The Versatile Blogger Award pt. 2

Close on the heels of the Versatile blogger award from Donea, I received another Versatile Blogger award from Talei at Musing from an Aspiring Scribe. It was lovely and I was very moved by it-- trust me- having been the girl who was the last one chosen for kick ball on a regular basis, it does the ol' ego good to have a few awards coming her way! So thanks again Talei!

I would like to pass the award on to:

©     LadyFi at Lady Fi 

©     Sarah at The Unwrapping 

©     Brigitte at Brimagination

©     Marcy at Mainewords 

©     Clarissa at Listen to the Voices
©     Roxy at A Woman’s Write

 And as I have been around long enough to have a 23 year old daughter I think I can come up with seven more weirdnesses about myself to entertain you with (although why you care...):
(Drumroll please)

v     My first kiss was on stage (does it even count?!?!?)

v     I travelled to India and within the first few days I saw 120 degree temperatures, a typhoon and flooded roads in Bombay, rode on a train as full as the one on Gandhi (the film), and a body floating on the Ganges. Talk about culture shock!

v     My best friend in high school arranged a song especially for me to sing for a concert which included the Jazz Band.

v     On our last trip to Key West I was snorkeling a FEW FEET away from a small nurse shark! It looked at me, I looked at it and it swam away.

v     I can do a pretty good Cookie Monster imitation. The kids loved it when I worked at the daycare… although my Grover isn’t bad either. "There's a monster at the end of this book..."

v     I once spent $7000.00 in books in a few weeks. Okay, I’ll confess it was for the library not for me… but I did save up my graduation money and spent $200 on classic titles that I wanted to take with me to college—Dickens, The Bronte’s, Hawthorne, Fowles (told ya, I’m a BOOK NERD!)

v     In 11 years I lived in 15 different apartments or houses. (And the moves were made, generally, with 1 or 2 little ones in tow! Yikes! This is another thing you don't want to do!) 

An anniversary of sorts

Today is the anniversary of the show that has meant a great deal to Mo and I-- it is the show that he first saw in 1993 on this day (but I missed!) and which got him to first visit Key West. And because he loved it so much he shared it with me five years ago just after we started dating and several months later...

I was taking my first steps onto the island! (And the perfect time of year too, because it was February and that means there is always the potential for blizzard and 0 temps in Denver!)
We had a lovely time... (of course!) but the real meaning of the show has surpassed the visits to the island. It has been an inspiration for my writing and a cause for celebration of life! So on this the anniversary, I will share with you my favorite quote from the episode that aired on January 19, 1993...

Key West

The main character, Seamus O'Neill has come to Key West after winning the lottery to be a writer just like his favorite writer Ernest Hemingway. He is sitting in a bar when Jennifer Tilly, the main female character named Savannah arrives. She is the Moon Goddess personified. Sexuality incarnate. She sees Seamus and instantly sizes him up.

"A writer? Having a little trouble getting that first novel between the covers? ... You've come to the right place, you pretty thing. It's magic here. There are Angels in the Spray, Wizards in the Palm Trees, and Elves in the Sea Shells, and they all look very favorably on struggling young writers."

As you can see, she knew her island well. 

(More to come! I'll be posting a favorite Quote from an episode each week... so stay tuned!)

First date

This is a work of Fiction...

One life had been filled with vows, promises, children, pets and mortgages. After he'd gone the sweet comfort and reliability of the days gone, just heaviness and day after day of getting through. The children called to report on lives they lived, little thought given to the echoes in the rooms or the coldness of sheets. "Kids are great! You should have seen Jack! Just like Dad! You okay? You should go down to the Retirement Center. Have some fun for once!" 

Fun.......

Loneliness consumed her, swallowing her in gaping jaws with insatiate animal appetites. She breathed the tattered flannel shirt they'd tug-o-war'd over (the worn material made perfect dust cloth) and turned up the sound on the shopping channel for the soothing sound of chatter. Occasional conversations with friends were marked with echoes of empty chairs "Vera's husband passed away and they don't expect Ruth to make it..." 

  "You have to dance with me!" he'd spotted her before she'd decided to hang up her coat and stay for the Christmas party she'd been reluctantly talked in to. "I do?" He swept her into his magic act, disappearing coats, transformation tricks, waltzing as he laughed into her ear that she was the most beautiful woman capable of doing much more than shuffling in the entire building. Air and a rasping wheeze were the prelude to exploding convulsions that nearly doubled her over "Is THAT your line? The best you can do?" Their twinned laughter broke past the band's front lines and caught the attention of the elderly in the front row whose faces immediately pruned with distaste. His laughter belled through to the rafters and she hid her face on his shoulder.

"That was ten years ago today..." she leaned back into the gentleman on the couch at the Inn at Charlotte where we were enjoying champagne and a light snack in the final hours of the afternoon. "We've been laughing ever since. I hope you all have as many happy years together" We clinked our glasses in a final salutation and we watched them depart.    

Versatile Blogger award and Monday miscellanies...

Okay if I get this right... passing this on has certain rules, first link to the original awarder which I am happy to do. Donea at The Queen of Procrastination (click on the award to go to her blog!) awarded me with The Versatile Blogger a little over a week ago and I was quite surprised and thrilled but wanted to take a few days to think about who to pass it on to... 

So I would like to pass it on to Burrowers, Books & Balderdash for their creative endeavors as a team and as individuals- most particularly Rayna M. Iyers who had a spectacular picture story on the thirteenth of January. Check it out!!!  

Some all also have their own blogs: 

Rayna: Coffee Rings Everywhere and Snapshots of Bombay

Chary: BronxTales & Inner Musings

Cruella: The Giraffability of Digressions

Hart: Confessions of a Watery Tart

Leanne: Violaleanne

and 

Tara: Princess of Procrastination

Now: the seven (really seven???) things about myself: (WHO CARES?!?!?!)

~ I have a 23 year old daughter (yup! I'm that old! That's why you never see pics of my oldest two on here. I'd have to admit it. I keep them hidden on another blog)

~ I have a wicked toe pinch (I've picked up quite a few items over the years when my hands were full)

~ I played trumpet all through school. 

~ I was a DJ for a year and did the late night shift.

~ I nearly had my car stolen by a man who snuck in the back seat of my car while I was in a 7-11 but I cunningly clubbed him in the back of the head and flagged down a policeman. True story. 

~ I saw 20 cities in Europe in 21 days in January (1984). It was crazy-- don't do it! 

~ I hated ALL green vegetables and did not eat them until I was in college and I am still alive and healthy. 

It's Monday and my new day off although generally I would have to work part of the day. but today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day so I am off the entire day so I am going to take advantage of it and get some real Writing done. That means having music for inspiration, some champagne and no blogging (I'll have to catch up tomorrow folks!). Writing tip for the day... came first from Stephen King but was reiterated and heightened by my darling Mo: Read!    

Read authors who write better than you do, read books that inspire you to write better, that inspire you to write, that inspire you, and perhaps even intimidate. Don't read just anything read creative works!!!! Stephen King (who is NOT an author I admire by any stretch of the imagination) reads several hours each day because even he acknowledges that it helps his writing... and the more you challenge your reading the more your writing will be effected! 

Picture taken at Fahrenheit Books in Denver