Faith Loves the Letter R....

Yes, it's another meme. But that's because I'm really busy and have been going back and forth between about 10 different things all at once. Amanda posted this today on her blog; it's one of those fun "get-to-know-you" memes that will probably teach you more about me than you all care to know, however it's fun for me to do! All I had to do was request a letter and once received, I tell you all 10 things I love that start with that letter. I was handed an "R," so here are my 10 items I just love, all beginning with R, in no particular order.

1. Reading. Well, that just had to come first. You know me. Reading, books, love to read, love to write, read read read read read. R. Reading. I read incessantly. If I'm in the bathroom for longer than I'd planned to be, I've been known to panic if I have nothing to read. In those sad little moments, I'll read the back of the shampoo bottle, the toilet bowl cleanser can, anything. I remember the bathroom at GTE had spare rolls of toilet paper in the stalls, and I'd read the French writing and the English writing, and marvel that the French took so many more words to say the same thing and yet sound so much better than the English. When I was a kid, I remember reading the cereal boxes at breakfast. I always have at least one or two books in my handbag that's really a briefcase, according to Sarah. (It's not. It's just a very large totebag with two binders [one for Gertrude Stein and one for the Juarez project] and a book or two and a bottle or two of water and my money and my iPod and anything else I feel like hauling around. But the most important thing are the books. And the money, of which there is never enough.) Anyway, the #1 R thing that I love is reading.
2. Red food. Assuming it's supposed to be red, anyway. Cherries, strawberries, watermelon, raspberries, red Kool-Aid, red Jell-O, red velvet cake, strawberry pie, cherries jubilee. . .. Those are the sweet red foods. And then there's medium-rare roast, which is a pinky-red, but I reserve the right to put it in the red food category. And red beans--I love red beans. And I don't know how I almost forgot, but I really like sweet red bell peppers.
3. Renaissance Festivals, like Scarborough Faire. Always fun. I like mocking the women who use them as an excuse to wear extremely tight corsets so that their breasts are two giant heaving mounds of flesh. They think they're sexy. They're not. It's just kind of gross. And I like heckling the guy pretending to be Shakespeare, by asking him why on earth he left his wife his second-best bed. Of course I have my own theories, but it's always fun to heckle. And I love watching the guys reenact Dante's Divine Comedy. And I like listening to the music and seeing the falcons and watching the jousting and eating sour pickles and being there with people I love.
4. The Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance, to be more specific. I like the old European one, too, don't get me wrong. I'm an American, though, and I love seeing the art that came out of the Harlem Renaissance. I'm particularly fond of the poetry of Langston Hughes.
5. Redecorating. There's nothing like getting a room in your home exactly the way you want it, all beautiful, everything just so. And you enjoy it for a while. And then, well, it's time to do something different. That's why most of the tchockes in my house come from places like T.J. Maxx or Ross or garage sales or flea markets. I redecorate often enough that the accessories need to be inexpensive.
6. Roaring. Sometimes a girl just needs to roar aloud. "I am woman, hear me roar!" Or, alternately, "I am Reptar! Hear me roar!" Whichever. It's fun. I also like to bark at dogs while I'm taking walks, but that doesn't start with an R so I can't list that here.
7. Rolling my R's. When I was in junior high school and taking Spanish for the first time, I had the dickens of a time learning how to roll my R's. So my mother taught me this little rhyme: Erre con erre cigarro; Erre con erre barril. Rapidos corren los carros del ferrocarril. I practiced and practiced and practiced. And now I can roll my R's. And it's quite satisfying. Just roll your R's at someone you're annoyed at, and it gets you to feeling better right away. Of course, they'll be staring at you like you belong in a loony bin, and perhaps you do, but that's another matter. You'll still feel better after you've rolled those R's!
8. Road Trips! I really like taking road trips. Unless it's for something distinctly unfun and there's nothing I can do along the way to make it fun. You pack a combination of junk food and healthy food (apples and grapes and sandwiches in the cooler, and cashews and Doritos and chocolate). You pick out just the right music and books on CD. You plan out the route. You pack your stuff, making sure to leave enough room in the car for the stuff you're going to buy while you're road tripping. Then you go! And it's even more fun if you allow yourself time to do all the weird stuff along the way--stop off at the 50-foot high ball of yarn, or go visit Santaclausland in March. And you have to stop at Stuckey's and buy a pecan roll, even though it's so sticky sweet you can't stand to eat more than a bite or two. And you stop at all the tourist traps and look at all the junk, and get back in the car and laugh at the people who were buying the authentic Hopi souvenirs made in Taiwan.
9. Rose and roses. Rose is a really fantastic co-worker, and I love her madly. She's always thinking of others, and making sure everyone here is taken care of. And I love roses, too. They can be so prim and proper, and then they can be so wild and blowsy that you know they're just as wanton as could be in their hearts. And they smell good, unless it's rose perfume, in which case yuck.
10. Rock music, in all its incarnations--hard rock, punk, new wave, pop, southern rock, indie, indie folk rock, you name it. If it has a beat and I can dance to it, I'm happy. And if you can't see me dance, you're happy. Trust me on this one.

Well, this was fun, and harder than it may seem. But if you want to join in the fun, let me know and I'll give you a letter!