The Queen Is On Vacation This Week

She went to Never Neverland with a very tall adorable man in a uniform...oh, read it here yourself.

Returning Tuesday, January 4 in the new year of 2011 with a brand new meme for you.

Meanwhile for me....second left and straight on til morning.

Happy New Year! See you in a few days!

Merry Christmas from The Queen

From my castle to yours....
May your day be filled with peace and love  


Mimi

The Mimi Boop Meme (Shhh...It's really the Queen's Meme #65 in scandalous disguise)

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #65. Yes, you're in the right place. I just changed costumes for the week. It's Christmas. I'm allowed. And anyway, I had to send my Queen frock out to the cleaners for the New Year's Eve Party at Bloggingham. I'm going as Betty Boop (it's a Hallo-Christmas theme) and wanted to see if you approved of my red new dress. Yes? I've been practicing my Poo-Poo-Pi-Doo all week just for the occasion.

I wrote this meme on Mimi Writes in 2008. 

I thought a resurrection at Christmas would be a nice touch. Enjoy!There are only 5 days left 'til Christmas. I don't know about you but if I hear Brenda Lee sing "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" one more time on the drive into work, I'm going to go blostal (that's blog + postal for all you non -blog speakers.) So I thought I'd spice things up a bit and burst out of a stocking. So to speak. It's worked for Betty Boop all these years, why not me? She's a cross between my hero, Scarlett O'Hara (I met her once here and here) and yours truly but with less clothes on. At least in public. And besides, she really knows how to wear a pencil skirt.

A girl could learn a lot from Betty Boop.

The Mimi Boop Meme
Take it and tag it.
Tempting, eh..?

1. I am good when I _________.

 2. I am naughty when I ________.

3. The world would be a better place if people would Deck the Halls with ______ of _____instead of ______ of _________.

4. Have you ever snuck into the living room in the middle of the night, unwrapped your gifts and wrapped them back just to see what was under the Christmas tree for you? Come on.....you can tell me.

Sidenote: I've always wanted to know what really goes on in the Gingerbread House after dark. I've never seen any cookies come out of that place. Have you?

5. Have you ever been stuck in a chimney?

6.  Who would you like to stuff in a stocking and why?

7. Could you name the 12 Disciples Days of Christmas, the 3 Musketeers Wise Men and all of Santa's medications Reindeer if your life depended on it? OK wiseguy. Prove it.


8.  On the 13th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me ____________??

 9.  Imagine that Santa Claus really does exist for a moment. (I can say that this week. Baby Boy is not listening right now ) Anyway, if the Big Guy could grant you any wish, what would your most hedonistic and self-centered wish be? (You can say it. I won't tell. I'm Mimi Boop today.)

10. When you make your list, do you check it twice and find out who's been naughty or nice or do you just get everybody a box of chocolate covered cherries and call it a day?

If you're reading this meme, consider yourself tagged. That is my Christmas present to you!!  And don't try to hide from me. I see you.....

I'll see ya later. I'm busy trying to wiggle and stuff myself into a Christmas stocking without breaking a vital organ. So far one leg is in and all systems are go. This gig is perfect for me! I need only invade half of the stocking. Now if I could just figure out which half. And besides, I'm booped!

The Queen's Meme #64 ~ The Forgetful Meme

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

Sometimes silly. Sometimes serious.

#64 is aptly called The Forgetful Meme

I would try to describe the premise in my usual royal manner but I've forgotten how.

1. What is the last thing you forgot to do?

2. What is the one thing you are always afraid you will forget to do?

3. Can you remember when you were 3 years old? 

If so, tell us a cute story. If not, make one up.

4. Fill in the blank. I would like to forget _________________ but I will always remember _____________about this person.

5. Fill in the blank. I will never forget the first time I ____________________.

6. Who, in your opinion, is the world's forgotten hero?

7. Find a word that rhymes with forget and use it to write a funny sentence. 

The Queen's Meme #63 ~ The Frivolous Christmas Meme

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #63 

Let's talk Christmas. I'm in a naughty and nice mood.  Some are one-word answers, others need a little explanation. Feel free to elaborate when the blog spirit moves ya. And above all else...Have fun!

