Wanna Play Tag? Passing Along a Meme

Goofball Friday. I’m initiating a game of tag. I got wind of it from writer Joelle Anthony’s blog. The players I saw on Anthony’s thread seemed pretty peppy, which might help with this kind of game. I’m not so peppy, but no matter. An experiment!

Here’s how it goes:

1. These rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 3-5 people and posts their names (links to blogs/sites), then goes to their blogs and leaves them each a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer; also, let readers know who tagged you.

What were you doing ten years ago?

9-to-5ing it as a technical writer at a high-tech company. Living in sin with my long-haired potter boyfriend and his 12-year-old son in a ramshackle 1960’s ranch house. Transitioning from writing only short stories to novels. Bursting into tears because of a mean-spirited and useless critique by a local Famous Novelist during his workshop (first stab at first novel) and then not writing for months afterwards.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

1. Try out a new workout class.
2. Talk a friend into seeing the new Indiana Jones movie with me this weekend.
3. Return a summer top that I bought last week — a what-was-I-thinking? purchase.
4. Make sense of my index cards: arrange scene ideas in a semblance of a plot outline for the rest of the novel.
5. Drop off unneeded work clothes at a favorite neighborhood clothing boutique (for donation to Dress for Success) in exchange for a 20%-off coupon.

What are some snacks you enjoy?

A nice cheese with a nice bread (and wine)
Lattes
Fruit
Sandwiches (which is to say lunch late in the afternoon)
Cookies dipped in milk
Granola cereal

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Continue writing fiction
Philanthropy
Travel everywhere
Buy my dream house and a dog (maybe a pug) to go with it
Take my family on luxury vacation to Hawaii
Because I’m only semi-domesticated, semi-organized: Hire all kinds of help for all kinds of chores

What are three of your bad habits?

Late-night munchies
Over-analysis
Reading until WAY too late
 
What are five places where you have lived?

Sao Paulo, Brazil
Quito, Ecuador
New York, New York
Mill Valley then Berkeley, California
Portland, Oregon

What are five jobs you have had?

Waitress in my father’s yummilicious restaurant
Financial analyst in multinational corporations (Ecuador, Brazil)
Book publishing editorial schlub (NYC)
Technical writer
Journalist

What 3-5 people do you want to tag? (anybody else who wants to play)

Two who might participate, one who doesn’t know me but I like her blog, and one outlandish possibility (mostly because male, but he’s kinda funny so I’m curious what he’d write):

Elizabeth Engstrom
Susan Wiggs
Patry Francis
Bob Mayer

6 comments on “Wanna Play Tag? Passing Along a Meme

  • lactatingbookworm says:

    How did you go from finance to editing? I’m always fascinated by people who change careers…

    Reply
  • Thanks for the tag. What a great way to meet you! Memes are fun, though I’ve got to warn you I usually break the rules…

    p.s. I never lived in any of the places you did, but I WANTED to live in all of them. Maybe in my next life?

    Reply
  • Hi lactating,

    Ah…my transition from finance to editing…It’s funny because I was always word-oriented rather than numbers-oriented, but I come from a practical family with three of us daughters: our dad wanted us to make our way independently in the world, so we gravitated to businessy types of degrees.

    So there I was, living in Brazil after college, having a blast in my personal life (Brazil!) but not liking my job so much. Still, I took the GMAT exam thinking I might apply to an MBA program. WELL, after studying my tooshy off for the math portions and skimming the language portions, I got my scores back: 89% for the math, 99% for the language. REALITY CHECK! It was one of those DUH moments: Why don’t I try a job that I might actually excel at and like?

    I decided there and then to switch careers when I returned to the States, to something words-oriented. I applied to NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute to aid in my transition, got accepted, then got my first job in publishing at Warner Books…

    Voila (words needs accent, I know)!

    Reply
  • Hi Patry!

    Thanks for responding, and I gotta say that I’ve already broke rule number three: I never posted a comment on your blog letting you know I’d tagged you. Hah! Good that Blogspot and WordPress play so well together, eh?

    I’ll go ahead and leave a comment on your next post anyhow…

    I enjoy your blog tremendously — and enjoyed your novel also!

    Reply
  • Hi, Lisa,
    Okay…my curiosity is piqued (peaked? I never know that one!). How did you end up at my website? I’m looking at your profile and seeing Dystel and Goderich, which is also the agency I’m with (Michael Bourret), but I don’t think they’ve listed me on their site yet. And I see you’ve lived (are living?) in Portland, which is my hometown… Do tell!

    And it was fun reading your answers.

    cheers,
    Joelle

    Reply
  • Hi Joelle,

    Funny you should ask that question, because yesterday I tried to retrace my trail when I wrote this post. The strangest part is that I don’t think I landed on your site through the two things we have in common: living in Portland and Dystel & Goderich (which makes it stranger still).

    It’s this crazy Internet interconnectedness…But now it’s going to bug me that I can’t figure it out!

    Glad for the sun today here in Portland, that’s for sure, have a great weekend, Lisa

    Reply

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