FIVE MEMES

Patia Stephens, who is a known figure in the Missoula artist and writer world and whom I sat behind at the last Montana Festival of the Book, has “tagged” me for a meme game that people play on blogs. It’s like 7th grade, though a little kinder, I’m sure. The idea is to list as specified and then post it on one’s blog. And then “tag” five more people who are supposed to do the same.

I’m normally opposed to all pass-it-on stuff, whether petitions for the most crucial world-saving issues, or dumb things about how great women are and you’ll die if you don’t send it immediately to your fifty closest friends. But I feel as though I probably should relate socially to the Montana bloggers more than I do. They like to chit-chat and I’m trying to pile up small essays worth reading, so we don’t travel the same trails much. So I’ll make an exception, but I won’t tag anyone. Part of the point of this exercise is to get people to read their blogs, so I’ll say that Patia’s blog is . Technically it’s not a blog, which is formatted by formula, but a genuine website because that’s what Patia does, among other things.

This meme is about the “five items” in my whatever.

5 Items in my fridge/freezer
1. A pheasant skin (I ate the bird.)
2. Bison meat
3. Thai Basil marinade from Pamida (unopened)
4. Half a mini-watermelon
5. Bagged baby spinach

5 items in my closet
1. A walking stick I gave my mother with a handle carved into a Scottie’s head. I retrieved it from her estate.
2. A pair of red high-heeled shoes, like new, that I can’t wear but can’t give up either.
3. Many men’s work shirts which I used to wear to a clerical job over bright skirts and with big jangly earrings but now wear over jeans, no earrings.
4. Three sizes of jeans
5. A cat (Come outa there!)

5 items in my car (which is an old small pickup)
1. Admission stickers for the CM Russell Museum and the Montana Historical Society stuck to my dashboard alongside “I Voted” stickers.
2. A bag of breakfast bars in case my blood sugar sinks out of sight.
3. The jack (I hope).
4. A thermal bag for when I buy frozen groceries
5. Spiders


5 items in my purse (or pockets)
1. Chewable famotidine
2. Half-used paper towels for my drippy nose
3. Receipts
4. A paperclip made of copper twisted into a spiral and pounded flat
5. My keys, attached to a flourescent-green bubble unit from a level (many bad jokes at check-out counters about who’s “on the level.”)

Very revealing, huh?

Patia Stephens is not related to Paul Stephens in Great Falls, but if they ever met I sure would want a recording of the conversation.