sarahmichigan | "U" is for Umbrella!

I got tagged to do a meme. I'm not going to tag anyone else, but it was fun thinking about this one. The idea is to be given a letter of the alphabet, and write something about 10 words that mean something to you that start with that letter. I got the letter "U," and the first thing that came to mind was:

1. "The United States of America." I love my country, but not in the "My country, right or wrong!" kind of way. I am a patriot to an extent, but not to the extent that I am small minded about being a citizen of the world as well. I think my country f*cks a lot of things up, but I also am glad that I was born here and have had a lot of the opportunities I would have been denied in many other countries. I really think we've been going to the wrong way in valuing the illusion of "safety" and down-playing the traditional value of "freedom."

2. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Where I was born and raised. It's beautiful there, though I had to move away to realize this. When I go back there, I marvel at how many of the stars and constellations I can see there. In southeast Michigan, light pollution makes some of the fainter constellations almost impossible to see.

3. UHF. That movie cracks me up, bigtime.

4. Ugly dogs. I am not a good candidate to have a dog of my own, because I don't feel I could give it the attention it would need. Much more of a cat person. However, I like other people's dogs, especially ones that are "so ugly they're cute!"

5. Underwear. I love having cute but comfy underwear. I used to tend toward white granny panties when I met J., but he got me buying comfortable-but-sporty colored "hi-cut" briefs. From there, I've branched out to boy cut panties and bikini panties. I will never wear a thong, though. Not gonna happen.

6. The word "Ululate". I love words that sound like what they mean, and this is a good example. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ululate

7. The Upside. I like looking for the "upside" in most situations. Sometimes there isn't one, but often there is, if you look carefully.

8. Unabashed and Unashamed. I like living my life without making excuses for my size, what I believe, what I don't believe, and so on.

9. Useful information. I like to accumulate useful information, even if I don't know how I'm going to use it until much later. Often, trivia I pick up doesn't come in handy until much later, when I'm writing a story.

10. And finally, Umbrellas. Not something I think about often, but useful when you need them. J. almost always makes sure we have at least one stowed in the car, because you never know when you'll need one on short notice.