1. Amazon.com or the Mall
2. Bows or ribbons
3. Expensive or sale tags
4. Long list or short
5. Wrapped packages or gift bags
6. Eggnog or vodka
7. Have you finished your shopping?
8. A Christmas Carol or The Bible Story
9. Are you Scrooge or Santa's Helper?
10. Did you ever catch Santa Claus in the act?
11. Tell me about your Christmas tree...gotta pic?

12. Christmas carols or Rock Station
13. Do you believe in Elves?
14. I am looking for Santa. Describe him for me.

 15. Do you leave cookies out or bourbon?
16. White lights or multi-colored
17. Wreaths on the doors, windows, outside?
18. Who are the 3 wisest wise men in your life?
19. Is Christmas religious or commercial for you?
20. Ever kiss under the mistletoe?
21. Stars or angels on top of the tree 
22. Who deserves to get a lump of coal for Christmas and why?
23. Who is #7 in the 12 Days of Christmas song?
24. Snail mail cards or e-cards
25. What do you want for Christmas?

And remember....Santa Claus (and Mimi) are watching you. Be good now!

The Queen's Meme #62 ~ The Crazy Question Meme

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #62 ~ 

Sometimes silly. Sometimes serious.

It's called The Crazy Question Meme

I would be ever so appreciative if you could supply me with the answers to these questions. I've pondered them my whole life!! They represent some of the most important quandaries of the human condition! The burning and ridiculous questions are....

1. Why doesn't McDonald's sell hotdogs?


2. How far east can you go before heading west?


3. What happens to the missing socks?


4. Does love = sex or does sex = love?


5. How much wood did the woodchuck chuck?


6.  Why do prison buses have emergency exits?

7.  Do you believe that an alien ship stole question #7? 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've decided to eat dessert first this  year.

Join me!

The Queen's Meme #61 ~ The Silly Serious Thanksgiving Meme

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #61 ~ The Silly Serious Thanksgiving Meme!

 

In Canada, it is celebrated on the second Monday in October. In the United States, the fourth Thursday in November. Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest, loved ones near and far, the blessing of simply breathing everyday. Let's pause for a moment and think about what we're thankful for. My goal this year is to focus on the small things that I should be grateful for - even without a holiday looming. Having said that, this is serious and silly simultaneously!
Enjoy.  Have seconds!

1. If you knew this would be the last Thanksgiving holiday with your family, what would you do differently?

2. What is your favorite Thanksgiving dinner dish?

3. Why did John Smith fall in love with Pocahontas? Was it her beauty or her bravery?


4. Fill in the blank: Over the river and through the woods to ________________ 's blog we go.

5. What is a cornucopia?
A. A foot ailment  B. Freud's hidden coping strategy  C. a Enuch with a very large vocabulary D. third cousin of Onomatopoeia

6. Find a word that rhymes with Thanksgiving


7.  Do you have any holiday traditions you'd like to share with us?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Queen's Meme celebrates #60 ~ The 60 Meme

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #60! 

Since we are having a meme birthday I thought I'd wax celebratory. Do you mind?

Let's walk in the footsteps of one Mark Twain, who said..."
"When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not."

So imagine you're 60 even if you're not and answer the questions. 

Please.

There will be cake.

I promise.

1. When I'm 60 I hope to know more about ____________ and less about __________.

2. At my 60th birthday party, I can only invite 3 people. They are....

3. "To me old age is always fifteen years older than I am" said Bernard Baruch.
What do you consider old age?

4. Tom Stoppard was overheard saying, "Age is a high price to pay for maturity."
What does "maturity" mean to you at any age?


5.  Joan Rivers said "Looking fifty is great… if you're sixty."
Do you worry about age lines and wrinkles? 
How do you plan to preserve your wonderful selves?

6.  Comment on this quote by Euripides
"If we could be twice young and twice old we could correct all our mistakes."


7.  Pablo Picasso said, "One starts to get young at the age of sixty and then it's too late."
What do you do now to stay young and enjoy your life?

I told you there would be cake.

The Queen's Meme #59 ~ The Fire Meme

Welcome to the Queen's Meme #59

It's on fire!

