Kate over at The Big Piece of Cake tagged me a few weeks ago for the WORLD'S LONGEST MEME!!! I've never seen such a long one before. It's been like a final project or something, and I started it last year so the dates are all off now. I'm not doing it over, so here's what I've got:
ALL ABOUT ME
10 years ago: This is hard - so much has happened since then! In 1998 I was in my second year of officially being just a bass player and not a piano teacher. I played in a bunch of local big bands and orchestras and with a jazz septet up in Baltimore. I played a bunch of shows and other miscellaneous gigs. I did a show called "Swingtime Canteen" for six weeks in North Carolina, and forced my husband to become more organized in the way he ran his business. What did I do for fun? Most of my fun involved playing the bass!
8 years ago: In 2000, I was playing in a popular local swing quintet, I had my first steady restaurant gig with a jazz trio - 2 nights a week for four years, I played for a big band theme cruise on the QE2, followed by a fabulous vacation in France and the Netherlands, and I ended the year at Bluesville in Tunica MS playing with the Artie Shaw band for New Year's Eve. I continued to work on the side as Doug's "office manager."
6 years ago: In 2002 I got my thyroid taken out and, like magic, I was no longer depressed for no apparent reason. I had started working on my M.M. in jazz studies but that was interrupted by a touring opportunity in the fall which lasted for four years. At the end of the year I ended up being car number 3 in a four car pileup and my bass was completely demolished. The repairs took 8 months but when I got my bass back it was better than ever.
2 years ago: 2006 was easily the crappiest year of my life. Although the fire happened in 2005, it wasn't until 2006 that I finally began to realize what we were in for. We were still dealing with all kinds of fire-related issues, both emotional and financial in nature, and I was not at all happy that I would have to stop touring and doing cruise gigs in order to deal with everything. We tried to plan our house while we were on the road but it was impossible. We were on tour for the first half of the year and had loads of fun in Albuquerque and Hawaii and other places too, but there was also a huge shadow hanging over us. When we got back home we emptied out the charred remains of our house into four huge dumpsters, sawed through the connection between our old house and the addition and watched the 1870s part, which we had lived in for our entire married life, get torn down and carried away. And then basically nothing else happened for the rest of the year. Except I took jazz theory at UMD to keep my mind off of all of the things that weren't happening. I told you it was a crappy year!
Five yummy things:
1. Peppermint ice cream from Gifford's.
2. Mexican chocolate - the kind that has cinnamon in it.
3. Smoked trout - I've only ever had it on cruise ships but it is definitely very very yummy.
4. Sauted spinach - see, I like nutritious food too.
5. Grilled cheese sandwiches made by Doug
That's not all, of course! And since it didn't say favorite yummy things, I just listed the first five things that popped into my head.
Five songs I know by heart:
I know a lot of different kinds of songs, and it's harder to think of the songs than it is to remember the words. This is a completely random list.
1. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
2. Deep Purple (When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, etc...)
3. My Girl
4. Natural Woman
5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)
Five places I would like to escape to:
1. Italy
2. Spain
3. Greece
4. New Zealand
5. Hawaii
Five things I would never wear:
1. Hats - I hate wearing hats!
2. Shoes that are too tight
3. Christmas sweaters
4. Orange
5. Chunky jewelry
Five favorite TV shows:
I haven't had a TV since 2005 and I've only watched TV in hotels since then so this list is kind of random and old.
1. Law and Order - all versions of it.
2. ER - is it still on?
3. Weeds - I rented it and watched it on my computer. I thought Season One was better than Season Two.
4. Friends - I only ever saw reruns. It reconfirmed my secret desire to live in NYC.
5. Days of Our Lives - but I haven't seen it in years.
Five things I enjoy doing:
1. Playing music
2. Traveling
3. Going to movies
4. Going to jazz clubs
5. Imagining my house being finished so I can get on with my life
Five Favorite toys: (in no particular order)
1. My Laptop, although I liked my last one better
2. My "Thumper"
3. Blanche (my CRV)
4. My instruments - although I don't really regard them as toys
5. My new sewing machine, although I haven't had much time to use it yet.
I'm sure this list will be completely different in another few months. It will hopefully contain exciting things like dishwasher, garbage disposal, TV, etc.
