eights

Melissa posted a meme and did her usual mass tag. (I act as though I'm a veteran blogger. Hah!) I consider myself tagged (really, I just like talking about myself) so here goes.
The Rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. (Sorry, can't do this. I read a total of four blogs, two of which have already done this meme).
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

1) I was on the Freshman Academic Team (think Jeopardy while wearing vests in school colors (brick/gold). Did not make the Jr. Varsity team my sophomore year. Sigh.

2) I insisted on wearing sandals/open toed shoes in college for my first two years. In Houston. Where it rains all the time. Then I got some close-toed shoes and realized how asinine I was.

3) I was in a Kenny Rogers music video called "Planet Texas" when I was in sixth grade. (I had a child-actor phase from age four to fourteen). In the video, Kenny gets kidnapped by cowboys from outerspace. My big line: "I know where there's a dead armadillo! Wanna see?"

4)I haven't washed my car since...hmmm. Since before Lucy was born.

5) I did, however, manage to vacuum last night. (Were these supposed to be interesting facts? Too bad.)

6) We almost named Lucy "Mia" or "Zia". And there was a brief mix-up where I thought Dyami wanted to name her either "Tomorrow" or "Zizo". See, there was this post-it with a list of potential names. And then one morning, I noticed the two additions mentioned above while D was at work. Here was the subsequent email:
Me: "So Tomorrow and Zizo, huh? I don't think I can do "Tomorrow" because I was in Annie too many times. And Zizo is a little, um, off the beaten path."
D: ???!!!
Me: The names, you know, that you wrote on the post-it.
D: ???!!!
Me: Oh, wait. Is that just a note reminding me that my midwife appointment tomorrow is now at 2:30 instead of 1:30? (Write 2:30 kind of sloppy. You'll see).
Now we call the orange stray cat that frequents our cat's food bowl Zizo.

7) I taught myself to read when I was four. And my parents read out loud to my brother a lot and to my sister some, and to me hardly at all. So much for parental influence. (I think the fact that my father's family are all crazy readers probably helped the most).

8) My husband's middle name is Zed. Doesn't that kick ass? (Especially when your first name is Dyami) My middle name is Lynn. I like it, but it's not quite as cool. Maybe our next child could have Zizo as their middle name.

Okay, meme away, world! and let us know with a comment below where to read your eights!

recovered goods

On our last trip to Ojai, our camera got stolen. Here's what happened.
Dyami packed a red suitcase and I a blue backpack. On the way home on the train, he was in charge of most of the packing. In the blur of last minutes, neither of us remembers exactly who packed the (fairly new) digital camera, but it seemed logical that he did it, in his red bag. Possibly on the outside pocket.
On the train, the bag was stowed behind us on the luggage racks. And Dyami noticed some hoodlum types skulking around that area.
When we get home, no camera.
I checked every pocket on his bag and mine. He checked every pocket in his baag and mine.
Still no camera.
That's when we realized it was gone, stolen by those aforementioned delinquents.
We were upset. We put away the red and blue bags in the garage.
Then we bought a new camera. For the second time in six months.

On this trip, we get home, and I am unpacking my blue backpack. I felt a lump.
You guessed it! Old camera, stuck at the bottom of the main compartment. Not even in a forgotten side pocket. Just in the main compartment.

There's only one explanation.
The delinquents had a change of heart (perhaps a conversion: maybe now they know Jesus!). They somehow located us in Encinitas, found our house, broke into our garage, and put back the camera they stole in the bottom of my luggage.
I'm not sure whether I should feel grateful for the recovered goods, or a little creeped out that these former delinquents broke into our house.
Well, now we have two cameras. One of which is dead (and we threw away the battery charger, because the camera it belonged to had been stolen).
Hmmm.