Meme: [simplified version of instructions] Quasi-randomly choose about ten of your interests, and post about why they interest you so much

Quilting: You get to cut shit up, and then sew shit back together again. Destruction! Pretty colours! Needles! Geometric patterns! Very sharp rotary blades! Soft fabricy bits! Extremely satisfying end product that you can snuggle under in the crispy fall weather. Plus, Lorelai from the Gilmore Girls made one with Rory’s baby clothes, ergo it’s now trendy and hip.

Television geography: Stars Hollow, Cicely Alaska, Capeside; if it’s a small-town, and there are quirky characters, I’m there. At least, in my mind I am.

Higher education: I love universities, in general. The libraries, the classes, the students, the degrees, the frosh week shenanigans, the exam stress, the hideous deadlines, the colourful school supplies, the beautiful grounds, the stately buildings. All of it.

John Bellairs: Creepy stories with Edward Gorey illustrations and magic and historical facts and happy endings. How can you go wrong?

Pumpkins and Squash: Nothing is more satisfying to grow. They’re easy, they have big luscious foliage and vines and they make nice big colourful fruits that store well over the winter and you can make both savory and sweet dishes with them.

Galleries and Museums: What’s not to like about a house built entirely for the storage and presentation of humanity’s most beautiful and innovative creations, the product of imagination and inspiration? I like to spend a little more time than is strictly necessary with each piece, a la Jeanette Winterson. I kind of hang out with it, imagine how the artist went about making it, what it would have felt like to be holding the brush that painted it, or the torch that welded it, or the chisel that sculpted it, or the camera that photographed it. And a good space makes it easier to foster that kind of relationship with the art.

Authors who are present in their texts: Milton. Byron (especially in ‘Don Juan’). Melville. Joyce. What makes them great is that they are speaking to me, the reader, directly through their narrative. Not in a confessional way, or an autobiographical way. More like they are whispering the most important secrets they have learned about life, the purest and most universal, timeless knowledge they’ve acquired to me through their characters and the way the describe their settings. They present me with the gift of their most beautiful language. Every sentence has the ring of quotability. I wish more people were interested in reading their work.

cats: Self-sufficient. Clean. Loving. Furry. Low-maintenance. Have things of their own to do. Like to sit in boxes. Ten million ancient Egyptians can’t be wrong.

Pies: You bake them. You eat them. You give them to friends. Delicious, functional, stress relieving (at least, when they turn out well) – a good hobby.

Voice acting: OMG, I am right there with Sarcasma on this one. Definetly something I would love to do, but don’t make the time/energy to pursue seriously. I’d be happy with just reading books on tape. Or storytelling to a class of interested students. Maybe I should just make my own MP3s of me reading books out loud and post them to the internet for posterity. Or maybe I should start volunteering for the CNIB again in their recording studio. Also, I feel like a bit of an ass for having this secret dream of being a radio recorder, given that I now actually know a whole family of people who have made a living at it (the Francks).

Iced tea: My abiding love, my most enduring favorite beverage, my addiction. I can drink a whole vat of the PC Lemon Iced Tea on a hot day or a long, girly-party evening. And don’t even get me started on Peach Snapple.

Light-up globes: I just impulse-purchased one from Staples, and I totally dig it. Australia is this vibrant fuschia, and Russia is day-glo orange. Now I can FINALLY know where Kazakhstan is!