One Lovely Blogger Award

Thanks to the extremely talented Tom Williams, author of The White Rajah series, I have been nominated to carry on the:

One Lovely Blogger Award

Thank you, Tom!

Rules:

1.       Share 7 Lovely Facts about myself

3.      Nominate the authors of those blogs to participate and do the same, linking back to the original Lovely blog. (That would be this page)

       

1.     I eat hummus almost every day and hardly ever get bored doing so. Sometimes I switch it up with pita chips or pita bread, or throw in a few cucumber slices (or a carrot?), but that’s pretty much it. Hummus. On an off day I go out and buy a sub sandwich. Then I feel bad and go back to the hummus. Obsessive maybe? Nah . . .

2.     If things had gone differently (if I hadn’t been such a clutz) I would have been a ballerina. Still have dreams of that one. Always wanted to own a pair of pointe shoes. But I had a mean-ass dance teacher who picked on me because I couldn’t do a proper plie. During a private phone conversation with my mother,  she explained that I would never be a dancer because I was too tall, too this, too that. Pick, pick, pick. It hurt my feelings so bad that I didn’t go back to lessons the next year. In my heart, though, I still longed to attend. 

3.     I almost made it to Pikes Peak a few years back, but the roads were closed halfway due to a recent snowstorm. However, I did get the chance to peer out over a cliff looking across a long vista of lower hills and high prairie, including the town of Colorado Springs. It’s the same landscape to inspire the song, America the Beautiful. And it was beautiful. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to go back one day, and to the top this time! 

4.     Every morning I wake up around 6:30a.m. Sometimes I wish I could sleep in like I did back when I was a loser slob, but something won’t let me do that. No alarm or anything. Just my brain. 

5.     I’m this close to ghost hunting. It’s always fascinated me as I tend to find the ephemeral more interesting that the living. Plus, there’s so much history in the old buildings these paranormal investigators get access too. Would it be scary? Heck yeah, but I’d still do it. For now, I just watch it on TV. Every Wednesday night I collect an array of snacks and then sit down to watch Ghost Hunters on SyFy. It is, literally, my favorite show in the world. If I ever get the chance to do an investigation, I’ll be so happy. And you guys will be the first to hear about the adventure!

6.     My first real dog as an adult was a red dapple dachshund named Jasmine. She was adorable and fun, but man, we did not get along. The entire winter after bringing her home she bit my feet, my hands, pooped in the house, barked at me, ripped things up. It was like, everything I did to train her, she’d defiantly do the opposite, just to spite me. One morning I put my coffee mug down on the kitchen table and then got up to take a shower. I pulled all the chairs away so she wouldn’t jump up to find scraps and crumbs. It was me being a jerk, kind of, but mostly I didn’t want her on the table. “You can’t get up there, Jazz. I pulled all the chairs out.” I went and took my shower. Half an hour later I walk into the kitchen and Jasmine is sitting right in the middle of the table next to an empty cup of coffee. My eyes strayed to the chairs—pulled out so far, much too far for a little dachshund to fly across the room from. She must have done it over and over, and I could picture her doing it too, until she’d reached her goal. And why? Just for some coffee? But that was Jasmine. Determined. Strong willed. A few years later I had my first child, and I always credited her for teaching me the art of patience. You think you know, but you don’t. We bickered every day, but when Jasmine became sick and I knew she was going to die, I gently picked her up and carried her outside to the backyard so she could lie in the sunlight and watch the kids play. It was springtime and the air was cool and the grass was sweet. I could tell it meant a lot to her. After she died I went to retrieve her ashes from the veterinarian’s office, and upon coming home the little stone statue of a dachshund I’d bought when Jasmine was a puppy had flipped over to its side. It had never done that previously and hasn’t done it since. I truly believe she was telling me that: she was okay, and all past arguments had been forgiven. She was also saying that she loved me. I love you too, Jazz.

7.     Some of you already know about this, because you were here on the blog when it happened! I once had the chance to play Blondie and Joni Mitchell in an all-female musical revue. Truly, I was shocked to be picked for those roles, my musical idols. But I didn’t think I had the ability to pull it off. I wasn’t a good enough singer, I couldn’t dance (there’s that dance thing again), I was too tall, too daft. Pick, pick, pick. But the director told me that, eh, sure I could do it. And . . . I did. After a month-long rehearsal in some old church, sans air conditioning, it was time to prove to the world, and myself, that I had the goods. It was magic standing inside the curtains each night waiting for “Janis” to finish her ode to Booby McGee.  I’d quietly step across the stage, guitar in hand, wearing a white lace dress and flowers in my hair, and I’d transform into Joni Mitchell. Then later, Deborah Harry—which involved a lot of makeup! That summer will forever be in my mind and my heart. It does somewhat erase my former dance teacher’s merciless taunts and insults. Yeah, it does completely, actually.

And those are my 7 lovely facts. I’d like to nominate my friends: Mollie, Cro, Starting Over, and The Broad, and Shelly Sly. It's late, so I might think of others! You are all great. Of course, I'd nominate Tom, but he's already done this thing. Thanks again, Tom!