And in the words of Steven Wright.. "I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place." 

I guess not! Answer these simply seething questions on the subject of fire.
It could be quite revealing. If it gets too hot far ya, just Stop Drop and Roll. We'll wait.

The Fire Meme

1. You are stranded on a desert island.  There is only one match left in the matchbox.
What would you use it for?


2. Do you burn bridges in relationships?


3.  Name one thing you'd like to set on fire today.

4. Have you ever burned a cupcake?


5. If you had your choice and could change nature's ways, instead of smoke and lava, what should spew out of volcanoes?


6.  When is the last time you used a Fire Extinguisher?


7. Have you ever known anyone with a fiery uncontrollable temper? How did you handle it?


8. You are with your significant other. What song are you singing around the campfire?




9.  What is the one thing you'd gladly leave IN your house in case of fire.


10. When is the last time you got fiery fighting mad?


11. Do you believe in hell?


12. Do you or have you ever smoked?







**Thanks to all who blogged for peace in last week's BlogBlast For Peace. You were amazing.**

Dona Nobis Pacem ~ Write On My Heart Every Word

When my Papa was middle-aged, he found the love of his life.

She was my grandmother.  And through the years I was privileged enough to watch them live out that love right in front of me. While they surely had struggles and bumps like everyone else, they had something else too. What was it?

I am pleased to report that I don’t know.

But I saw it when he looked at her.
And I heard it in his laugh.

I learned what to expect from men in my faraway future by watching him treat her with respect, with dignity, with never-ending fascination. I learned what a real man worth his salt in this world should look like, should act like, should be.  For all her many quirks and eccentricities and no matter how many times the wigs flew off or the cigarette dipped in the morning coffee cup, he gifted her with unwavering love and devotion. Sometimes it was eye-rolling twinkled-eyed devotion - but devotion nonetheless.
She was and would always be the love of his life.

  There were many things about my beloved grandmother that could-make-a-preacher-cuss (some might say I inherited some of that cussability factor) and many differences in the way they went about coping with their worlds and dealing with people - she, a colorful and semi-raucous individual with a sly and wrinkle nosed glance, a hopeless and rather comical hypochondriac and a penchant for high heels and gentle dancing. He, a protective bear of a man at every turn, confident, happy and a hopeful sufferer of legitimate ailment,  yet incapable of feeling anything but gratitude for each day he lived, whether or not he was in pain and more than determined to make her imaginary illnesses tolerable by ministering to her every need even when we all knew that the bat of her eyelash was more for his benefit than needed salve for any ailment. It wasn’t in his nature to argue with the beautiful and whimsy creature he called wife.

She was a character foreign to his outward way of living but crucial to his inward way of loving.

The inward was always more important to my Papa.
They were delicately and diametrically different. 
All of that disappeared the minute she looked across the table at him. I saw it many times.
She never smiled at him; she smiled into him.  He smiled into her.
What WAS that?

I am happy to report that I do not know.



All I know is.....
You don’t know you have it until you’ve got it.
You don’t know you don't have it until you’ve got it.
You don’t know you need it….until you don’t.
Enter gothic grandmother and a tall praying man in a fine starched shirt and matching hat.

It occurred to me this week in preparation for peace week that as much as I’ve focused on what my Papa and those marvelous marbles have taught me in my spirit and heart since this whole peace globe movement began and how the whole blessed thing is in reality based on NOTHING I can logically explain and how it was birthed with the little girl in my heart who missed her grandfather ….and wanted to honor his influence in my life, that really, in essence,  the entire scope of the peace globe movement is based on coincidences of random occurrences that blossomed into a cohesive ball of fire and substance - much like their relationship, much like their example, much like their love.

  I wrote a post. I made a graphic.  I found the earth marble made by my Papa in the 1920s.
  I write a story. I tell it to you. You tell it to others. A movement begins.
And it makes perfect sense, no?

