Tagged!
August 15th, 2006
I’ve been tagged by Marina at Perfume-Smellin’ Things (who’s still bemoaning the fact she turned a certain age we do not speak of - please go comment on her blog to cheer her up). This whole tagging thing is kinda fun and brings me back to my teen years. I had a post almost ready but then we had company last night and ended up having too much fun, so no review today, just this.
4 Places I’ve Lived In
Aizkraukle, Latvia (go ahead, try saying it really fast!)
Basildon, UK
Inver Grove Heights, MN
Chicago, IL
4 Places I’d Rather Be Right Now
Riga, Latvia
Aizkraukle, Latvia
Paris - perfume shopping
London - perfume shopping
4 Websites That I Visit Daily
Makeupalley
Ebay
Blogs
Blogs again
4 TV Shows I Enjoy Watching
I don’t have a TV but I’ve seen a few shows on DVD that I loved: Monk, The Office (British in particular), Project Runway, and Seinfeld.
4 Favorite Songs
Always Look On The Bright Side (Monty Python)
Ulybka (a Russian kids’ song about how a smile can transform the world around you)
Southern Sun (Paul Oakenfold)
It Must Have Been Love (Roxette, adored it back in the early 90s)
4 Favorite Foods
Sushi
Blyni (Russian pancakes/crepes)
Dolmas
Pasta with lotsa butter and lotsa cheese
4 Places Where I Feel At Home
Anywhere in Latvia
Chicago
Cute little neighborhood coffee shops (NOT Starbucks!)
Russian grocery stores in Chicago
4 Favorite Perfume Notes of The Moment
Incense
Iris
Tobacco
Coriander
4 Favorite Perfumes Of The Moment
CB I Hate Perfume Pipe Tobacco
Vintage Chanel 22 parfum
Vintage L’Interdit parfum
Guerlain L’Heure Bleu parfum
4 Favorite Perfume Houses
Serge Lutens
Guerlain
Frederic Malle
Hermes
4 Things That I Wish For
A trip home this year
A child
A job I love
Health for my family
4 Favorite Books
The Idiot by Dostoyevsky
Fathers and Sons by Turgenev
Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
4 Favorite Quotations
Don’t really have any particular ones I love but after a google search, came up with these that appealed to me:
“Do what you can with what you’ve got wherever you are.” Theodore Roosevelt
“The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.” Thomas Moore
“Never confuse movement with action.” Ernest Hemingway
“The strongest of all warriors are these two - Time and Patience.” Leo Tolstoy
Image source: www.corbis.com (image is totally random, no logic here)
Entry Filed under: This and That
26 Comments Add your own
1. Marina | August 15th, 2006 at 9:37 am
От улыбки хмурый день светлей,
От улыбки в небе радуга проснется,
Поделись улыбкою своей,
И она к тебе не раз еще вернется.
И тогда, наверняка, вдруг запляшут облака,
И кузнечик запиликает на скрипке,
С голубого ручейка начинается река,
Ну а дружба, начинается с улыбки.
С голубого ручейка начинается река,
Ну а дружба начинается с улыбки.
От улыбки солнечной одной,
Перестанет плакать самый грустный дождик,
Добрый лес простится с тишиной,
И захлопает в зеленые ладоши.
От улыбки станет всем теплей,
И слону и, даже, маленькой улитке,
Так пускай, повсюду на земле,
Будто лампочки, включаются улыбки.
И тогда, наверняка, вдруг запляшут облака,
И кузнечик запиликает на скрипке,
С голубого ручейка начинается река,
Ну а дружба, начинается с улыбки.
С голубого ручейка начинается река,
Ну а дружба, начинается с улыбки.
*cries sentimentally*
2. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Marina, wah! I’m crying with you! I want to see that cartoon now.
3. Cait | August 15th, 2006 at 10:00 am
I only wish I could have read that, guys. I will have to work on answers to these but this was a pretty good meme.
4. Elle | August 15th, 2006 at 10:19 am
What a cool little song! Glad Marina posted the words! I shall have to invent a melody and sing it to canine child. I adore the Monty Python song as well.
You’ve got to try to catch House on TV - great show w/ Hugh Laurie.
Fingers, toes, etc. all crossed for your four wishes!
5. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Cait, you can try Babelfish.
Actually, if I get a minute today, I might look for a translation or do it myself.
6. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Elle, I’ll have to get House on DVD. Thanks! And thank you for contorting, as usual.
7. violetnoir | August 15th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Perfect, Ina. But I must admit that I do prefer Starbucks to our neighborhood coffee shop, because the CEO’s story is amazing, and he provides health insurance even to part-time 20 hour per week employees.
My favorite quote is from the civil rights movement: “Keep you eyes on the prize!” I have tried to live by that, and it has served me well throughout the years. Eleanor Roosevelt said some great things, too.
Hugs!
8. March | August 15th, 2006 at 11:32 am
You guys have me tearing up and I have NO IDEA why.
9. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Robin, I just don’t like their coffee - way too strong for me but I know they have awesome benefits for their employees.
Thanks for sharing your fave quote! Love it!
10. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 11:40 am
March, I’m sorry! Please don’t cry! What can I send you to make you feel better?
