feeling kinda
it's about time for a fresh look in here. my previous bio sat there, unchanged, for nearly two years. it had some outdated info, like a picture of me with the ex, as well as being written up as if i was interviewing myself. yeah, 'bout time that went.
actually, i've thought that for a while, but have been dragging my feet. it's easy enough to fill out one of the meme surveys about yourself that float around every so often, or write up a list of 100 things. adhering to form makes it easy enough to knock something out.
but just sitting down to write a bio... kind of up there on the painful scale, along with writing your resume. tooting one's own horn always seems self indulgent.
on the other hand, it only seems fair to provide some sort of handy dandy pocket guide to the author of the site, as a kindness to the reader.
so here i am, sitting at the keyboard, with a cold cup of coffee to my right, and a manuscript i should be reviewing to my left, trying to come up with something witty or interesting to say, since you're curious enough to have clicked on the bio link. i'll probably come back and tinker with it again, but for now, here you go.
why a journal? maybe that's a good place to start. i keep a journal because i like writing. and writers like feedback. so i put my words out there, for all and sundry to find and read.
i should say that recently i think of myself less as a journaller, and more as someone who creates a presence on the web. there's been an interesting evolution from BBSs to chat rooms to personal web sites to journals to blogs. and there's less and less of a distinction, for me anyway, between journal and blog. either you choose to put yourself out there, for public consumption, or you don't. how you do it, the tools that you use, the widgets that you put up, the means of feedback and interaction that you choose - all of that matters less than if you're out there or not.
quite snobbily, i spoke of 'trying to be a writer' when i started this. maybe. maybe not. i'm more comfortable with the term storyteller. and mostly, i put the words out there just for me, for my own selfish purposes, nothing so high flown as being a writer. the bonus is that it's lovely to have readers, and a return audience, and friends in various spots around the globe that i otherwise might never have met.
on a more pedestrian scale: Bostonian, Massachusetts born and bred, altho thankfully you wouldn't necessarily gather that from my accent, meaning that i actually pronounce my Rs in the correct places, unlike my friend Bill who once left the pizzer in the cah. altho when I'm tired or drunk, i tend to sound like a Southern Yiddish woman. and i have no idea why that happens.
random facts about me:
when i get stressed, i find myself counting the number of steps i'm taking, particularly if i'm walking down the stairs.
every time i leave the house, i always say 'be good, kitten kittens. i'll be back tonight.' yes, i do think my cat understands me.
i crack my knees every morning.
coffee hurts my stomach; red wine hurts my head. i like them both anyway.
i swear like a longshoreman, and have made Marines blink. yes, i talk to my mother with that mouth.
feet bother me. most people have unattractive feet.
i can still hear my grandfather's laugh; he died nearly a decade ago.
i realize with increasing trepidation how many habits i've absorbed from my parents without realizing it.
there is an art to ordering a martini, and it's worth practising.
i want to settle down with the right someone someday, having previously settled down with the wrong person. i believe i will be single for the rest of my life. and i've been blessed with meeting that right someone. i still worry whether i'm too difficult for anyone to put up with forever.
i struggle with the idea of not having children.
my ideal house will have a tower for a library, a huge kitchen with couches, a fireplace, granite floors, and a Viking stove, a loft bedroom, and a clawfoot tub in the master bathroom. there will be plenty of room to garden.
i exhibit many of the stereotypical characteristics of an oldest child. this is compounded by the fact that i'm a Leo.
there are various pictures of me floating around in various entries, but just for good measure, here's one of me as a kid.
i have a pretty freakish love of reference materials; blame my parents, for whom the only acceptable reason to get up in the middle of dinner was to look something up.
and if you'd like, you can take a mini tour of the apartment as it looked last summer.
