versatile

Liz and Bridget over at Pocket Shrink have shared the Versatile Blogger Award with me. Thanks so much, ladies.

In turn, I was asked to do three things:

1) Kiss my dog on the head
2) Go to work dressed in a 1938 Naval officer's uniform and a natty, little hat with a chartreuse feather
3) Eat a cucumber sandwich with the crusts cut off

Oh, sorry.

1) Thank the awarder and link back to him/her
2) Share 7 things about yourself
3) Pass on this award to 15 blogs you've discovered

Well, thanks again, Liz and Bridget. Right back atcha [as you'll see below]. Here are seven random things about me...

~When I was very young, I and a friend stole some sort of candy from a convenience store, and then I immediately went home and told my mom, hey, guess what Shannon taught me you can do. This was not an excuse. I really did think it was OK.

~When I'm in the shower, my dog Nicholas stands on the other side of the curtain with his paws on the edge of the tub and makes noises like a baby pig.

[bonus picture, not at bathtub...]

~I like cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

~Some of the production costumes I wore as a circus clown were: convict, policeman [with detachable pants], bullfight patron [with sombrero], nurse [with balloon boobs], racehorse and rider [the bottom half of me was the horse], and Bill Clinton.

~When I was a kid, my best friend was afraid of rubber alligators. I was afraid of earthquakes, house fires, making friends and being noticed all by myself at school.

~One of my dream careers would be designing book covers.

~I fell in love with my husband first in the form of art, then in the form of words, then in the form of voice, and lastly in person.

And here is my list of 15 cool blogs. 

Pocket Shrink - a daily bit of counsel from two smart, insightful [and entertaining] psychologists.

SHARE - a bi-monthly Portland event that gathers a group of artists to create in a shared space. I've attended this event a few times and it's great, creative fun.

Nora Robertson.org - lovely local writer who's plugged into the arts and literary scene in Portland.

Confessions of a Pop Fan - Jamie S. Rich is a graphic novel writer [loved his very noir You Have Killed Me] who also writes great film reviews.

The Old Foodie - an excellent food history blog.

Recently Banned Literature - a very prolific poet / artist who also writes musings on life and old books.

Bags of Wind - blog of a Portland filmmaker. A great mix - some film stuff, some personal stuff, plus links to his very funny "Last Film I Saw" podcasts.

Guts and Shame - I love personal blogs, and the best kind is one written by a good writer - like this one.

Laura Stanfill - great stuff on the art of writing, plus her cool Seven Questions interview series.

Corgiodyssey - meet Dr. Jenkins!

Kevin Sampsell.com - if you didn't read A Common Pornography, you should. Right now.

Dangerousboi.com - personal writing with an amazing sense of voice.

Post-Apocalyptic Bohemian - musings both personal and universal, including great posts on birthdays in gay history.

Advanced Style - "Proof from the wise and silver haired set that personal style advances with age" - so charming.

and the inimitable Reading Local: Portland.

pie

I chose the goat cheese and caramelized onion. Years ago, it would have been the peach and berry for sure. Years ago, on the road with the circus, it was a long day driving with nothing but circus music on the stereo, or a long day under a tent, hot under the wig and makeup, knowing I couldn't really make them laugh, and then in the off-time, nothing to talk about but the circus - but in the evening late, maybe eleven, finding some plastic-booth-breakfast-anytime coffee shop at the edge of a truck stop for limp iceberg lettuce salad and my heart hungry for cherry cobbler. Ice cream sundae. Blackberry pie.

Blackberry pie, Noni's specialty, when we picked the berries in July in Virginia when I was nine.

Chocolate mousse in a wine glass with lush unsweetened whipped cream at my mom's French restaurant.

Or in high school when I discovered there was a candy machine and I could blow dart sugar into my system anytime I had fifty cents on me.

Here I am forty now, and I choose the goat cheese and caramelized onion.

It occurred to me this morning - and I should preface this by saying I worked like thirteen and a half hours yesterday and then slept six, which may be a way of life for some people but for my puny brain it tends to set off punchiness and delusions of grandeur. But it occurred to me this morning that for most of my life, I've been very immature. OK, that’s not what occurred to me this morning – I’ve known this for a long time. Tom Spanbauer once called the novel I’m writing a bildungsroman, even though it’s based on the time when I was thirty five. No, what occurred to me this morning is that my rate of maturity is directly proportionate to the rate of my lessening interest in sweets. Which really didn't happen until these last few years.

*

Now lunchtime after the morning of my post and thinking about pie makes me think about something else. It's not just maturity that's different now [and I want to go on record and say I realize I'm not actually that mature]. But the other thing is some certain personal fulfillment. Some sense of self that wasn't there before. Some vague but all important something that a big velvety, cocoa-sprinkled slab of tiramisu was never a perfect substitute for - but, in all honesty, it was a pretty good consolation prize