. The kind that goes bad if you leave it out on the counter.
A bike tune-up.
Lots of food-things, actually.
As for thing-things, I'm asking for yarn/roving and a new handmade pillow and books. I would kind of like a guitar, but I haven't asked for one because it's a large investment for something that I don't know if I would actually use, and there are other books that I would like but haven't asked for (libraries; whoot!).
16. What are you daydreaming about right now?
Snickerdoodles and milk. Gingerbread and milk. Baba ganoush. Asparagus and pine nuts. Designer salad. In the longer-term, sneaking a small olive tree (can one grow olives from seeds?) into the US.
17. Who was your childhood idol?
Idol is a strong term. I had various role models and people/jobs about which I thought, That's so cool! but I wouldn't term any of them an idol.
18. Where would you like your next holiday to be?
Home.
19. What is your dream car?
A bicycle. And a dry, flat, snow-free road to ride it on. Maybe one of those extracycles if I never had to take it anywhere on a car, ever.
20. Tell me something you love about the person who tagged you.
Tonje is both down-to-earth and amusing. Her opinions are always sensible and interesting, and she's good to talk to, whether you have something on your mind or just want a conversation. Or a hug.
And now to pick eight people to tag:
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relique, rumorofrain, bookaddict88, operafloozy, irianamistifi, chocochan, quincekumquat, and rockychristine
Re: olive trees
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Random other thoughts:
-Jamon serrano is definitely happy!
-You're taking a book-binding class? How cool! I'd love to learn how to do that.
-I can't wait to drink American milk again! I don't drink much milk here, though I drink it all the time at home. (They did have some "real" milk at the hostel I went to in Scotland, though, and it was wonderful!)
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Oh, real milk. I've adjusted more to the milk here, but it's still not what I want from milk.
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I think the main thing that irks me about the milk is that the Spanish don't typically drink it cold. When its cold, I don't mind it too much, but I'll only drink it cool/room-temp with cereal.