Saturday, October 7, 2017

we all do so many things


Came across this in a journal from 2015. I was feeling nostalgic and just started listing things I'd done. It was December, hence the first couple items in my list. I think we should all stop and do this sometimes.

Once I made a Christmas tree out of books.
Once I hung book-cut snowflakes in the windows of the City of Books.
Once I went up in the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
-In Tokyo.
-In Las Vegas.
Once I saw the Statue of Liberty, miniature, plastic, in some small town public park.
Once I was hit with the wrong end of a slapstick, the end with the cherry bomb, and caught on fire.
Once I ate pomegranate seeds in red wine.
Once I watched my mentor accept an award and propose to his partner at the Oregon Book Awards.
Once I stood with Laura Stanfill to acknowledge Forest Avenue Press’ fellowship at the Oregon Book Awards.
Once I had a story published in an anthology, and the story was used in a student paper.
-A college class.
-An audio book.
Once in the opera I was burned on a pyre.
Once I read at Powell’s City of Books (twice).
Once I rode in a helicopter.
-A hot air balloon.
-A propeller plane.
-A sleigh.
-A parade float.
-A vintage circus wagon.
-A four-seater airplane.
-The Bullet Train.
-A double-decker London bus.
-A race car tour around the Indy 500.
-A ship called the Arcadia.
-A speedboat, a float boat, a sailboat, a ferry, a row boat.
Once I watched an elephant ball the end of its trunk into a fist and rub its eye.
Once I was requested to pull shots for the gelato-maker’s Italian friends.
Once in the opera I screamed bloody murder and had a fight with the star and was dragged off stage.
Once I watched the Leonids with my brother Frank in the middle of the night from a lifeguard lookout on Balboa. I think it was Balboa. Also lying in the sand.
Once I stood in line and watched a movie at one of those midnight premiers (three times).
Once I won a Snoopy dressed like Boy George at an arcade in Vegas (OK, my sister Edina won it for me).
Once I got naked on Bay Ocean spit.
Once I made vol au vent and Stephen called it exquisite.
Once I designed a book cover (10).
-An album cover for a pipe organist.
-Promotional items for Powell’s Books.
-A web masthead (2).
-The facade for an amusement park in Florida (that was never made).
-The graphic for an invention called the “gown guard” (that was probably never made).
-A business logo.
-A coloring book (many).
-A coloring book whose pages got reprinted in a European (Swedish?) art book (I’ve tried to track it down, something about the Grock Foundation, but it’s so long gone).
-A street sign.
Once I ran around a circus ring dressed like Bill Clinton.
Once I sang in a mini flash mob but no one heard us.
Once I on-purpose bumped into Barbra Streisand in a restroom.
Once I sang in a Greek Chorus for one of the oldest pieces of music known.
Once I showed a painting in a gallery.
Once I read an essay on the oldest continuous feminist radio show in the country.
Once I slept overnight in a firehouse.
Once I took part in an intervention.
Once I changed planes alone in Tokyo.
Once I blurbed a book and the publisher printed it on the back cover.
Once I fell in love with a man in a dress.
Once I ate boiled peanuts from a greasy bag somewhere in the South.
Once after a car accident I walked all the way to the emergency room seeing auras but was lucky enough not to get a headache.

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