Twelve for '12:

The lovely Sarah tagged me to participate in a little meme. The rules ask for eleven random things about me, but it's 2012, so I went for twelve. There are also questions from Sarah for me to answer but I'll save them for next time as this post already has enough words in it. If you're reading this, you can consider yourself tagged. I'd love to read your list!

twelve random things about Danielle:
 
one My favourite number is four (I don't even know why) yet I'd rather have an odd number of something. I love symmetry but when it comes to decor or groupings of items, I value the odd and the mismatched over the balanced and even. That's probably why my house resembles the den of a mad professor. Like a magpie, I just surround myself with things that I think are shiny.

two Hamish and Andy's podcasts never fail to make me feel ridiculously happy.

three One of my innate default settings is to instinctively look for patterns in everything. I think this is partly being human (I read somewhere that because the brain can only hold on to a tiny percentage of the sensory information we process every day, the things that reappear or remind us of something similar are the ones we tend to notice -- like looking at a new Subaru and suddenly realising that everyone on the road seems to be driving a Subaru), and partly my tendency to just be a teeny bit obsessive.

four Slowly but surely, I'm turning into my Mum. My siblings and I used to laugh at her ability to connect with a story or characters immediately, with real emotion. One day -- this is no exaggeration -- she switched on the television in the very final minutes of a Little House on the Prairie episode. Pa and Albert were standing over a fresh grave. Pa put his arm on Albert's shoulder and said, "Let's go home, son," and Albert said, "Let's go home, Pa", and that was the end. Sure enough, instant tears from Mum. Anyway, the joke is on me because I'm now becoming that way myself. Never mind. If I have to be a clone of someone, at least it's an excellent person.

five It's easy for me to be nervous -- about anything. I live fairly constantly in the nervous zone. Meeting someone new, heading alone into an unfamiliar environment, making an awkward phone call, approaching a stranger, talking to a technician, driving without having studied a map, submitting an assignment, crossing a pedestrian crossing when there's no other person in sight but there's a long line of cars (I FORGET HOW TO WALK). Unless you know me really really well, though, I think I could convince you of my (fake) confidence.

six I love my personal library, but it grows an awful lot and sometimes I have this fear that my books will rise up in the night and swallow me.

seven Years ago, my grandmother, whom we call Ma, started sticking bandaids underneath various of her treasured objects, bandaids with different family members' names on them. I suspect my sisters started it, because my grandmother has a few truly gorgeous porcelain dolls which we all kind of coveted when we were little. "Can I have that doll when you die?" was where it began -- I swear we were not morbid or mercenary little kids, honestly -- and soon my sisters had each claimed one of those dolls for their own. Being older, I was above all that stuff, and disdainfully refused to claim a post-death prize for my own. Until last Christmas, that is. We were sitting around the kitchen at my grandparents' place, and I was looking at all the old, familiar details. I noticed Ma and Pa's clock -- really noticed it -- and how it looked like a beautifully kitsch timepiece from a 1970s Swiss chalet. This was it -- this was the thing I wanted. So then and there, Ma pulled the clock off the wall, found a permanent marker, and in amongst her battery change record-keeping details (who knew?) inscribed this message: this clock belongs to Danielle on my demise. Shirl. x I love it. (You can see it here).

eight Among all the people I have met and been influenced by, there are still many I haven't met who played a huge role in shaping my worldview and growing my spiritual beliefs. If I made a list, I think either CS Lewis or Elisabeth Elliot would be fighting for top place.

nine Awkward, character-driven humour is my favourite kind. That's why I love shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation. Ridiculous as they are, there's that sense that there really are people like this, and this actually could happen -- and how much less painful it is to watch such experiences than it is to actually live them. In life, we require some passing of time before we can totally embrace the humour of our most awkward moments.

ten Lately I have been really, really missing my little New South Wales niece and nephews. I've never lived close to them, so obviously I'm used to the distance. Just sometimes it feels more.

eleven I believe Atticus Finch is probably the greatest fictional dad ever.

twelve Studying history could basically be a never-ending journey. There's always more to learn, and it's always possible to dig deeper. But if there's one great overarching sense that my limited study of history has given me, it's the idea that we're all so much more connected than I ever imagined. History is so broad and so vast, yet studying it all, seeing, for example, how things in ancient Rome are still finding repurcussions in our world today, makes me think how young we all are, and how much we all have in common. Solomon knew it all those years ago: there's nothing new under the sun.

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Conversations:

Laura Elizabeth -- yes! I saw the picture the other day and was like, "Aaaah why couldn't I eat it all? I want my leftovers!" PS. Thank you for hanging out. I love how much we have in common to chat and fangirl about.

thelittlebluefishy -- it was seriously good.

Lauren -- uh huh, they definitely were good. We'll have to go there for lunch sometime, hey?

Katie -- you're so right. Good friends and good food = happy days.

Mothercare -- I believe in your green thumb, even if you don't.

Andrea -- "its works!" You have a face! And a name!