Girls Holding Hands

Miss Joanna Marple, whose blog I've become addicted to, has memed me, because blogger Sher Hart memed her, and before that Liz memed Sher, and, well you get the picture. When tagged, the recipient freezes and ponders the questions below, which sent me, at least, bouncing around in space-time like a ping-pong ball in an anti-gravity chute.

I told Joanna I'd been thinking about question #2 anyway.  A middle-grade fairy tale by Anne Ursu, Breadcrumbs, spurred my reflections, because in it, a little girl has lost her best friend. Or, fairer to say, he has drifted away. As we do, from each other, eventually and inevitably. But learning that lesson for the first time can be particularly painful.

Breadcrumbs is a breathtaking book about how heartbreaking it can be to grow up, among other things, and I'll be reviewing it soon. Anyway, here are the memes Joanna passed on to me:

If you could go back in time and relive one moment, what would it be?
My godmother owned a 44-acre island in the Bahamas. Dozens of kids came and played there the summer I turned 13. We slept in cots lined up on an outdoor porch overlooking the ocean. There were a gazillion stars. Sweet breezes that smelled of salt and flowers. And the promise of turtle curry and Bahama bread for breakfast in the morning. Pick any moment from any night from that summer.

If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?
The fall I went into sixth grade, my best friend got sick with mono. She was out of school for a long time -- it seemed like two or three months. And because she had mono I couldn't visit her much, at least that's how I remember it. But while she was out of school...I sloughed off my childhood. I became a teenager. I made friends with the girls who were rolling up their skirts and smoking cigarettes and going steady with boys they didn't much like. And when my friend came back to school, well, everything was different. She was white and soft and insubstantial. My new friends were loud, vivid, real. I remember walking down the hall with her shortly after her first day back, holding hands, and knowing that I'd never hold hands with her again (the girls in my new group emphatically did NOT hold hands.) It was the end of our friendship. If I could change one thing: I would hold on to that precious friendship, that pale, rather damp hand, a little bit longer. And not be in such a hurry to let go.

What movie/TV character do you most resemble in personality?
The Dude.

If you could push one person off a cliff and get away with it, who would you choose?
Kim Jong Il.

Name one habit you want to change in yourself.
Failing to return phone calls.

Why do you blog?
The World-Wide-Mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Name at least three bloggers to send this to: 
Oh, this is really hard because there are so many I appreciate, but:

*L.G. Smith at Bards and Prophets for her wicked humor and great photos
*Tricia Clausen at Vociferous, because among other reasons, she's agreed to take me on as a crit partner for my very rough novel in progress.
*And Sarah Pearson at Empty White Pages, because she'll be racing me to the Nano finish line, and she has inspired me to fill up my own empties.