Twas Brillig

Could it really be as simple as this?

I lived in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land–whatever the heck you wanna call it–twice, both times for a significant period of time. I saw more hate, more anger, more terror… Oh, I can’t even begin to describe it. Suffice it to say that I lived right in the middle of two groups of people who hate each other and, as far as I can predict, will never, ever find any sort of reconciliation.

And the first time I lived there, it was in 1991, during the great Cola Wars. You know, Coke vs. Pepsi.

Nowadays, I’m in the middle of “moving” which means that I’m going through millions of old boxes and finding old things I’d entirely forgotten about. Last night I stumbled across these soda cans. The red one is a Coke, in Hebrew. The other is a Pepsi, in Arabic. And this was back in the day where once a cola company got their foot in the door, they had the cola monopoly in that country. But Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land was a very complicated place because it wasn’t really a “country” to many and to others it was virtually TWO countries, so the cola wars had an interesting task on their hands. In the end, in one half of Jerusalem (the Jewish half) you could buy Coke, and in the other half (the Palestinian half) you could buy Pepsi. And often, it seemed like the side you were “rooting” for (as though all these people’s lives were some kind of trivial sport’s event) was the side who sold your cola of choice.

Pepsi and Coke seem to have made up somewhere along the way, since you can now buy either product in either section of Jerusalem. Maybe the cola wars really will change the world– one caffeinated, kidney-shriveling sip at a time.

I wasn’t going to do this until tomorrow, but seeing as how I am holding a VERY WIDE AWAKE baby right this moment, I guess I might as well take advantage of the time, right?

So, I was “tagged” by Life As I Know It for this lovely Meme. And so, without further ado…

Three Things That Scare Me:
1.The dark
2.when it’s too quiet
3.This.

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. That gorgeous guy I married
2. Those crazy kids he gave me
3. Basically that whole bloglist in my sidebar there which, granted, needs to be updated but is still full of real gems.

Three Things I Love:
1. Blogging–reading my old standby’s and gathering new friends
2. The recent sunshine
3. Chocolate. WAIT!!! I MEAN CARROTS!!! I PROMISE!

Three Things I Hate:
1. hospitals
2. wars
3. idiot presidents who get us into wars that we have no business being in

Three Things I Don’t Understand:
1.unkindness
2.how hubby can eat three times as much as I do, and it can all be deep fried, and I’m the one who gains weight.
3.How my baby’s nose is so tiny, but can produce infinite amounts of mucous.

Three Things On My Desk:
1. my digital camera
2. A copy of The Book of Mormon
3. dinner (i.e A Tomato)

Three Things I’m Doing Right Now:
1. Holding Lil’ Dude
2. shivering because it’s frickin’ cold in this office
3. typing one-handed

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. Run a marathon
2. Take my children all over the world, the way my parents took me all over the world
3. Write the Great American Novel

Three Things I Can Do:
1. Speak four languages (English, Spanish, German, Italian)
2. Become pregnant just by looking at Hubby for too long (no, that’s not an announcement, just commentary on my fertility in general)
3. Write up-side-down flawlessly. It’s a gift. Jealous?

Three Things I Can’t Do:
1. Eat red meat (I’m missing the enzyme to digest it)
2. Vote for a Republican
3. get the stupid “word verification” thingies right on the first try

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
1. your mom
2. your kids
3. your sweetheart

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
1. Rush Limbaugh
2. That little voice inside your head that says you’re not good enough
3. Most of the music that my husband listens to

Three Things I’d Like To Learn:
1. At least three more languages (French, Russian, Chinese)
2. How to make millions of dollars without lifting a finger
3. To develop an efficient, abundant, affordable, and eco-friendly fuel source

Three Favorite Foods:
1. cheese
2. baked potato
3. avacado

Three Shows I Watched as a Kid:
1.Silver Spoons
2.Who’s the Boss
3.Growing Pains

Three Things I Regret:
1. Not changing Lil’ Dude’s diaper before he made us both icky just now
2. Not getting into the blogging world sooner–it’s good for my soul, somehow. I wish I’d been doing this for years.
3. Not exercising during all those pregnancies, because it is making this whole weightloss thing very tricky.

Three People I’m Tagging
1. My Sister Laduwa, not because I think she’ll actually do it, but because she’s brand spankin’ new at this bloggin’ thing and it may just be the jump-start she needs.
2. My dear friend Kateastrophe because I know she will do it, and because pretty much everything she writes is awesome.
3. Anyone who joined my blog circle recently who hasn’t done this Meme–it’s a great way for me to get to know you better! Leave a comment here with a link to your blog so that we can all find you!

And with that, dear ones, I bid you all goodnight. I hope. Lil’ Dude’s still awake. Doesn’t he know it’s 2:30 a.m.? Doesn’t he know that Bubba will be up in about four hours, jumping on my bed, reciting his long list of urgent needs to me? Sigh. Oh well. A girl can dream, right?