Book of Marvels
Monday, December 11, 2006
 
Five Things No One Knows About Me

I took this photo at the wonderful Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in South Dakota last summer. Selected it today because it reflects my skittishness with the topic. I started this blog to write about things that I want to write about, in some bigger format. I don't actually like to write about myself.

But I was reading Wendy Hoke's Creative Ink blog to catch up on what the priest is saying at her weekly RCIA classes (always very interesting) and found that she had tagged me for a meme on this topic. I haven't quite figured out what all this blog language means or what to do with it, but here goes:

1. I am suffering today from a mirth injury. Instead of doing whatever I usually do after dinner, I sat down in the living room and watched Jon Stewart and then Steven Colbert a few nights ago. They're always funny, but they were either exceptionally funny that night or I was really primed to laugh. I laughed so much that my throat is still sore. I suspect my mirth muscles need a more regular workout.

2. About fifteen years ago, I was going to a movie with some friends and there was one of those huge cardboard cutouts of Christian Slater inside the theater lobby-- and he looked just like me! Really, it was like standing in front of a fun-house mirror, only one that changes your gender and age instead of giving you a huge butt. My friends agreed that Christian Slater and I looked as if we had been separated at birth. I still feel a sort of odd kinship with him. He probably does, too.

3. Even though I like the kind of long hot showers that elicit shock from my family in droughty California, I am fine going for days without bath or shower. I bathe quite regularly here in Cleveland--although my son asks if he sees me early in the day, since he's disturbed that I sometimes go without--but when I was in Kabul, it was often too much trouble to take a shower. There either wasn't enough hot water, or, if there was, the bathroom was too smokey from the woodstove. Or maybe I just didn't feel like walking all the way over to the building with the shower. It seemed like too much trouble to bathe in Afghanistan. I often feel that way about camping, too.

4. I seem to have an unconcious belief in reincarnation. When I drive down my street in the summer and see the women and their strollers congregate at the corner, on their way to the park, I catch myself thinking, "Next time I'm a young mother..." When I see the kids walking home from high school, I catch myself thinking, "When I'm fifteen again..." And sometimes when I look at myself in the mirror--disparagingly--I'll catch myself thinking, "Okay, I'm going to stop being middle aged"-- much as I often think, "Okay, I'm never going to eat ice cream again." As if getting older were a poorly thought-out decision I had made or the result of a decision I had failed to make-- something that I could now plot out on a goal sheet and change. [I guess this last thing doesn't reflect a belief in reincarnation--more a belief in some advanced power to manipulate time which I've failed to employ]

5. One of the things other freelancer writers often say is that they love their job because they don't have to get dressed up. But this is one of the things I hate about freelancing-- no impetus to wear anything other than pajamas. I worked in an office ten years ago, and I loved dressing up for it. Loved the shoes with the little heels and the suits and even the pantyhose. I often came into work with wet hair--and I never managed the art of makeup-- but I did have cool clothes. Shortly after I left that job, I spent one morning interviewing a congressman by phone, in my nightgown. I enjoyed the mismatch between the way I looked and the image he probably had of me, but still--I think wistfully of my downtown clothes. Posted by Picasa
 
Comments:
To me, clothes are costumes-- I like to invent clothes- doesn't matter where you are or what you do - playing dress-up is great fun. :) gryfnn
 
Kristin! How exciting that you discovered my blog and we are both in Cleveland and have common interests. (And names) Thanks for your comment on my blog: It is so very true that our government is so blind about recognizing the importance of conservation.

As for the personal things about yourself, as well as things in your profile ... amazing similarities in interests and habits. I like to think of it as being free from conventional 'boxes' that dictate behavior and drain energy from creativity.

Creativity is in great need in the current world.
 
Ah, glad I found your blog. Keep posting. Thanks.
 
Welcome, gryfnn and kristen-- and even the rare anonymous who comes without viagra ads.

Yes, g-- playing dress up is fun-- and that's how that job always felt, as if I were playing.

And k--I hear you have a fabulous garden!
 
This is great stuff, K! I'd have to say Christian Slater's character in "Untamed Heart" made me sob, I mean sob, uncontrollably. The only other movie to do that to me was "Not Without My Daughter." But I was pregnant and hormonal then.

I spotted my neighbor this morning in a beautiful pantsuit and felt a twinge of jealousy.

I, too, miss dressing up for work, though I try to do it occasionally.
 
I love you blog! Thanks for your various comments on my neglected blog...I keep meaning to get to you but have been busy losing my mind in Kabul. I really do like your writing style and will spend some time in your archives this weekend. ;-) Take care!
 
Kristin,
Thanks for visiting my blog. Did you notice I have included a link to your blog on mine? If you would rather I didn't, let me know.

Yes, the Kevin O'Brien article was pretty scarey. I am glad they did a full-page of letters of outrage.

As for my garden ... this town is smaller than I thought! It actually has the potential for being a fabulous garden. It got away from me last year with being away so much on family business. I actually had the Cleveland Museum of Natural History here doing a wildflower rescue, and the volunteer native plants from my yard are now planted in their garden!
 
Kristen, I didn't just stumble on your blog-- Hanna at This Garden Is Illegal had a post about it.

Certainly, I'm fine with-- pleased with-- your linking to my blog. I'd post blog links--and have a list of my own posts--on the side if I could figure out how.

Hi Wendy and Zohra. Great bloggers both, in such vastly different circumstances.
 
1. I get a sore throat from snoring.

2. I am a free lance writer also and wear pantyhose and high heels and nothing else when I work.

3. One of those statements is a lie and one is a truth.
 
How can there be five things I don't know about you? Okay maybe I did know about the bathing thing but Americans are way too obsessed with cleanliness, and too much hot water is bad for your skin.

I do love your blog! susan blueberry
 
Mirth injuries are the best kind!
 
Kris - I like to get dressed up, but only on my own terms. I actually like the buying part of it more than I do the dressing-up part of it. But I'm like Katherine Hepburn. No dresses or pantyhose for me.
 
Hello Jane, Patry, Erin and Susan--nice to see you here!
 
K, I spent a summer in South Dakota and camped in the Black Hills for a day or two.

Your post and photo brought back many memories.

I still don't know what a meme is exactly but it was interesting to read about you. I look like Ra the Sun God (from Stargate, the movie)
 
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