Five people who I am tagging to fill this out:
I don't like to bug people, but I guess tagging is part of the whole meme process, so here are the lucky recipients:
1. Sing Like Sassy - to get back at her for tagging me for my first and hopefully next to last meme.
2. Bozoette - because the last time I tagged her she said she actually enjoyed doing memes.
3. Livit, Luvit - because she might enjoy doing this and I think people would enjoy reading it.
4. Looking2Live - because it's her fault I even got into blogging!
5. The Gilahi Blog - this is kind of a random choice because I mostly just lurk around his blog - he's probably going to wonder "what the hell?" if he ever even happens to stumble upon this.
Whew, done!!! Enough about me already!
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Monday, May 19, 2008
out of the blogging closet
Well I’ve finally outted myself. Sort of..... At least now I've got one foot out the door.
Today I played a rehearsal and I asked my colleague Deborah if her friend that I saw at the April concert was named Barbara and it turns out that, yes indeed, that's exactly who it was. Wow. So I told Deb how I had happened to have become a regular reader of Barbara's Looking2Live blog. Deb seemed to be pretty amused by the whole thing. It is kind of hilarious when you think about it even though it felt pretty awkward for me there for a minute.
I really need to say hello to Barbara now. I’ve enjoyed reading her blog for such a long time and it’s time to let her know how much I enjoy it. Maybe I’ll wait until she gets back from her trip to Italy, which I happen to know about because I read her blog!!!
Today I played a rehearsal and I asked my colleague Deborah if her friend that I saw at the April concert was named Barbara and it turns out that, yes indeed, that's exactly who it was. Wow. So I told Deb how I had happened to have become a regular reader of Barbara's Looking2Live blog. Deb seemed to be pretty amused by the whole thing. It is kind of hilarious when you think about it even though it felt pretty awkward for me there for a minute.
I really need to say hello to Barbara now. I’ve enjoyed reading her blog for such a long time and it’s time to let her know how much I enjoy it. Maybe I’ll wait until she gets back from her trip to Italy, which I happen to know about because I read her blog!!!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Was that her???
I think I might have seen Looking2Live today at a concert I played with her friend Deborah. She held the door for us and then was walking out with Deborah and her husband. After I got into my car I started thinking that she looked familiar somehow and then I suddenly realized who she might be, because she has pictures of herself on her blog. I’m not totally sure it was her, but I’m pretty sure. And now I’m really creeped out – I feel like a stalker or something. But her blog is really interesting and she seems to like having people read it. It’s just so weird the way I happened to stumble upon it. I guess I’m going to have to quit being shy and introduce myself. Maybe I’ll leave a comment or something. I haven’t made any comments on any blogs so far. I suppose that as a seasoned blogger she is accustomed to the idea of total strangers knowing a fair amount about her, but now that I have possibly seen her in the flesh, so to speak, I’m somehow not that comfortable knowing all that I know. I guess it’s okay though since she writes for all of the internet to read - and she even uses her full name sometimes. But maybe that wasn’t her after all. Eeek, I should still probably just identify myself and tell her what I’ve been “up to” before too much more time passes. In the meantime I think I’ll just go back and hide under my rock for a while longer
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Naming My Blog
In general I’ve always hated making up titles for things I write. But this thing has to have a name, I guess. The first title I came up with was LIFE IN LIMBO, which applies pretty well to me right now. But it sounded way too similar to the title of the main blog that I read nearly every day, which is called Looking2Live.
Then I came up with WAITING FOR DOUG-O. I thought that was kind of funny, and Doug liked it too, especially after I told him it was a spoof version of the title of the fairly well-known play and movie, WAITING FOR GODOT, which he had never heard of. He’s a trombone player, what can I say? Anyway, the waiting, in both instances, is rather similar in both the movie and in my life, for those of you who know both of us. Doug was actually kind of disappointed when I told him that I’d changed my mind about naming my blog after him. There’s something not quite right about having only your husband’s name in a blog that is supposedly mostly about you. It almost happened though. I had already written the little explanatory blurb and everything. So in honor of Doug here it is, for posterity:
WAITING FOR DOUG-O
A little dyslexic humor here…Waiting and Doug both continue to be key things in my life - sometimes simultaneously, sometimes not. The main thing I am waiting for right now is to move back into my house. I truly believe that day will eventually arrive. Until then I wait….
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that was definitely super corny. Corny, but true. Okay, enough about him already!
So PHOTOCYNTHESIS, which I know is kind of boring, ended up being the name. It's because there are photos, there is me, there is writing, and it’s all a process, even if it is misspelled. So as dull a name as it is, it applies and that is what my blog will be called. Maybe I’ll come up with something better later on.
