e_clare

On the orders of

perseph12:

List 5 reasons you are a dork. And make them good reasons. Justify them. Explain them. Be loud and proud of how big a dork you are! Then pick the 5 biggest dorks you know and have them do the meme.

1) I still read YA books. I'm a huge nerd about books in general, but I can't visit a bookstore or a library without a quick cruise through the kids section. (Realize that I mean that in the least creepy way possible.) On a bad day -- if I'm tired, anxious, homesick, whatever -- 45 minutes in a bookstore does more for my morale than anything else. Part of it is the comfort of seeing old books, the familiar ones that I've read many times over (I brought a box of books with me to school freshman year: 20% useful and grownup books, and 80% favorite books from my youth).* But it's not just the old friends; I pick up new authors and titles whenever possible. I'm still close with my seventh-grade English teacher, and every summer, I poke through her latest acquisitions and borrow 4 or 5 titles. Should I have outgrown young adult books by now? Probably. But I read Walk Two Moons tonight and it's still a bloody wonderful book (if a bit preachy towards the end), so there.

2) I love getting mail; I love to send it just as much. In high school, Becky P. and I started pen-palling it up -- in our junior year. We lived 8 blocks apart, saw each other every day, and we've kept it going through college, ridiculous international postage rates, and the accumulation of several other letter-buddies from school. The official pen friends get multiple-page letters on cool cards, but my other friends have received many a random envelope with a note and a magazine or newspaper page tucked inside, or unexpected postcards. Writing materials -- pens, cards, and stamps -- are in the Top 5 British Things I Spent Money On, including travel, groceries and books. E-mail doesn't bring the same joy, and I'm way worse about using it to keep in touch; there's just something wonderful about actual writing.

3) I am a filing machine. I spent four days this spring organizing the Alumnae Quarterly's filing cabinet. It was a blast. Putting things in order is one of my greatest pleasures; it's why my books and movies are always among the first items to be unpacked. My bookshelves at home have been alphabetized (and fiction separated from nonfiction) since I was eight. My dad took me to work for two weeks to clean out his files when I was twelve. I've had an accordion file on my MHC desk since Day 1, and have expanded into several others -- but it's all carefully labeled. 3b) I am the worst paper pack-rat since my mother. I hold onto far too many things because I think I'll want to see them again in a year or ten. This is what comes of being the offspring of a librarian and an historian.

4) I think office supplies are amazing. Pens. Paper. Little drawer-organizing trays to keep paper clips and rubber bands apart from the pencils. Electric staplers and hole punchers. Post-Its. Everything is just so cool -- and you have no idea how much it's killing me that I don't have time to set up my desk at work this summer.

5) I can "Name that Movie" in one star and a short plot outline. I can probably name its director, too. This comes in handy at the movie theater, when people get box office brain freeze. I'm good at retaining identifying details of movies; even if I haven't seen it, I'm usually peripherally aware of it through the culture (thanks to years of The Simpsons, the old Fametracker forums, and similar pop influences), and can probably recognize at least the title when I hear it.

I left out the obvious fandom ones, and didn't even get to the showtunes.

Anybody on the flist who wants to, go for it; for starters, I'll poke

llogan

olivia_circe

sweetcncrd

mirror_dancer

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