11. Judith | August 15th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Ok, since I am on a Babelfish tear today, I asked them to translate Marina’s poem. For the benefit of those who are as ignorant as I (and the amusement of others), I will copy what I got:
Gloomy day brighten from the smile, the rainbow will awake from the smile in the sky, share with the smile of your, by I it to you repeatedly still will return. And then, for sure, suddenly begin to dance clouds, I grasshopper zapilikayet on the violin, the river begins from the blue brook, well and friendship, begins from the smile. The river begins from the blue brook, well and friendship begins from the smile. From the smile of solar one, will cease to cry the saiest shower, good forest prostitsya with the silence, I it zakhlopayet into the the green ladoshi. From the smile will become all grow warm, I to elephant and, even, small snail, so let, everywhere on the earth, as if lamps, are included smile. And then, for sure, suddenly begin to dance clouds, I grasshopper zapilikayet on the violin, the river begins from the blue brook, well and friendship, begins from the smile. The river begins from the blue brook, well and friendship, begins from the smile.
Well, it clearly loses something in the translation. I gather it’s about friendship and smiles, but I wish I knew what “grasshopper zapilikayet” was (not to speak of “good forest prostitsya” and green ladoshi.:)
12. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Judith, LOL!!! This is the funniest thing I’ve seen today. OK, to solve the mystery, grasshopper “zapilikayet” means it’ll play the violin but it’s sort of a slang word.
Good forest will say goodbye to silence, and will clap its green hands, literally. 
Basically, it’s about how everything begins with a smile. 
13. Judith | August 15th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
And it’s quite lovely, too! “The river begins from the blue brook, well and friendship, begins from the smile.” I’ve been singing it all day. Smiles to you, too:)
14. annE | August 15th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Fun, neighborhood coffee shops are among my favorite things, too! So far, my ideal is the 1369 Coffeehouse in Cambridge, MA (either location). You must pay them a visit if you’re ever in the area.
And, one of my favorite quotes, from Pascal: “The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.”
15. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Judith, if you really want to hear the song, you can go to this site:
http://www.russiandvd.com/store/product.asp?sku=43124&genreid=1001
It’s song #5.
16. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Anne, I love the quote!
17. Marina | August 15th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
bwah ha ha hahaha
18. Ina | August 15th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Marina, I’m glad this made you laugh.
19. March | August 16th, 2006 at 7:56 am
Hey, that’s a wonderful, sweet song — how come I grew up singing songs about Old MacDonald’s farm? Your song is waaay prettier.
20. Ina | August 16th, 2006 at 8:17 am
March, that’s because in good old Soviet times, they did the smile propaganda on us kids.
So we grow up tough and happy and always smiling.
21. Marina | August 16th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Well, the propaganda must have not worked on me, or not quite completely…I might possibly be tough as old boots, but happy and always smiling?…I am a dark soul, I am.
22. sariah | August 16th, 2006 at 8:34 am
Ina - I love your taste in books even though I’m not Russian. The Master and Margarita is also a favorite of mine, as well as Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment & The Gambler, and Nabokov’s Lolita. St. Petersberg is one of the cities I most want to visit, just because of Dostoyevsky - have you been there?
23. Ina | August 16th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Marina, it hasn’t worked on me, either.
24. Ina | August 16th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Sariah, I love Crime and Punishment, too. Yes, I’ve been to St.Pete once as a teen, and I adored the city! Would really love to go back some day.
25. chaya ruchama | August 17th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
You make me feel SO nostalgic…
I lost out on the opportunity to learn Russian in childhood, because my grandmother from Minsk died so young- my mother was only 16 at the time.
I was named for her.
They spoke Yiddish at home, as my grandfather didn’t know Russian, and so I know many songs in it- [many songs, period… what I don’t associate with smell, I associate with music, or literature].
The last time I felt this melancholy, a bunch of us were reading poetry, [much of it multiple languages], and my friend Maria read Anna A.- we were into single malt, curled up like odalisques, and bawling our eyes out…
I LOVE your goatling nostril photo !
I am a Pythonnette,too, and have corrupted my children, so that they know ALL the songs, as well as Tom Lehrer and Patrick Sky’s satire.
We Meisters are a warped bunch…
Food, perfume, books- we share several likes.
I sincerely hope that you find that job, and have that child…
I’m only an honorary Carmelite, but if you pray to St. Ann [patron saint of mothers], or Gerard Majella [Sicilian saint- gets and keeps you pregnant !], it helps.
Do you want me to send you a holy medal, and get it blessed?
I’d be happy to do that for you…
You’ve probably heard this one, but it’s my life motto, from Hillel-
“I get up, I walk, I fall down-
Meanwhile, I keep dancing.”
We ought not to limp through life, but dance our way through the muddle, even if the sight of us doing so isn’t very pretty…
Although I’m an opera singer, I LOVE to see others sing and
dance, whether they actually can or not.
My love to you, and yours…
26. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Chaya, wow. I grew up not that far from Minsk. Not in Belarus but Latvia. Thank you for your offer! I guess I’m not sure where this is taking me yet… I love that quote! And how fascinating you’re an opera singer! I had no idea. I went to school with a gril who discovered her voice in her teens, so her parents promtly sent her to an academy and a conservatory in Italy, eventually. She’s done really well, from what I can tell. Still amazes me how life turned out for her.
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