I am brain dead. AJ was beyond trying today. Everything I asked him to do received one of three responses:

a) Fake crying
b) �That�s not fair!�
c) �But Mommy, I want to�.[insert contradictory idea of your choice]

By the time I put AJ to bed, I realized I had three choices:

a) running away from home
b) banging my head against the wall repeatedly
c) heavy drinking.

So with an empty mojito glass on the desk next to me, instead of an actual entry, here are my responses to the meme I got from elgan three days ago about things in threes.

Three pet peeves:
1. Noisy neighbors
2. Kitchen cabinets that are open for no reason
3. People who are totally inconsiderate [I�m thinking today of the woman who was in the shoe store with us the other day. Her two-year-old was pulling handfuls of socks out of a display and pelting AJ with them. I didn�t know to whom the child belonged, so when AJ complained, I said a little loudly that I was sorry but I didn�t know who her mommy was (the store was crowded). When the mother turned up, she didn�t say word one to me or to AJ, nor did she pick up the hundreds of socks her child had overturned, nor did she say word one to her child, who was old enough to have been told it was not the right thing to do. She just picked the kid up and walked away, leaving the mess for someone else. Grr.]

Three of your theme songs: [This is very dangerous for me, because I�m remarkably bad at paying attention to lyrics. Case in point: Before we were married, my husband and I used to hang out at a jazz club in town on occasion to hear a favorite violinist. We always requested �A Fine Romance,� because he played it so well and he did a great medley blending it with �The Way You Look Tonight� (both from the fabulous 1936 movie Swingtime). When we ultimately hired the same violinist to play at our wedding reception, �A Fine Romance� was our first thought for our first dance song. Then we looked at the lyrics. We went with �The Way You Look Tonight instead.�
1. The Medley of �A Fine Romance� and �The Way You Look Tonight� � it�s more honest than either one alone.
2. Mark Eitzel, �Sun Smog Seahorse"
3. Fountains of Wayne �Bright Future in Sales�

Three things you are OCD about:
1. Having all drawers and drawers closed before sleeping.
2. Assembling to-be-assembled products as soon as I get them in the house.
3. Having the CDs in alphabetical order by genre.

Three things you compulsively buy:
1. Cosmetic products other than makeup
2. Nice smelling soap
3. Fancy underwear

Three people you wish you could meet:
1. My great grandmother Sarafina (she died when I was a baby, but her memory is surrounded by a number of marvelous stories that, if I remember, I will relate here some day so as not to forget them all)
2. Marilynne Robinson (author of Housekeeping and Gilead)
3. lass, elgan and mimi [I�d mention eggsaucted, but I actually will be meeting her next week]

Three places you wish you could visit:
1. Denali and Glacier National Parks
2. Tuscany
3. My brother�s house in Jordan

Three things you love about yourself:
1. My ability to think on my feet
2. My cheekbones
3. My intuition

Three things you don�t really like about yourself:
1. My impatience
2. My tendency to get nasty if I don�t get enough time alone
3. My self-centeredness

Three wishes in general:
1. To give AJ a happy childhood
2. To give AJ a college education at the school of his choice
3. To finish the diss already

Three favorite bodily functions:
1. Hearing
2. Eating
3. Sex

Three most interesting things in your home:
1. A cira-wata, an Eritrean single-stringed violin
2. The Moroccan rug
3. A series of carved wood, painted figurines that represent an orchestra of women (in thongs and bikini tops) with assorted animal heads. There�s a conductor too, and music on her stand. It�s my most favorite possession, a gift from my aunt from a gallery dealing in Mexican art.

Three things you love that others hate:
1. Anchovies
2. Doing Laundry
3. Weeding the garden

Three things you hate that others love:
1. Olives
2. Reality television
3. Annie Proulx�s The Shipping News

[I feel compelled to add a caveat to my responses to the next two questions. I�ve never really had crushes on celebrities, rather on the characters they play in particular instances. So I�ve specified the instances along with the celebrities.]

Three celebrities you had crushes on when you were young:
1. Harrison Ford (Star Wars)
2. Sean Connery (in the early Bond films)
3. Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo�s Fire) [Yeah, it embarrasses me now too]

Three celebrities you have crushes on now:
1. Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files).
2. Aidan Quinn (Desperately Seeking Susan)
3. John Stewart (The Daily Show � and if he�s like that in real life, then I guess he�s my one and only true celebrity crush)

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