Today, Jamie and Shannon ask us about our favorite movies. (Or our “favourite” movies. You Canadians. 😀 ) At first I thought, “I don’t have any.” Then I read a bunch of other people’s lists and realized I have a ton. So here they are in categories!

Classics: Cary Grant, especially The Philadelphia Story, The Bishop’s Wife, and Charade; Bing Crosby, especially Holiday Inn and White Christmas; Doris Day, especially Pillow Talk

Book Movies: Harry Potter and Jane Austen adaptations

Johnny Depp movies: Finding Neverland, Secret Window, Benny and Joon, Dead Man

Movies about people who go to another country and find themselves: Shirley Valentine, Enchanted April, Midnight in Paris, Sabrina

Movies that are nominally romantic comedies but whose highlight is the supporting cast playing older members of specific ethnic groups: Moonstruck, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Return to Me

Movies that break the mold or are their own mold: Hudsucker Proxy, O Brother Where Art Thou, Best in Show, Grosse Point Blank, Being John Malkovich, Harold and Maude

Movies about the meaning of life: The Legend of Baggar Vance, I Heart Huckabees, Les Miserables, and they tell me I should see The Matrix

Comedies of Errors: The Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest

And two more: Eve’s Christmas and the original Star Wars trilogy

Here’s my desk! This is actually the perfect time for it to have its photo taken because it was just decluttered yesterday. The guided tour:

• On the left we have my bed. (I live in a very small space. This also means that I have an extremely short commute.)
• My computer is all happy, just back from being upgraded and tuned up by the wonderful people at Happy Mac. My browser is open to Suzie’s Eclectic Scrapbook, and behind that I have rotating images that are scans of this year’s vision cards, an idea I got from collage-and-computer-goddess Jamie Ridler.
• My sister gave me that lovely vase of purple flowers.
• One of the pens was bought especially for signing copies of my new book, on the recommendation of my writing buddy Earl Russell, who bought the same kind of pen for signing his new book.
• The glass is plastic because I have a dropping-and-breaking-things disorder.
• Light box on top of the printer to counteract seasonal depression. It gets less use here in Austin than it did up north, but it’s still invaluable to me.
• That box underneath is not really holding a toaster oven, but file folders and office supplies. Same with the box next to it. The magazine tray on top was just yesterday totally cleared of a stack of papers that went nearly up to the top of the handle.
• The boxes on the left, behind the chair, are holding my collection of Archie Comics, yes indeedy. And on top of that is one binder with my dissertation in it, and another binder with the manuscript of my book in it, featuring margin comments written by my book’s best friend, Colleen Moore.
• I love my windows. This one looks out onto a big overgrown lantana bush, and beyond that, our backyard, garage apartment and laundry room, and a big ol’ tree.

Big ol’ tree.

Lantana bush in the summer.

Hi there! My computer was off with the wonderful Happy Mac people all week, getting upgraded, so I took a hiatus from the Kickin’ It Old Skool blogathon. I have it back now! So here’s my post for day 7:

Today, the lovely Julie Rorrer is coming to my little house to advise me on decluttering. (Yay!)

This is half me and half the fountain at Mueller Park, near where I live in Austin. Often there’s a rainbow in this fountain, and there was a little one there today too but it was hard to capture both me and the rainbow!

I have all kinds of serious-type topics I keep meaning to blog about, but somehow I haven’t gotten going on those! And this month, just in the nick of time, Jamie and Shannon Ridler decided to sponsor  their “Kickin’ It Old Skool” blogathon–to help us all get away from “I really should be blogging” and back to the days when blogging was just a fun and silly way to share our lives. The perfect way for me to start off this blog! So here’s my post for Day 1’s topic: De Selfie. Thanks, Jamie and Shannon!