Why "O wonderful, wonderful?"

I love the joyful, over-the-peak exuberance of this quote from William Shakespeare'sAs You Like Information technology, Deed Three, Scene 2

"O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful! And yet over again wonderful, and after that, out of all whooping."

Who? What? Where? When? Why?!

Think the 25 Random Things nigh Me Facebook meme that went viral dorsum in 2008? Here'due south what I wrote dorsum and then:

i. Although I've been asked many times to participate in these sorts of soul-bearing exercises, this is the first one I've ever actually done because:

2. I'm a profoundly private person,

3. with a penchant for ingemination, evidently.

4. I decided to come up up with a listing just for my own entertainment and once I got started, I couldn't stop.

5. That substantially sums up my manner of being; i.e. it'south hard to go myself started, simply once I practise, I'one thousand unstoppable, (for proficient or ill).

6. For that reason, I'm sometimes afraid to start reading a book because I know that for even so long information technology takes me to finish reading it, I'll be a completely unfit, slatternly female parent. My children will be unfed, unkempt, unbathed, and will be living in a house that's even more than slovenly than usual.

7. For the same reason, in one case I eventually get fed upward with living in filth, my husband will shudder at the dreaded reeemergence of what he calls…The Surface Nazi.

eight. Happily for the sanity of all, my Surface Nazi phase never lasts more than a couple days earlier I surrender to my true shiftless self.

9. Another reason I started compiling this listing was because I thought it would exist a good writing exercise. My ane resolution for the year was to start writing again every day.

10. I used to think I'd be a writer, and wrote all the time earlier I went to grad schoolhouse and it squelched all the creative juices correct out of me.

11. Don't get me wrong, getting a Ph.D. in Russian literature from Columbia is probably the achievement of which I am about proud.

12. In fact, after 11 grueling, soul-crushing years and a stomach-churning dissertation defense that left me shaking, it really bothers me that I don't get an alumni magazine addressed to Dr. Adrienne X, similar Dr. Colin X does. Shoot, I'd exist thrilled to get a fund-raising appeal every now and then. I might even give them a buck or two. The fact that I don't go junk postal service from Columbia deeply disturbs me, and makes me wonder whether I dreamt information technology all.

thirteen. When I confessed this to my hubby he got a gleam in his eye and I had to tell him that if he fabricated a call to the alumni office, the ensuing junk mail from Columbia would be meaningless to me. Meaningless!

14. I fully comprehend how crazy this sounds.

15. I am double dog daring myself to post this is considering I want to be a braver person.

16. One time I led a group of graduate students on an exchange program in Russian federation when I was a grad student myself. One dark the students had all gathered in my room when a drunken policeman wandered in and started brandishing his gun at everyone. I got him to leave. The point is: I used to be brave.

17. I used to exist the kind of person who thought she could do anything. When I was little, I used to practice flight for hours and hours. While I never actually got airborne, (except quite ofttimes in my dreams), I was confident that information technology was simply a affair of time and perfecting my technique before I'd outset flying to school.

18. I started taking a writing class this week and I was the only student who couldn't bring myself to read out what I'd written. In fact, I could barely open my mouth at all. I came abode feeling similar I was back in center school: completely demoralized.

19. When I grow upwards, I desire to exist simply like my daughter Tatiana: fearless, openhearted, wholehearted, saucy, spicy, and sweetness!

20. Five more than to become…I am fascinated by the grotesque and what my sis calls the seamy underbelly of life. This is probably why I am drawn to Russian literature.

21. I am a spectacularly bad dancer.

22. I can do a mean Louis Armstrong impression.

23. I really miss singing and performing.

24. My life feels incomplete without a dog.

25. This bears simply a passing resemblance to my original listing.

What's inverse since and then?

Not much except that I'm writing more than and that I at present have 2 beautiful, but rotten dogs, who have done nothing to brand my life feel complete. I nevertheless stand by my statement that I am a individual person, though I do reveal a lot of personal things about myself in this blog. Maybe this is a sign that I've gotten a little braver.

To round out this list I should probably besides mention that:

My begetter and mother moved to the United States from Republic of korea in 1963. They had four children: my ii older sisters, me, and our younger brother. My parents are roving gypsies at eye…Nosotros moved a zillion times to Korea and within u.s. to follow my dad as he acquired a staggering number of degrees and credentials, didactics posts, and ministerial positions. My siblings and I grew up eating kimchi, but unable to speak Korean. We felt similar aliens in Korea, and at times we felt like aliens in the U.s.a. besides. Sometimes we would be in one identify for no more than half-dozen months earlier my parents would determine to give away all their worldly possessions and motion again. The one thing that e'er accompanied u.s. on all of our many moves was my dad'due south huge collection of books, which included everything from dogeared copies of Heidegger'south Being and Fourth dimension toGoats and Goatkeeping. My family, the stories we shared, and the books we treasured were my source of stability throughout our many moves and dislocations.

My husband and I met in graduate school. Colin was born in Scotland, lived in England for many years, and spent summers at his grandparents' house in Belgium. Nosotros now live in Charlottesville, Virginia with our three children: a boy, age 14; a second boy, age 12; and a daughter, age 8.  Colin teaches; I work with international students and teach Russian literature from time to fourth dimension. We both scramble on a daily basis to keep upwardly with our kids and their busy schedules. To exist honest: our household is always teetering on the edge of consummate and utter anarchy. Our multicultural kids haven't had to move effectually also much, but they have traveled the world to visit their far-flung relatives. We're creating a whole new prepare of our ain family stories and are amassing our own collection of books…You'll detect everything fromNate the Great to Oblomov to Rawls' Theory of Justice on our shelves (and on our counter tops, behind the burrow, under our beds, on the bathroom floors…).

I started this blog as a practice run for the blog I dream of co-writing with my two sisters – the funniest and all-time storytellers I know. What started as an experiment has become a form of self-therapy. At that place aren't many things I can control in my life. This blog is the ane minor corner of the universe that I can have more than or less exactly how I desire. It combines all the things I beloved most in the globe in one place: my family, friends, stories, photography, poetry, music, and all the "junks" I collect. (My mom says I'm similar a crow who'south attracted to bright, shiny, worthless objects. She's always telling me "Don't collect junks!"). I exercise collect a lot of junks as evidenced by the state of my business firm, simply I likewise collect words, children's books, pebbles, toys…Not "junks," actually, merely things that are "wonderful, wonderful, most wonderful wonderful, and all the same over again, wonderful, and after that, out of all whooping." I'd like to share them all with you here.

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