Taking The Me Out of Meme

Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog came up with this fun meme. I loved reading her responses and thought it would be fun to play so here’s mine:

What are your middle names?

Mine is Diana and his is Travis. Sounds like a real hick name to me. His, not mine 🙂


How long have you been together?

We’ve been together for 17 years. Fifteen of that as a married couple.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?

Maybe 4 months.

Who asked whom out?

He asked me out. He slipped me a line while I was working. It was very cute at the time but we laugh about it now. We also laugh about the guy that asked me out right before he did. I turned the other guy down.

How old are each of you?

I’m 40 and he is 39.

Whose siblings do you see the most?

We definitely see his siblings the most. One of his brothers lives less than five miles away and the other one lives about sixty miles away.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?

I can happily say that it is not finances. We have always had separate accounts and I cannot tell you how wonderful that is. The graphic that I included with this post got a chuckle out of me because I have never had to ask for his debit or credit card since I have my own. For us, our challenge seems to be time management. I am always on the go and he isn’t. It’s sometimes hard for us to connect when I am doing a million things at once.

Did you go to the same school?

No.

Are you from the same home town?

We both grew up in Los Angeles but in very different neighborhoods.

Who is smarter?

A dangerous question. I am book smart and have a certain street sense about me. He is smart but in a very, down-to-earth practical sense. He is much better at numbers than I am.

Who is the most sensitive?

Depends how you define sensitive. I tend to “feel” more no matter what the situation. He doesn’t get ruffled that easily and sometimes that drives me batty.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?

We like a little Mexican restaurant by us. It’s sort of a hole-in-the-wall but this place has the best chips and salsa.

Where is the farthest you two have traveled together as a couple?

Orlando to the Happiest Place On Earth.

Who has the craziest exes?

I would say mine were the craziest. I had one ex that was a fashion designer and he insisted that I wear his designs but they were horrid and made me look like Annie Hall but not in a good way.

Who has the worst temper?

I am easily irritated by stupidity and very vocal about it. He is more moody and tends to internalize his anger so when he goes off, he is like a volcano, spewing anger everywhere. I am more like a slow leak. However, if you piss me off enough I will completly lose it.

Who does the cooking?

I do the cooking unless it grilling and then he’ll do it.

Who is the neat freak?

No one is a neat freak but I will go ballistic over clutter. We have some clutter zones where things tend to accumulate and it drives me crazy. I cannot relax until those zones are cleared.

Who is more stubborn?

I am very stubborn. I would definitely say that I am more stubborn than him.

Who hogs the bed?

I hog the bed. I start off in a fetal position but sometime during the night I steal all the covers, the pillows and take-up more than half of the bed. I guess I like my space.

Who wakes up earlier?

I am always up earlier. I make the lunches, pack the homework up, throw a load of laundry in. I am a big multi-tasker in the morning.

Where was your first date?

We went to Tony Roma’s on CityWalk (BBQ place) and saw Wayne’s World. That was the beginning of the “stupid movie” marathon. I think he owns every stupid movie known to man now.

Who is more jealous?

Jealousy is not an issue for us.

How long did it take to get serious?

Maybe six months. I was living with a roommate at the time and that was coming to an end so we moved in together fairly quickly.

Who eats more?

He does, but I can eat him under the table when it comes to certain food items. Spicy foods for one. He cannot tolerate much spice and I thrive on it.

Who does the laundry?

With the kids and all, we are always doing laundry. I do more of it because when he does it, he always leaves an ink pen in his pocket or leaves the stuff all balled up so it never washes correctly or dries correctly for that matter.

Who’s better with the computer?

Definitely me.

Who drives when you are together?

He does. I have a tough commute to and from work on most days so I tend to want to zone out come the weekend. We bicker a lot though over his short stops.

That was fun. If you’d like to play along please do so!

Review: Things I Want My Daughters To Know

After a couple of power outages (insert snicker here) I finally managed to finish Things I Want My Daughters To Know by Elizabeth Noble. Barbara, who is dying of cancer decides to write letters to each of her daughters. These letters are shared with them after her death along with one of her journals. As you can imagine, these letters tell of her love for them, what she hopes they achieve in life and also a secret that she had been carrying with her for quite some time.

First off, there are many daughters to speak of. I was a bit distracted by the number of daughters. There are four of them. Jennifer is married to Stephen and it not happy with her marriage. She is uptight and prissy. Lisa is a bit more fluid. She is dating Andy, a really nice guy and she’s not sure where the relationship is going or if she even wants one with him. Amanda is the “wild child”. Always moving, always off to another country. I really liked Amanda. She meets Ed and we get to see a softer side to her. Hannah is the baby of the family at sixteen years of age and she is the product of Barbara’s second marriage to Mark. I don’t feel that Hannah’s character really came through for me. She seemed very one dimensional and flat. However, I adored Mark, Barbara’s second husband. He seemed almost too good to be true but a great guy to have in the family.

My main problem with this book is that I really did not like Barbara. I didn’t hate her, but I didn’t like her. Her letters were a bit on the shallow side and her decision to share her secret in that way… I did not approve of it. I “get” that parents can be flawed. I’m a parent and I am in no way perfect. Not even close, but the letters were not affectionate to me. Not really. They sort of made me feel as if Barbara was a bit of a coward. Writing letters about stuff that probably should have been shared in person.

At the end, I was left wondering whose story this was. I felt that Noble tried to give the characters equal time but in doing so, I never got to hear any one character’s voice to its fullest. I also felt the end was a bit rushed. As if tying up all the loose ends was an issue. I really would have liked to have heard this story through Mark’s voice. He was truly the anchor in all of this.

As for a book club pick, I could see this being discussed by a book club. There are lots of issues to debate and question and the development of some of the sisters was quite good and I wanted to know more about them.

I received this book from Jennifer over at Book Club Girl as part of her online radio show with the author which can be heard here. The copy of the book that I received has a reading guide in the back of it which has some really good questions and includes insight from the author. If you’ve read the book, let me know what you thought of it.

Chatting with friends about books and life…