Saturday, June 30, 2007

Entitled

O flailing one
You suck
The light
I will always
Flip the switch
ON

Sunday, June 03, 2007

New or old

I am embarking on a new project a la Gabrielle Swain. She is a brave and wonderful artist and I think she is on to something with her latest commitment to self-exploration.

In keeping with this theme I am finally pulling together the list of seven that my dear friend J tagged me for weeks ago. I adore her 100 things post. The list of seven merely requires sharing seven random facts/habits about yourself on your blog, and then tagging seven other people to do the same. I have not yet tagged seven people -- watch out, you're on my list.

1. In middle school I went out for track because my good friend J was in it. Because she was throwing discus and shotput, that's what I did. Hilarious! I was not built for that -- she was. My niche was running at high speeds for short distances.

2. I was born with "trigger finger" in my pinky fingers, which meant my fingers would curl up tight due to inflammation of the tendon flexor sheath. I could straighten them with much snap, crackle, and pop, but it was painful, and they almost immediately returned to their curled up position. Not good for playing the piano. I had to wait until a certain age for surgery. My scars run along the heart line on each hand.

3. In my pre-teen and teen years I religiously listened to the radio; I gravitated to classic rock stations vs. the top 40. Soon I had my favorites and patiently waited until they came on so I could punch the record button on the tape player and preserve them for all eternity (ha). When I finally learned the titles and artists, it turned out what I was most excited about were Led Zeppelin tunes and I had no inkling who they were. Later in high school, classic rock was all that was played in the art room where my creativity was honed and nurtured by my all-time favorite teacher and mentor.

4. I learned to play the harp in college when I witnessed a woman playing one at an art gallery opening I was required to attend. I was majoring in both art and music at the time, and piano was my primary instrument. The conservatory agreed to set me up with harp lessons once they pulled their one and only harp from a professor's office where it was being used as a coat rack.

5. I became a vegetarian in high school when it was so not cool. Finding healthy, whole, organic foods was not as easy then as it is today. Even though my focus was on healthy eating (the only family member at the time devoted to it), I was the dessert-maker at home and I relished that role. As a young girl my very favorite food -- what I requested for birthday dinners -- was a big steak. Today my favorite foods are organic dry roasted salted cashews, Organic Valley feta cheese, and as-dark-as-possible organic chocolate.

6. I have kept journals for as long as I can remember. I am currently on journal #31, and I don't think this counts the Strawberry Shortcake journal with the special lock and key, or the ones made of ruled paper sandwiched between marker-decorated construction paper and stapled together. I have hand painted the covers of the last ten journals, abhor lined paper, and write very small. I have relied on these journals as reference guides to what really happened when my memory (consciously or subconsciously?) slips.

7. I was a painfully shy child, almost mute in the presence of others. I attended a private school where my class had a whopping number of eight classmates, which was way too many for me. In middle and high school I had experiences that brought mortality up close and personal, and delved into what now looks like a torrent of attempts to establish an identity. The result: sophomore homecoming attendant, senior homecoming attendant, newspaper write-ups for school murals, class VP, Student Council, secretary of NHS, Valedictorian. Just what was I trying to prove?