Like the round agate blue earth ball in the middle of the wooden bowl I love so much, there is a never-endingness in the idea that when one story, one idea, one truth touches the global heart of man, as many of you write on this day every year, it spontaneously perpetuates into all manner of mutated species and cultures, blind to the differences, tolerant of the language barriers, spinning wildly out of control on the same blue rock we call planet Earth. It still maintains the composite structure of rocks and of people and of Earth, building strength as it cohesively binds to the next rock and the next rock and one after that.
Until finally there is nothing but a big blue rock of all that is, hopefully, peaceful and good.


Somehow in a roundabout collision course of uncanny coincidences from start to finish, it makes perfect sense and it makes no sense at all. And on a personal level it seems the salty lessons are engraved on my heart in reams so deeply true that I can’t tell where one memory ends and another begins.
And that’s just it.

The most eternally rich experiences in life make no sense at all.

If I knew how to explain it all in scientific cosmic terms that make sense, I would. I would tell you why it is that out of my pen keeps spinning tales of a life that began nearly a century ago and speak to me now …I would tell you how that came to be if I knew how to do so.

I am pleased to report that I do not.

And really. Why do I want to mess with a perfectly imperfect chain of events that led me here…to one of the happiest places in the span of my life?

And then I remembered the Cokesbury.

And the song.

What WAS that song?

I've had that book on my mind for days. Where is it? What have I done with it? What does it have to do with peace globes? Here I sit on another Dona Nobis Pacem Eve and have not finished my own post. It is perfect imperfection! Again!  Four hours 'til the stroke of midnight and I have a half-baked peace post. When the muse stops speaking, I stop writing. That is how it is in my pen-shaped pencil skirt world.
So this afternoon while Australia and New Zealand blogged peace on the other side of the world, their fearless leader went outside to pick a few wild pink mums. I had visions of hippie flowers in my hair and silliness for BlogBlast For Peace Day.

The muse had another idea.

The song...the song....Something about moving along and being tempted and tried and it had a certain predictable lilt that made you want to know more and yet somehow you knew there would be no answers really and that the same song would be sung next Sunday in the very church you see here by the same out-of-tune grandmother and all would be right with her out-of-tune world.

I decided to find the hymnal. 

So I went downstairs to a box of music books and fished it out from the dust of funeral services gone by. It was Papa's personal copy. I ran my fingers across the inside cover scribbled with the name of a man who could not sing above a mumble. And I remembered…and heard the music....and remembered.  The smell of the wooden pews. The polish. The carpet. The altar. The tinny tuned piano. How joyfully my grandmother stood in the little country church you see here and held that proud brown Cokesbury with his name in it. She was an “alto“ and proud of it. On the back row. Middle. She sang. And sang. And sang. And even as I use that term loosely in her dearly departed presence I remember how she made me learn to read shape notes. It made her happy. It made my piano teacher crazy. It didn't matter. Nobody could sing as badly and with as much joy as my grandmother. Truly. (don't tell her I said that) Oh I knew I'd get a rap on my knuckles from my teacher. It didn't matter. I'd rather have my grandmother's joy.

Opening the leather-bound 1939 "Favorite Books and Hymns" I sang the song.

There it was. Page 38.

I laid Bloggingham's flowers on the page.

 "Farther along we'll know all about it. Farther along we'll understand why. Cheer up my brother. Live in the sunshine. We'll understand it. All by and by." 

 NOW I remember why that song bothered me so. Who wants to wait to understand? Sigh. I found it uninspiring... so....so....depressing. Yes, that's it. Depressing. Except for one thing.

My grandmother. She always smiled through the whole thing. Every square sour note. Like there was some secret between the tempteds and trieds and the toils of the wicked verse that I just didn't get.
What WAS that?

I am happy to report that I do not know.

But I'm betting she did. Maybe I was more than a little irritated that she could grin through natural spiritual disasters and I couldn't. Who wants to "cheer up and live in the sunshine" when the world is falling apart?

Certainly not moody Mimi.

I was a serious child. When things worth being serious about show up in my world, I tend to be a serious adult. And I see the enormous challenges we face as a global community. I know you do too. As a people struggling to live in peace with one another on the world stage of mismatched choirs,  fearful that this great blue earth ball of dirt and water we inhabit will one day implode under the weight of it all…we are perpetual experts at the struggle. It is sobering. I understood Grandmother's song better than she thought. We are brilliant at round tabling. We are bodacious builders of peace-seeking strategies. PowerPoint pacifism. Stupendously adept at the fine fine art of peace-building on paper.