Then I came up with WAITING FOR DOUG-O. I thought that was kind of funny, and Doug liked it too, especially after I told him it was a spoof version of the title of the fairly well-known play and movie, WAITING FOR GODOT, which he had never heard of. He’s a trombone player, what can I say? Anyway, the waiting, in both instances, is rather similar in both the movie and in my life, for those of you who know both of us. Doug was actually kind of disappointed when I told him that I’d changed my mind about naming my blog after him. There’s something not quite right about having only your husband’s name in a blog that is supposedly mostly about you. It almost happened though. I had already written the little explanatory blurb and everything. So in honor of Doug here it is, for posterity:
WAITING FOR DOUG-O
A little dyslexic humor here…Waiting and Doug both continue to be key things in my life - sometimes simultaneously, sometimes not. The main thing I am waiting for right now is to move back into my house. I truly believe that day will eventually arrive. Until then I wait….
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, that was definitely super corny. Corny, but true. Okay, enough about him already!
So PHOTOCYNTHESIS, which I know is kind of boring, ended up being the name. It's because there are photos, there is me, there is writing, and it’s all a process, even if it is misspelled. So as dull a name as it is, it applies and that is what my blog will be called. Maybe I’ll come up with something better later on.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
How I Discovered Blogging
I had heard of blogging but I hadn’t really paid any attention to the phenomenon and I really didn’t get what it was all about, and I didn’t really care. It didn’t seem like at all like something I would ever end up doing. But one day last year I was trying to find a dermatologist to go to and I was googling all of the various names that I’d come across. This was one of those nights when one google led to another and suddenly I was in a googling frenzy.
Since I was googling doctors, I googled my roommate from college who is a doctor in Ohio and whom I haven’t seen in a few years. Then I googled another doctor who plays in an orchestra with me, and I came across a blog that was written by a friend of hers. I thought “this is incredibly nosy and absolutely none of my business and I must stop reading this immediately!” because it contained a bunch of rather personal stuff. But since I had already started with the googling, it was kind of too late to be un-nosy. My bass player colleague who is a doctor was mentioned by her full name in just one of her friend’s entries that I know of, and it showed up on Google. So just for the hell of it, I read a few more entries and then I thought I was done.
But the next day I went back and read some more. It was pretty interesting to read, and then suddenly I became completely hooked and spent a few days reading HER ENTIRE BLOG. It became like a book that I could not put down. The main things in my life at the time were ashes, sawdust, sweat, and additional tedious accounting work for the fire inventory, so reading this woman’s blog was the best escape ever! And it turns out that we both even had our thyroids taken out by the exact same surgeon. Weird and amazing.
After I finished reading the past two years of her life story, I started in on some of her friends. Then I started noticing that there is an actual blogging “scene” out there where the bloggers get together and meet each other. It seemed to me like this was some strange new alien culture that I’d stumbled upon and it was really quite fascinating. They are all so into writing, and it is interesting to see how different the writing styles are and the various ways these people choose to describe their lives. It is amazing and pretty cool.
I decided that it was time for me to make my own blog about the progress (or lack of progress) of my house. Then I wouldn’t have to talk about it as much. It is hard to know how much detail people actually want when they ask about the progress of the house. Now that some progress is actually taking place, it is much more fun to talk about, but it definitely wasn’t an enjoyable topic of conversation at the beginning.
I don’t know why this is, but apparently the cause of the fire is the single most interesting thing to a lot of people, even now, and they don’t really seem to want to know much about how it has affected your life in other ways. So if they want to know, it’s now here on this separate blog for them to read. And they can find out how psycho I really am. I'm not putting this stuff on the house blog because that is just about the house.
So the dates of the earlier entries are not the actual blog-posting dates. I decided to alter them to either the dates when they were actually written or dates that are closer to the events described. From here on out they will be posted as I write them.
So far I have only been a lurker on the blogs I read. Maybe now that I am an actual blogger I will get up the nerve to write some comments. Apparently bloggers love it when you comment. I have been too shy to write any comments so far, but I guess I had better start because some of these bloggers have stats and they know when you’ve been reading a lot but not commenting. They might think I’m a stalker or something.
I just realized a really excellent thing about having a blog. If my house ever burns down again, I won’t lose all of my photos because some of them will still be here on the internet!
