An "8 things" meme

I haven't done one of these for a couple years; this one via Byzantium's Shores.

8 things I am passionate about:

1. The environment
   
2. Diversity in everything
   
3. Spelling
   
4. Yiddish
   
5. Traditional music
   
6. Doing what I say I'm going to do
   
7. Being a mom
   
8. Mentoring Menticia

8 things I want to do before I die

1. Ride in my donkey cart to the grocery store
   
2. See my children settled into happy families (of any kind)
   
3. Re-learn Russian
   
4. Visit parts of the world where there are no MacDonalds' restaurants
   
5. Go back to the Bibliothèque Medem and be in the advanced group
   
6. Record a cd of Yiddish songs with Jacqueline Schwab (if I can get her interested enough to do it...) or some other wonderful pianist
   
7. Get better at painting
   
8. Get better at playing the piano

Actually, I feel I've had a chance to do most of things I'd want to do. Or anyway, I've conveniently forgotten the ones I used to want to do. Or perhaps would like to do again? Be in love? Dance?

8 things I say often

1. "Thank you." (to the many people who help me and are kind to me)
   
2. "Good Boy!" (to Jethro)
   
3. "I'm still above ground." (if you ask me how I am on a bad day)
   
4. "Are you doing what you want to be doing?" (to my son)
   
5. "Can we try it again?" (in rehearsal)
   
6. "If you don't chew bones your teeth won't hurt" (to myself)
   
7. "I don't want to want things I can't have."
   
8. "I love you." (to my children almost every day)

8 books I’ve read recently

1. The Adventures of Mottel the Cantor's Son by Sholem Aleichem
   
2. Last of the Donkey Pilgrims by Kevin O'Hara
   
3. Travels with My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago] by Tim Moore
   
4. Beowulf, the bilingual edition, translation by Seamus Heaney (I just started it)
   
5. Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones (with Menticia)
   
6. The Ghost of Hannah Mendes by Naomi Ragen (blegh, wish I hadn't)
   
7. Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander (parts of it)
   
8. La casa de los espíritus by Isabel Allende (been working on this one a long time)

Thinking about this made me melancholy for some reason.

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