We fail miserably at retreat.

We run screaming from surrender.

We don't want to believe in anything we can't see, smell, touch and understand.
I understood that grandmother couldn't sing.
I understood that I hated that dreary song.
I understood that grandmother understood that there was no rhyme or reason in her Pollyanna philosophy.
And I understood that it mattered not one iota to her.

 I wondered why....why the winks and smiles in church...why the knowing nods between the two of them.....why the certainty that every uncertainty known to man was a certain source of their joy. They didn't need to understand why. 

I was certain of that.

My grandmother couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. But she thought she could. And when she would sing in the old country church choir, it would make my ears hurt (Don’t tell her I said that).
But Papa didn’t mind. He couldn’t sing either. And to him, her voice was as beautiful as her face…or her Hollywood sunglasses, her long dark hair under the hats they shared or the strange strange way their unlikely union seemed to jell into one -  despite her minor-keyed world of wigs and harmonies unknown to man.

He learned to surrender.

No. I take that back.

He loved to surrender.

And that is the word we must put before any attempt at laying down of arms

We have to teach each other not how to unmake war but how to remake peace.  Because truly, if we believe that words are powerful and if we believe those incredible words of Mother Teresa’s about how peace is unattainable because we have simply forgotten that we belong to each other, then we wouldn’t have to think at the think tank of perpetual peace talks at all.
We could just step out of struggle and live in the shiny world of Cheer up my Brother and actually live in the sunshine.
All it takes is a life force on this planet willing to take the first step.
And show the other side that trust is not only a scary thing, but the only way.

Which brings me back to my grandfather's Cokesbury Worship Hymnal.

I needed to trust the muse.

The last time he held this book in his hands was the Sunday before he died. In the back of the book there are Responsive Readings. He often led the congregation in those readings. I could not get that book off my brain this week. I needed to find it. After I brought it upstairs, sang from the shaped notes hymnal of cheer-up doom and gave my mums to my grandmother's memory, I started thumbing through the back of The Cokesbury.

Would you like to take a wild guess where his page was turned down?

Why is that?

I am happy to report that I do not know.

But here in Bloggingham tonight, bound to my grandparents' memory is a small bouquet of wild pink peace mums laid on a bed of uncommon love, shaped oddly like the sound of a far away tune in a church full of cheer in the middle of plowshares and pruning hooks. 

"Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

Maybe we keep asking for the same struggle and getting exactly what we ask for because we’re not ready to lay down the most powerful weapon we have

Love

An Invitation From the Queen of Memes

Hello Queen Memers!

I don't know if all of you are aware of this or not since there are a few newbies here (yay!) but...when I'm not busy throwing people in my imaginary dungeon and writing silly memes, I'm blogging for peace.

BlogBlast For Peace began in 2006. I founded it based on a single blog post and watched it mushroom into something truly awesome in my life. It has grown this year into a Facebook phenomenon, earned a Top Ten Twitter honor last week and keeps me hopping the first week of November. There are currently 50 countries participating with writers posting peace globes and writing articles on peace this Thursday, November 4th.

Thank you so much for joining me here each week on The Queen's Meme. Today I'd like to extend an invitation to join me Thursday on my blog for BlogBlast For Peace.
If you would like help making a peace globe, write me! There are peace globe workersbees from all over the world standing by to assist you! If you use Facebook and Twitter, you can participate there as well.

I hope to see you there! Just see the tabs at the top of my blog.
I will get back to regular memeing of a silly kind next Tuesday, November 9th.

Mimi

The Queen's Meme #58 ~ What's In A Name Meme

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #58

It's called the What's In A Name Meme

Today we are going to talk about names. Some of these questions I am going to steal from someone else because....because.....I can. (And because I'm tired) Some of these questions I'm going to make up because...because....I can. And what the heck does this have to do with a doughnut? You'll have to wait til the end of this meme to find out.



