Ten Things I Love, Brought to You by the Letter "O"

Of all the latest and greatest memes that are currently going around, I saw this one over at Trish's blog, Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? and thought it would be fun.  Basically, you are randomly assigned a letter, you come up with a list of 10 things you love that start with that letter, and then if other people want to participate, they let you know in the comments, and you randomly assign them a letter.  Trish was assigned the letter "O" and has already given us her list;  now I've also been assigned an "O" so I'll have to see if I can come up with 10 more.  I guess it's probably ok if we love some of the same things though!

1.  Olives-Unlike Trish, I do love olives.  Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving if I don't eat an entire can of black olives all by myself.  When I was a little kid, I ate a whole bunch of black olives (probably an entire can all by myself) and they made me so sick I threw up.  Never once did my loyalty decline.  That's how much I love olives.  Kalamata olives are awesome in pasta and salads, green olives are great on pizza, and black olives are great out of the can.  Running around with them stuck on the ends of all your fingers is totally optional.

2.  Orange-colored "Rosalind"-Isn't she lovely? This is a hibiscus that I found at a local nursery a few years ago. I bought two of them, and was thrilled to find that one of the plants was a double-blooming variety like the one shown here.  Unfortunately, they both came to a disastrous end.  I don't remember exactly what happened, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with our then-new puppy who, for some reason, seems to have a beef with a lot of the plants in my yard.  Of course, I haven't run across another since.    This picture by Dick Johnson is from the International Hibiscus Society.    

3.  Olympic gymnastics-I enjoy watching the different routines, and I am always amazed by the pure strength exhibited by these athletes, not to mention the flexibility.  I can't even touch my toes, let alone the back of my head with my foot!

4.  Olive Garden-Okay, okay, I know, but the thing is, we don't have one here in Hawaii.  I love their salad and their bread sticks with alfredo sauce, so whenever we make it back to the mainland we always hit up an OG to get our salad and bread stick fix and then we're good to go for a couple more years.

5.  Oreos-Self-explanatory.

6.  Our Old house in Omaha-Do I get three points for that one?  When we lived in Omaha, we had the cutest remodeled Victorian house on about 1/3 of an acre on a quiet corner lot.  Technically, we weren't in Omaha, we were actually in a little town outside of Omaha, but nobody would know where that was if I said it, so I just say Omaha.  Our house had all the charm of the Victorian design, but it was completely remodeled with a new basement, so we didn't have all the headaches that go along with a 100-year-old house.  We used to sit outside and watch the fireflies, which were not unique to our house, but were unique to me in the sense that that is the only place I have ever lived that had fireflies.  I want to import them to Hawaii.  My husband thinks that I would somehow be responsible for killing off all the dolphins if I did.  He's probably right, so I guess I won't.  I don't want to be responsible for starting some invasive-species epidemic that ends with the death of all the marine wildlife.  I would feel really bad about that.

7. Old Man Buster-This is my dog, and his name is just Buster, but he is an old man and sometimes that's what we call him, as in, "Hey, Old Man, how ya doin'?"  He is sweet and funny and a big slobbery mess, and I love him so much.  This picture was taken a couple of days ago when we were outside reading.

8. Oprah.  There, I said it.  I know a lot of people can't stand her, and I know she can get a little up on her high horse at times; but geez, come on.  If you had reached Oprah status, are you telling me you might not slip up every once in a while and think you know better than some other people?  Maybe forget that not everyone has an entire walk-in closet of $500 shoes?  I'm pretty sure I would.  She's taken a talk show and turned it into something respectable.  Sure she still does the interviews with celebrities promoting their latest movies and the makeover shows like everyone else (but come on, don't we love those?), but she's encouraging people to take charge of their health, to be charitable, to be spiritual, to generally try to be better human beings.  She's also encouraging people to read.  I know a lot of people won't read a book specifically because Oprah recommended it, but I think that's as silly as only reading books that Oprah has recommended.  If you want to read a book and then Oprah recommends it, you'll just have that many more people to talk about it with later.  If you've hated everything she's ever recommended, then don't read what she recommends.  No big whoop.

9.  Open minds-Because I love people who will still love me even if they hate Oprah!

10.  Opportunities that you didn't expect-Whether it's the opportunity to leave work early, travel somewhere you didn't think you would get to go, take a trapeze class, or talk about the fact that you took a trapeze class, it's usually a good thing!  Sometimes opportunities don't work out, but having the option is nice.  

What?  I know you were all waiting for me to go there with the list of things I love that start with "O", but I'm not going there.  So there.

So, if you'd like to play along, let me know in the comments, and I will randomly assign you a letter.