List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

I don't know about shaping my spring, but these are the songs I've got on repeat right now. In no particular order:

1. Those Dancing Days - "Hitten"
2. John Mayer - "Say"
3. Vanessa Paradis - "L'incendie"
4. Miley Cyrus - "Start All Over"
5. Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals - "Fight Outta You"
6. Ben's Brother - "Stuttering"
7. Danity Kane - "Damaged"

(What the hell, Steph, you're listening to Platinum Weird and I'm not!)

I choo-choo-choose: lalanav, luckytobe_alive, skyecaptain, koganbot, theblondie, silveran, and...alexmacpherson?

1. What do you see when you are looking out of the window closest to you?
A bunch of windows on the other side of Park Ave.

2. Who was the last person coming into your room?
I don't have a room, I have a cubicle; several of us have been walking in and out with color proofs. During close, like 85% of my job is walking around with large sheets of paper.

3. What is the most predominant colour around you?
Gray.

4. What is right behind you?
About five other fact-checkers.

5. What is on today's calendar sheet?
Nicole Richie.

Okay, we are actually going to play Guess My Shag Order. So guess my Shag Order for the following bands:

1. Platinum Weird.
2. Fleetwood Mac.
3. Barenaked Ladies.
4. Hanson.
5. I am running out of bands. Spice Girls? Spice Girls.
6. Oh! 'N fucking Sync!

Go, Pixie, go!

Got it from here, yadda. You know the drill.

1. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them?
Yes. (Yes-or-no question! You're terrible at this!)

2. What kind of sounds are the most annoying?
Little ones. Swallowing, chewing, whispering, people standing over your shoulder and breathing, people making out. S used to play Avril Lavigne at volume 11 with the lights on when she was pulling all-nighters, and I'd sleep like a log, but the instant she and Jet started making out and whispering in the dark, I'd be up. Or when my grandmother would start saying her prayers in a whisper on long car rides home, it was all I could do not to hit her in the face with my eight-year-old fist. I remember sitting there with this silent, seething rage, trying as hard as I could to think about music, to imagine a song, to not just fucking scream until I couldn't hear her anymore.

I don't think it's so much to do with the sounds themselves -- they don't bother me, say, at dinner when we're all making eat-y noises, or when we're smushed together on the subway -- as it is the meaning of the noises. Like, there's something so disingenuous and intrusive about all of them. Why are you whispering, why are you making out, why are you just standing there and breathing on me? You are acting as if you want to be private, you don't want to interrupt, but no -- if that was what you wanted, you wouldn't do it with someone else in the room. Within earshot. I want to kill you.

3. When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things?
If it's a clothing store. I don't usually feel my groceries or my DVDs or anything.

4. If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Oranges, the first few drops of summer rain, and the top of my dog's head.

5. What sorts of things do you savor when eating them?
Nicole Richie.

My very British name is Amelia Gladstone.

Use the Very British Name Generator today!
(Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.)

1. Chickpeas.
2. Stephen Fry.

1. What sets you apart from your friends?
Nothing, really. I drink less, but not by choice. I'm an only child.

2. What sets you apart from your family?
I don't really have a thing that I want to do. I could go in a lot of different directions.

3. What sets you apart from your coworkers/fellow students?
I get things done.

4. What is the one thing about you that is most unique?
It's not one thing. It's everything, all together--the place where I grew up, the things that I write, the way I know how the sunlight falls across my backyard, and why I stopped reading Atonement, and a birthday on Tax Day, how I cried after the election, my Polaroids of the sunset, what it feels like when I listen to Fleetwood Mac, and what San Francisco means to me, and I'm the only person who will ever make a Kara DioGuardi fansite, and "Irvine" talks to God the same way I do. Everything.

5. What is your most interesting quality?
Nicole Richie.

1. What was the best gift you received?
Cupcakes and a tea party.

2. What was the worst gift you received?
Diamond earrings.

3. What gift did you wish for, but never got?
A pony.

4. What was the best present you gave?
I bought my dad an amp ages ago, and never really topped that.

5. What was the worst present you gave?
Nicole Richie.

One of my co-workers was listening to a song that mentions Cherry Coke, and now I really want one.

1. Remember the scene with Molly Ringwald putting lipstick on by holding it in her cleavage? Name one really bizarre thing you know how to do. No matter how small.
I don't know. Cry on demand? Is that bizarre?