1. Your Superhero Name (2nd fave color + fave drink):

2. Your Peace Name (Zen + your last peace globe #) OH! Don't have one yet? Go here.


3. Your American Idol Name (fav car and seafood)

4. If you could pick another name for yourself, what would it be?


5. Your Twitter Name (Chirpie + your favorite bird)


6.  Name 1 thing you wish you'd said today that would have made your day go better?

7. Go HERE to find your Royal Name and reveal it to us. Last week I discovered that I need extra padding on the walls of the dungeon for SOME of you who shall remain nameless....I might need placards for dinner too.

Mine came out like this:

My Royal name is The Pretty Lady Seraphine.

I kid not!

which I much prefer to my Doughnut Name which came out

Munchkin Glenda Sprinkled

Who wants to be sprinkled by Glenda?? 
Certainly not a Seraphine

Next BlogBlast For Peace NOVEMBER 4, 2010 ~ Details HERE and at mimilenox.com ~ Peace!

The Queen's Meme #57 ~ The Threes Meme

 

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #57. 

We're talking THREES. Answer these questions all having to do with the number 3. I predict this meme will take about 3 minutes to do. 

Of course I could be wrong. 
It's been known to happen. 

And watch out!  Question #3 is a doozy.

3.  Where were you 3 hours ago?


3. Is there anything pink within 3 feet of you?


3. Name the 3 scariest places in the world.


3. Name the 3 loveliest sights you've seen lately.


3. Name the top 3 Bands in the year you were born.


3. Walk to your front door. Go outside and get in your car. Drive 3 miles East. Describe 3 things you saw on your way.


3.  I, Queen Mimi, have sentenced you to a 3-day diet of your most sinful cravings. 
What will you be partaking?

3. Go back to question #3.  Change the first word to "travel" and let me know if you survived.
I'll hold a room for you in the dungeon in the meantime.


3.  If you are the 3rd person to do this meme and sign the Mr. Linky as #3 you win a prize! The prize is you don't have to do this meme. Oops.  **Don't you know you should always read all the instructions/questions FIRST??**

The Queen's Meme #56 ~ The Numbers Meme

Welcome To The Queen's Meme #56 ~ 

It's a Numbers Game

Today we will discuss the fascinatingly cerebral subject of numbers.
I must warn you...the questions are excruciatingly difficult. Only the strongest will survive, thereby dodging the dreaded dungeon.
Alliteration! See, I told you I was cerebral.

**and no calculators**!!

1. Do you ever play the lottery? If so, what are your lucky numbers? Don't worry. I won't tell anyone.


2. Did you do something special on 10/10/10 yesterday? I heard that lots of people got married. Are all of you still the same status as of today?


3.  "I've got your number!" Who would you like to say that to or who is the last person you said that to?


4. How many sheep do you count before you fall asleep?

5. It's almost birthday time for the Queen. Do you believe that age is "just a number"....or is it something else more insidious and frightening???!!! **I am suddenly having a panic attack**

6. How many zeros are in a trillion?

7.  How many sixteenth notes does it take to equal a whole note?


8. (because I can) How many 8 balls are on a pool table?

The Queen's Meme #55 ~ The Falling Meme

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #55

It's All About Falling

Falling up, falling down, falling right, falling left, falling in love, falling out, falling hard, falling easy, falling loud, falling soft, falling. Got that? Falling.

I seem to be in a very bad evil Queen mood today and have devised some lame questions for you. Got that? Lame. L.A.M.E.

Let's play.

1. What is your favorite part about the Fall season?

2. When was the last time you fell in love?

3. Have you ever injured yourself falling down?

4. Imagine that your head is on the guillotine block and the blade is about to fall on your head. What is your last thought?

5. Do pumpkins scare you?

6. You are free-falling from the sky to Earth. It has taken you 3 days to fall from the galaxy and you are hungry. Where do you land?

7. I found this painting by John Everett Millais: Autumn Leaves
(1856) It struck me totally funny. Look at their faces. What are they saying?
What is going on??!

**Yes, I know these questions are tres weird but that is what I do.
Deal with it.**

And the first person to put a picture of a Jack-O-Lantern on their blog for this meme is in the dungeon. Jack-O-Lanterns are from the devil!!!
Have a nice day.