Introducing: Top Ten Tuesdays

What is it about top-ten lists? No matter what they are about, I’m always forced to stop and read them, compare the answers, and subsequently compose my own list in my head. Anyone else do this? Or do I have some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to lists?

 

I used to be a lot more obsessive-compulsive, but having twelve kids pretty much beats that kind of stuff out of you. There’s not much point in obsessing over the proper folding of towels, for instance, when there are never any in the cupboard.

 

Anyway, to celebrate my love of the Top Ten List, I have decided to give it its own day in the week. I picked Tuesday because

1. it starts with a T
2. I don’t like to work too hard on Tuesday
3. it starts with a T

 

So here we go; the first ever Top Ten Tuesday at One Thing! To celebrate, I made this little badge:

 

 

Yes, it’s another cephalopod. However, this time it’s a squid. A squid, you see, has eight legs and two feeder tentacles, which it uses to grasp its unfortunate prey and bring it into its razor-sharp, beak-like mouth. Bringing the total number of hangy-down-thingies to TEN, which means he’s the perfect fellow to ask to keep count of your top-ten list.

 

I’m hoping some of you will play along with me. Each week I’ll introduce a theme for the top-ten and you can feel free to borrow Mr. Squidly and post your own list. Just be sure to leave me a comment so I can come read along too! Maybe one of these days I’ll even figure out how to use the ubiquitous Mr. Linky…but for now, yeah…just leave a comment.

 

This week’s subject is:

The Top Ten Coolest Things I’ve Ever Seen

 

(in no particular order)

 

1. The View of Lysefjord from Prekestolen, Norway.

Sure, I had to crawl on my belly to the edge by increments, but it was worth it.

 

 

2. The Louvre. More precisely, everything in it.

There is something magical about viewing a painting by a person long dead, and standing close enough to it to see the individual brush strokes. I saw the Mona Lisa here, in the 80s. She was smaller than I expected. When I was there they had not yet constructed the glass pyramid, for which I am grateful…I think it is a blight.

 

a beautiful castle…and a triangular scab…

At least some people know better…

3. The view of the earth from the window of a plane.

Some things so completely defy all logic that they never get old.

 

I can see my house from here…I wish…!

4. An octopus in the Caribbean Sea.

My Beloved and I named him Puddleglum, and thought he was pretty much the most awesome thing about our trip.

 

 

5. Green Sea Turtles in Hanauma Bay, Hawaii.

It’s not often you get to swim with an endangered critter, and we were definitely more excited to see them than the reverse, but still…

 

(not my photo…lifted here…)

 

 

6. The ocean. Any ocean.

I was four when I saw the sea for the first time, and you could say it left an indelible impression, even though it was only Corpus Christi. When we lived in Massachusettes for a (very) brief stint, I could see the Atlantic from the bathroom window, in the winter, if I leaned out and turned my head just so.

 

It was the best part of living there.

 

I wish I knew how to quit you!….wait…no I don’t…

 

7. Birth.

Sure, it’s messy, and a little bit terrifying, but it’s 100% cool.  Like flying in an airplane, it defies all kinds of logic.

 

8. Shakespeare’s birthplace.

Even its name is cool: Stratford-Upon-Avon. I think we should adopt the same custom here and live in places like Tulsa-Upon-Prairie and Witchita-Upon-Not-Much-But-A-Dusty-Patch.

 

 

On second thought, never mind.

 

9. Little Shop Of Horrors, performed in The Comedy Theatre in London.

As a teen, I was seriously impressed by the size of the monster plant by the end of the show…and when tentacles dropped down onto the audience from the ceiling during the grand finale, impressed had given way to unmitigated awe.

 

10. This.

You have to watch until at least 1:22…but it will blow your mind…

 

 

Got ten cool things? Leave me a link!