Obi’s Sister has tagged me for a meme.  It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and I will have to say that not only do I learn things about my friends that I honestly didn’t know before; I learn things about myself that I probably knew but had filed away somewhere and forgotten about.  Here’s how Obi’s Sister set this up:

I was ambushed overnight by Maggie’s Notebook. You find out the most interesting things about folks by playing along with these things. So now I have to share 7 things I love. Like Maggie,

I’m going to play this a bit differently because all of us will probably say we love our God, we love our family, we love our country, we love our friends, or some variation of this, and we all love to blog, so I’ll say those are my first loves, and here are the next 7:

Sounds like a plan to me, too. Here goes:

1.  I love to go to writing conferences.  All kinds, in all sorts of places.  I have never NOT learned something really important and helpful at a conference.  I am one of those odd people who go to a conference to go to the conference.  I am seldom tempted to cut out early or skip a session to go shopping.  In fact, I think the only time I EVER did anything like that was at BlogHer 08, when Shannon, Kim* and I cut a keynote and skipped over to Chinatown, and then met Fausta at a sushi bar.  But then, any of you would do the same if it meant you could hang out with Shannon, Kim, and Fausta.  Sigh.

2.  I love WordPress.  I know, I’m a geek.  But I really do love WordPress.  Thank you, Matt Mullenweg.

3.  I love nuts, berries, and fresh fruit.  I channel Yogi Bear daily.  I also love fresh lemons, and I do not put sugar on them. I adore tart things.  Sour things.  Explains a lot, huh.

4.  I love to bake homemade breads of all kinds, and pies.  However, I do not eat bread or pies.  In fact, I do not care for most breads or sweets.  Once in a while I’ll have a hot roll – go nuts, Google – or a Snickers bar, but diabetes is a hard master and will not usually let me indulge.  Fortunately, I seldom want to.  I just love to create them.

5.  I love books and music.  They are so entwined around my heart and soul and so blended with the blood in my veins, that I can not even imagine a life without them.  People who do not read or listen to music are missing out; they’re lacking.  There is no adequate substitute for books and music.  Those who choose a life without either or both have chosen to live a life of  “lacking.”  It is beyond my comprehension.  Also, such people are boring and insipid.  I think this is because they have chosen not to enhance themselves with other people, other places, other times, and other dimensions.  Real life can take us only just so far; we need books and music to take us farther.

6.  I love a good turn of phrase.  I can be swept off my feet by it.  I can be swayed and influenced and converted and my vote can be purchased and my virginity can be compromised. . . .um, pretend you didn’t read that part. . . . Language is power, and a pen is more powerful than any Ollivander wand.  I love wit and whimsy and sarcasm.  I love a quotation that knocks my socks off.  I love WORDS.  I love their meanings and their origins.  I love all the things that can be done with them.  I love making them into adjectives and adverbs and nouns.  I love the “kick” of a strategically placed interjection.  I love how the choice of a tiny preposition can change the focus of an entire book.  I love how a comma can turn a legal contract into the opposite of what a non-careful reader believes it to be.  I love dictionaries.  I love to play with a thesaurus.  I love the preciseness of grammar.  Even more, I love how someone who KNOWS HOW can take that preciseness and twist it, toss it, and tie it into a knot.  Um, I teach writing.

7.  I love cats.  They are purry, furry, quirky, loving  little people.  They only thing I don’t love about cats is scooping clumps out of the litter box.

There ya go.  If anybody else wants to do this, please let me know so I can find out all about you.  I promise to use this knowledge only for good.

* Please go to Kim’s blog and tell her Happy Birthday.  I love her and so will you.  She is absolutely beautiful, inside and out.