V is for...

Time for another WordPlay Personal Dictionary Entry! If you want to know more about how and why I started doing this series of posts, read my "A is for..." entry. If you want to see a list of more people doing the same thing, check out Laume's WordPlay site. Now here we go... V is for... Vacation - "Vacation's all I ever wanted..." Well, ok, not ALL, but I do enjoy them, although I actually prefer the more European word "holiday." I think it sounds more festive. But whether you call it Vacation, Holiday, or Augustus Aloysius Abernathy, I think it's a good idea. Viburnum, Violets - V-plants I like. I think the smell of viburnum is so wonderful it should be edible. I love little wild violets and also African Violets (although I don't have very good luck growing them). Valentine's Day - Not a holiday I care that much about, except that our wedding anniversary is four days later, so all the Valentine's Day hype serves as a good reminder to J and me not to forget Our Day. Vitamins - I take them every day because I find I feel better and don't get sick as often if I do. Velvet - I LOVE the feel of velvet. It's very pettable. (One of the photos in the collage below is me wearing a hand-dyed velvet scarf I love.) Victorian (house) - One of my favorite styles of architecture. I used to really want to buy a big, sprawling Victorian fixer-upper and renovate it - something with towers and turrets and odd corners and wrap-around porches. But after our experiences doing a complete remodel on a small cottage a few years ago I think I've lost my enthusiasm for that particular project unless I win the lottery or something and could hire a LOT of help! Vicky (Bliss) - A fictional character I like a lot. She's featured in a series of books by Elizabeth Peters. Vampires - I seem to have a bit of a thing for vampire stories, both books and movies. My favorite TV show ever is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and I also liked the spin-off series "Angel." I'm hooked on a few different book series featuring vampires, such as Tanya Huff's "Blood..." series, MaryJanice Davidson's "Undead..." series, and Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series. And I like a lot of vampire movies, from classic Dracula films to more modern versions. Two of my favorites are a couple of campy vampire comedy/horror movies from the '80's (I know that sounds like a contradiction, but hey...it works!) - "Fright Night" and "The Lost Boys." "Viva Las Vegas" - Besides admitting to liking vampire stories I will now publicly admit that I have a big ol' soft mushy place in my heart for those corny Elvis Presley musicals from the '50's and '60's. You know the ones, where Elvis is basically playing himself with a lot of different names and he sings, dances, and grins his way through the "story" while romancing an assortment of dewy-eyed starlets. My all-time favorite is "Girl Happy" (where Elvis is trying to protect the "virtue" of a mob boss's daughter during Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale), but that one isn't yet available on DVD. So while I carefully guard my precious VHS copy, my current favorite I own on DVD is "Viva Las Vegas", where Lucky the singing race car driver (Elvis) pursues Rusty the singing swim instructor (a very young and perky-boobed Ann-Margret) with a little competition from Count Mancini (the debonair Cesare Danova). Too fun! Hell, I'd own it just to get to see Elvis and Ann-Margret perform "The Lady Loves Me (But She Doesn't Know It Yet)." Visual - Along with Kinesthetic, the way I learn best. Tell me something and it's likely to go in one ear and out the other, despite my best efforts. SHOW me something - and better yet, let me do it for myself, hands-on - and I'll get it and remember. Voluptuous, Vixen, Victory, Vessel, Vigorous, Vagaries, Vellum, Vivid, Vibrant - V-words I like. "V is for..." (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)