Since I was googling doctors, I googled my roommate from college who is a doctor in Ohio and whom I haven’t seen in a few years. Then I googled another doctor who plays in an orchestra with me, and I came across a blog that was written by a friend of hers. I thought “this is incredibly nosy and absolutely none of my business and I must stop reading this immediately!” because it contained a bunch of rather personal stuff. But since I had already started with the googling, it was kind of too late to be un-nosy. My bass player colleague who is a doctor was mentioned by her full name in just one of her friend’s entries that I know of, and it showed up on Google. So just for the hell of it, I read a few more entries and then I thought I was done.
But the next day I went back and read some more. It was pretty interesting to read, and then suddenly I became completely hooked and spent a few days reading HER ENTIRE BLOG. It became like a book that I could not put down. The main things in my life at the time were ashes, sawdust, sweat, and additional tedious accounting work for the fire inventory, so reading this woman’s blog was the best escape ever! And it turns out that we both even had our thyroids taken out by the exact same surgeon. Weird and amazing.
After I finished reading the past two years of her life story, I started in on some of her friends. Then I started noticing that there is an actual blogging “scene” out there where the bloggers get together and meet each other. It seemed to me like this was some strange new alien culture that I’d stumbled upon and it was really quite fascinating. They are all so into writing, and it is interesting to see how different the writing styles are and the various ways these people choose to describe their lives. It is amazing and pretty cool.
I decided that it was time for me to make my own blog about the progress (or lack of progress) of my house. Then I wouldn’t have to talk about it as much. It is hard to know how much detail people actually want when they ask about the progress of the house. Now that some progress is actually taking place, it is much more fun to talk about, but it definitely wasn’t an enjoyable topic of conversation at the beginning.
I don’t know why this is, but apparently the cause of the fire is the single most interesting thing to a lot of people, even now, and they don’t really seem to want to know much about how it has affected your life in other ways. So if they want to know, it’s now here on this separate blog for them to read. And they can find out how psycho I really am. I'm not putting this stuff on the house blog because that is just about the house.
So the dates of the earlier entries are not the actual blog-posting dates. I decided to alter them to either the dates when they were actually written or dates that are closer to the events described. From here on out they will be posted as I write them.
So far I have only been a lurker on the blogs I read. Maybe now that I am an actual blogger I will get up the nerve to write some comments. Apparently bloggers love it when you comment. I have been too shy to write any comments so far, but I guess I had better start because some of these bloggers have stats and they know when you’ve been reading a lot but not commenting. They might think I’m a stalker or something.
I just realized a really excellent thing about having a blog. If my house ever burns down again, I won’t lose all of my photos because some of them will still be here on the internet!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
maybe I should start another blog
So I've been doing the bright and cheerful news about our house progress on a different blog so that I could keep it separate from the more dismal facts of my existence that not too many people really want to know about.
I've actually been writing about my experiences ever since the fire happened but I was not really aware of the fact at the time that I could do it in a blogging format. If I end up doing it I'm going to have to see if there is a way to post-date the stuff I've written previously so that it stays somewhat chronological, relative to when it was written or to when the stuff happened. We'll see if I get around to it.
It has been interesting (to me at least) to observe the differences in the way I have felt about things before, during, and after the fire and the rebuilding process. Some of the changes in my life that occurred as a result of this pretty awful experience have not been what I would have expected, but it seems like a lot of the bad stuff paves the way for a much improved future. And I have learned more about myself as a result going through all of this than I would have otherwise. So I guess I will continue to write about whatever phase I happen to be in until we are finally back in our house for good.
And apparently I did manage to figure out how to change the date!
I've actually been writing about my experiences ever since the fire happened but I was not really aware of the fact at the time that I could do it in a blogging format. If I end up doing it I'm going to have to see if there is a way to post-date the stuff I've written previously so that it stays somewhat chronological, relative to when it was written or to when the stuff happened. We'll see if I get around to it.
It has been interesting (to me at least) to observe the differences in the way I have felt about things before, during, and after the fire and the rebuilding process. Some of the changes in my life that occurred as a result of this pretty awful experience have not been what I would have expected, but it seems like a lot of the bad stuff paves the way for a much improved future. And I have learned more about myself as a result going through all of this than I would have otherwise. So I guess I will continue to write about whatever phase I happen to be in until we are finally back in our house for good.
And apparently I did manage to figure out how to change the date!
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