Brought to you by caffeine and the letter "V"

The lovely Brookem over at Shrinkering Hearts had this little ABC thing going on over at her blog, and she's assigned me the letter "V". Yikes.

If you want to participate, leave a comment on this post letting me know and I will assign you a letter. You then write about 10 things you love that begin with your assigned letter and post them on your blog. When people comment on your posted list that they want a letter, you give them one and the chain continues on and on.

So, here we go: 10 things I love, starting with the letter "V".

1. Volunteering. I like to get involved in causes I believe in, like interVivos and Relay for Life. I feel good about contributing to society, and think that everyone is better off focusing on others for a while and forgetting the stresses in our own daily lives.

2. Voting. Oh man, do I ever love voting. As a former political science nerd and a member of interVivos' The Vote Project, which springs up around election time, voting is one of my passions. It's the big chance where citizens have an opportunity to tell the leaders of a country how we really feel about them. It's a democratic right which we take for granted. The shamefully low voter turnouts we have every election makes me hurt inside.

3. Vineyards. I described my dream job earlier this month. Wine is becoming one of my favourite things. It relaxes me after a long, hard day and and is in my glass when raised in celebration. I went to a wine tasting with a friend and now have fantasies of enrolling in a legitimate wine course. The beautiful scenery, delectable food, and delicious wines cause visions of vineyards haunt my dreams. My goal for the summer is to get to the Okanagan with the Boy and visit some vineyards there.

4. Veggies. Vegetables are delicious, I've never needed enforcement to eat them. Even brussel sprouts, which I didn't try until university, create a party in my mouth. Yum, yum.

5. Vests (the sweater kind, not the suit kind). I can't pull off the clean suited vests that all the cool kids are wearing these days, but I love a mean sweater vest. I went through a phase where I couldn't resist them, which was only fueled by the fact that so many of them featured argyle, my pattern of choice.

6. Vegas. The Boy and I went in November, and it was a great time. Censory overload and exhaustion-inducing, but it was interesting to not only see the sights but also people watch. Chain smoking, drinking, and intensely staring into the face of a slot machine are not things that I could do before 8 a.m. but it was normal for so many others. We saw the Beatles' LOVE Cirque de Soleil when we were there and it was absolutely amazing. I'd go again just to see it (well and maybe check out Freemont Street).

7. Violet (the colour, not the flowers). I love deep, rich purples. Always have. And violet is a colour that looks amazing on just about anyone. Which is fortunate since my skin is quite often some shade of purple (I'm a little accident prone).

8. Video games. Growing up, we never had video games. We had a couple of educational computer games, but no video game console. It wasn't until I started dating the Boy that I started really playing video games, and I don't care much to brag, but I'm pretty kick-ass at RockBand. He gave me a Wii for my birthday, so now video games are a pretty solid part of our relationship. Currently, I'm addicted to Fable II for the XBox. I dream about it.

9. Vases. I don't know what it is, but plants and vases send me into a frenzy. I can't go into Ikea without purchasing one of these two items, and if for some reason I do not return with one or the other (or both), it's cause for celebration. The ones to the right are from Ikea (I stole the picture from their website). I don't own them, but I kind of wish I did!

10. Vacation. Ahhh, sweet, sweet vacation. One week from now I'll be on an airplane, looking forward to a week off of work. Spending Family Day with my family. I can't even describe now much I'm looking forward to it. I've never been one for sunshine-soaked destinations, but lazy vacation is defintely where it's at.

There we go! I never thought I'd be able to think up 10. Thanks Brookem, for making me think on a Friday, and giving me reason to actually take a break during lunch on a busy day.

Tag! I'm it.

Like the lovely Sarah, I've never been any good with chain letters. Call me a cynic, a ruiner of good times, but I just can't seem to pass on those things. Even though I do love new recipes, stickers, mail, whatever. I am good with the all-about-me chain letters only because you better believe I am awesome at wasting time when I have other things to do.

The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six [random] things about me:
1. I am a very tactile person. I need to touch things. I can not possibly walk through any kind of store and keep my hands to myself. I let fabrics slide through my fingers, rub yarn against my cheek and go absolutely gaga over paper thickness and texture in the stationary store.

2. I am a clutz. If there's a slim possibility that I could hurt myself doing something, I'll probably do so. My winter boots have extreme traction, yet I fall on my ass in the streets. I walk into doors and walls. I constantly have bruises and have no idea where they have come from. I hurt myself so often, that I ignore pain. However, I have never broken a "real" bone (I don't count fingers and toes, those jerks are fragile).

3. I like to smell things. I've been known to fall into my mom's lily garden. I'm on videotape somewhere with a freshly-sharpened pencil crayon to my cute little nose. Fresh cut hay at home is one of my favourite smells ever. I have pretty perfumes, but often forget to put any on.

4. I can not, for the life of me, stay awake in the car. This has extended to airplanes. The noise no longer bothers me, once the engine gets going (and sometimes before), I drift off like it's some kind of Pavlonian response. I've been fighting to stay awake on long car rides for The Boy, so I can keep him company, but even then, I fall asleep for a little bit at a time.

5. I won a public speaking contest, against everyone in my grade and the grade above me, in grade 7. My speech was about technology. I'm far better at writing speeches than I am at saying them, though my confidence in that area has vastly improved over the past couple years. I credit this to being forced to speak at a news conference a couple of years ago, which is totally the opposite of my job.

6. I love to read. This isn't surprising to anyone who knows me, I've read every book in my childhood home (even the Harlequin romances hidden in my mother's dresser, shhh) and have a stack of to-read books that gets longer and longer and longer, even as I tear through books in the pile. I can not read for enjoyment on any kind of screen. I need to feel the paper in my hands, take in the smell of new pages or of older library books, and if it's a newspaper, I need to get some ink on my hands. Real newspapers, I'll read right through to the end. Online newspapers, I'll only skim the highlights. If I was any good at waking up in the morning before I absolutely have to, I would have a newspaper subscription so I could pour over it with a cup of steaming hot coffee.

I'm not tagging anyone, because I'm a jerk like that. But if you are interested in doing this, leave a comment and let me know so that I can read it. Or, leave random comments about yourself in the comments here.