2. What's your favourite way to pass the time?
Sleep, listen to music, make new Winamp playlists. (PS - Does anybody know of a good MP3 player for Mac that isn't iTunes?)

3. What's your favourite restaurant and why?
Depends on my mood. Maybe the Indian place, just because everything there is so fucking good. The Boat Basin Cafe because it's pretty. Escondido's, Chapter House when it's nice out, the diner for breakfast or late at night. Fusia in Las Vegas because their fried rice is amazing. Spike's when I'm at the beach. Pretty much anyplace that serves food, basically.

4. Which TV/radio show did you like that's not aired any more?
Just one? Salute Your Shorts.

5. if you had a choice of learning another new language, what would you choose? What do you think that reflects about you?
Nicole Richie.

1. Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?
No.

2. When you're home alone, do you strip down to get comfortable? Do you ever go out without underwear (bra and/or panties) because it's more comfortable?
Hey, this is two questions. I will walk around without pants when I'm home alone, and also when there are a zillion other people in the house, but I always wear shirts. I never go out without a bra and/or panties, because it's not more comfortable. My breasts don't like traveling, and I don't need a jeans seam all up in my ladyparts, thanks.

3. Have you ever/do you use the bathroom with the door open? Are you comfortable using public facilities?
I always use the bathroom with the door open. I only close it to be polite, because other people are like, "wtf why are you in the bathroom with the door open?" And what is with the double questions? I have no problem with public bathrooms. I've been exposed to more fluids on public transportation.

4. When getting intimate with your significant other, lights on or off?
Depends on the significant other.

5. How comfortable are you with body exposure/nudity of others? Group shower rooms?, topless/nude beaches?, breastfeeding in public?
Nicole Richie.

My life would not be the same without this...

1. Song / TV Show / Book:
"Silver Springs" by Fleetwood Mac / Murphy Brown / Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

2. Person:
Friend.

3. Place:
C-Hall.

4. Event:
Getting the CosmoGIRL internship.

5. Self indulgence:
Nicole Richie.

Yadda yadda, thefridayfive.

1. If you had to choose being blind or deaf, what would you choose and why?
I was just thinking about this the other day, and actually every so often I think about this, but the other day was the first time that I actually made a decision. If I had to choose one, I would choose blindness, because I'd rather never see something than never hear music.

2. What is the best smell?
Dunno. Food. Good food.

3. Would you rather be hot or cold?
For a short amount of time, cold. For a long amount of time, hot.

4. What's the worst feeling in the world?
Having to pee bad, maybe.

5. Would you rather have something hurt or something be itchy?
Nicole Richie.

I have absolutely nothing to write about anymore. Yesterday was brilliant, I love cheap plum wine, and everybody wants me. I've given up meat (but not fish) for Lent, and hopefully that will be the beginning of being a vegetarian for life. I'm not going to be a very good vegetarian (at some point I will eat tandoori chicken again), but it's more of a principle thing: I don't want killing an animal to be a normal part of my life anymore.

Some other stuff, courtesy thefridayfive:

1. If you could retroactively erase one TV show from the history of entertainment, which one would you choose?
Let's erase Studio 60 and try it again, this time with a writer who isn't breathtakingly sexist, arrogant, and incapable of writing above the transparent, self-important, self-indulgent level of any fucking first-year fiction student.

2. Are you more like your mother or your father?
Even mix of both.

3. If you could take a year-long vacation, what would you do?
Just wander. Spend some time off the East Coast, see what I find.

4. Can you think of a reason not to answer this question?
Four!

5. What's the nicest thing you've ever done for someone?
Nicole Richie.

From thefridayfive.

1. What do you like most: Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays (and why)?
Fridays. There's this book called The Midnight Hour Encores, which you should read, and on a Friday night, one character says to another: "A week of work is over. But once Saturday morning starts, the clock is ticking on the weekend--it will soon be over, and Monday looms. Friday night is like an extra gift. A free space. A stolen interlude." My favorite times are those times, the ones that aren't attached to anything else--like being the only person up at four in the morning, watching the dark, or standing in a bookstore on a Friday night.

2. What was the best weekend of your life?
I don't know. Every weekend?

3. What weekend of the year is your favorite?
I don't know. Every weekend? Weekends in spring are good, and weekends just before Christmas.

4. Do you have any weekend routines?
Not really. I like going to dinner on Friday nights, and then hanging around a bookstore, and I like having a good breakfast on Sunday morning, but I don't do that every weekend.

5. Describe your ideal Saturday night.
Nicole Richie.