My first meme - yay! I'm following the crowd!

[matril]

This is how it works: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.

fernwithy gave me "B":




baby: I love babies. I love my babies, and I love other people's. Being ever so slightly biased, I feel I have the cutest ones, but all of them are adorable. Big, toothless smiles, chubby cheeks - no matter how they exasperate you, they can always charm you into showering them with hugs and kisses. And of course, they grow up, and it's a miracle to witness the process.

board games: One of my favorite hobbies, and something my husband and I love to do together. In fact, I just bought him two games for an anniversary present (technically they were card games, but I tend to lump them all together). I like most any type - wacky party games, word games, trivia, mind teasers, strategy games (including the ponderous ones that take hours just to figure out the rules!) - and I like to win. I grew up playing board games, and my family could be very competitive...

Bible: I like the book for religious reasons, but it's also a wonderful collection of epic stories, poetry, and fascinating theological discourses. I wish it didn't carry such a Separation of Church and State stigma in the US, because I'd love to see it studied in English classes as an example of literature. I mean, to understand half of the great works of the Western world, you have to have some grounding in Biblical lore. But I can only imagine the brouhaha that would bring up.

behemoth: A word I first encountered while reading (the Bible, actually) and inferred its meaning from context. Seeing it rather than hearing it, I derived the wrong pronunciation for it, and to this day I can't remember which is the right way and which is my own screwed-up way of saying it. But I love it, however you say, for its evocative connotations. Conjures up images of whales and elephants and dinosaurs.

banality: Whenever I'm disgusted with the lack of originality and quality writing in modern entertainment, I'm glad for words like this that describe what's wrong with a certain snobbish, I'm-more-eloquent-than-the-general-masses air. It makes me feel smart, heh.

bitter: A useful term when working with sensory metaphors. Its literal meaning for taste transfers very well to more abstract realms. I mean, when I'm disppointed sometimes I almost really have a bitter taste in my mouth. Of course I probably overuse it, but it's just so very effective.

books: Now how did I not think of this first?! I adore books, new books that I've never read, that keep me reading while I'm eating, brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed because I just can't wait to see what happens next; old favorites with that smudged, dog-eared, well-loved look, that I can read over and over without tiring of them. I love bookstores and libraries, and coming across a used bookstore is like discovering buried treasure. I love the smell of them, new or old, fresh or musty, and I love seeing them stacked in double and triple rows on our inadequate bookshelves - every single room in our house has books in it, and I'd never think of giving any away, and always want more.

bumblebee: Besides being a fun word to say on its own (and its other forms - dumbledore, anyone?), I just plain love bumblebees. They don't sting you, which makes them the only bees that don't make me run inside and slam the door, and they're a profound example of the curiousities of nature. With our present level of scientific knowledge, we've fairly well proven that bumblebees should not have the capability of flying. And yet they fly, blissfully unaware of their breech of the laws of physics. So clearly there's something going on that we haven't figured out yet. To me it's a lovely metaphor - we don't know everything, but it's okay - things can exist without our knowing how or why. That's why I understand agnostics better than atheists - the idea that we can't prove whether or not God exists doesn't bug me - in fact, I agree. It's a matter of personal faith, not logical proofs. But to say without any doubt that God doesn't exist - well, just look at the bumblebee. It shouldn't exist, yet there it is. There you have it; the whole crux of faith, symbolized in a little buzzing bug.

buzz: Onomatopoeia! It says exactly what it means. And it goes along with bumblebee.

BYU: It's where I got my degree, where I met my husband, and where I had my son while finishing my last semester. I have fond memories of the Y, even though I was very much ready to go back east when I graduated. A new era in my life began there - I knew I had left my childhood behind forever when I visited home after getting married and discovered my parents had converted my bedroom into an office. It was at BYU that I learned to be independent, to live on my own and make my own meals, go grocery shopping and pay bills...where I had my first date, and fell in love with my husband, and spent our first year of marriage. Yes, very fond memories.

I'd be surprised if anyone comments because most people have probably gotten letters from elsewhere...but this was fun!

Comments

[camry-1.livejournal.com]

I'll comment just because I love so much some of the things you've said. I LOVE what you said about bumblebees. What a great thing. I also love to feel smugly more eloquent than the general masses. I also LOVE BYU for many of the reasons you've stated. I spent 13 years there, except for a few summers away, and a significant 18 months spent elsewhere. But it was at BYU that I had to learn to live with roommates, meet deadlines, budget, etc. It was at BYU that I learned the world didn't revolve around me. And then meeting my husband, marrying, having 2 2/3 children before leaving, working to finish my degree before I left, just so much of my life was there.

[matril.livejournal.com]

Wow....thirteen years makes my four years seem pretty paltry. ;) But I'm glad you have fond memories too. So, would you accept "M" as a letter?

[camry-1.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd like to do "M," even if I can't get to it until Monday.

[camry-1.livejournal.com]

Also, I just had to say, I'm not completely comfortable with "Yay! I'm following the crowd!" I want you to be you, to march to your own drummer, to write what you want! But these questions do give me a fun glimpse at you.

[matril.livejournal.com]

Eh, I was being mostly tongue-in-cheek - you'll note that I usually don't follow the crowd in posting memes, and take a lot of pride in it. So why now? Maybe because this particular one gave me more freedom in how I chose to respond, and even let me practice a little creativity. And making my brain stretch is always a good thing - I certainly don't do it as often as I should. :P