Wednesday, September 19, 2012

ROW80 LAST DAY 64 – THE LIEBSTER AWARD



The Liebster Award is an actual award, for bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. I have way fewer than that. I need to update my shout-out: instead of the usual “2”, I have “9” now! So, hey 9 followers! Yeah, glad you’re along for this here ride on my crazy coaster.

Anyway, I was nominated by my wonderful friend Aaron, over at dadblunders, for the Liebster Award. You can find him on Twitter,  @dadblunders, I met him through my dearest, dear friend, Andi-Roo, at theWorld4Realz, follow her on Twitter @theWorld4Realz, too. They are two of the very finest people I have ever been privileged to know, bar none. Way, way awesome writers; much better than I.  Generous to a fault. I love me some superlatives, man. Through them, I have met and expanded my online family and learned so much. The most important things I’ve been given are riches beyond price. Fun and insight right here. I worked from home for 3 years, and had to step over cats to go to my office. I've upgraded; I get to spread my own brand of whatever-this-is without leaving my bedroom. When I no longer have to get out of bed, I will have achieved true Churchillian splendor, without the language or knowledge, wit and brevity, or sourl of course. So, this is going to be long enough, with all of my usual digressions; let me digress no longer, at least for awhile.


11 Questions for my nomination chosen by dadblunders and my Answers

1. What is your favorite color?


Blue, and not just any blue, but it has to be one of those subtle, deep rich, almost teal blues. Kind of a sapphire-y color, but a bit deeper blue and not on the purple end, but more toward the green part of the spectrum. Oh beans, dark, dark blue-ish-greenish… blue.   

2. Your life is going to become a script for a movie. Who would you want to play you?

Woody Allen. He has the right piquancy and nervousness. He kind of needs to lose the glasses and do something about his nose, though. And his hair. My hair is still red after all these years, no gray. I’m rather alarmed because I gave my parents enough gray hair. Actually, Woody also needs to be a bit more edgy. When I’m outside, I am kind of on “high alert,” kind of like a ninja guy, so Woody needs to be more of that, plus the hair thing, glasses, nose, and voice. You know what? Let’s just do animé and draw this thing.

3. Coffee or tea?

Tea, definitely, green tea, with honey. It is very good for people who have Parkinson’s Disease. It helps ease my tremors. The tremors are the least of my symptoms; I have extremely strong hands from playing the viola for 46 years and I can out-muscle them, but in my reading, I’ve found out that for some reason there is either a curative property or something that help eases some of the other symptoms of PD. Plus it tastes delightful. Being the lazy thing I am, I buy it by the buckets-ful, Arizona hoo-ha or whatever. Yum.

4. Not counting family…what do you feel your greatest accomplishment is so far in life?

Great question and “I Have Led a Storied Life…” See those ellipses? It’s a work in progress and took a giant 90° left turn and is still running along like the “Little Engine That Could.” My engine just isn’t going at 130 miles an hour anymore. But, I digress.

This, right here, answering this question being here is the greatest accomplishment so far. I mean that with all my heart and with all sincerity, Aaron. This… whatever “this” is, was never supposed to happen. I’ve beaten the odds more times than I care to count. I’ve had 2 careers in two very competitive fields and blown both, in ways that were, to put it in the kindest of terms, careless. I’ve walked out on relationships and cut off my mother who wanted nothing but the best for me, but was so damaged herself. She in turn, damaged me with her causticity and violent outbursts, but until I understood that and took the first step, and forgave her, I couldn’t begin to forgive myself.

It wasn’t until she died and I realized that the one person who loved me unconditionally in this huge world had died off and I was married to a deceiver and a philanderer, but he just didn’t know it yet, that I began the slow slide to an ultimate end. It took almost 8 years, but I nearly destroyed myself. I had to go through several bouts of addiction, ill health, literally gambling with the devil. I doubled down and lost. I do believe I sought oblivion; what I won was total awareness. Two months in the hospital and a stint in the homeless shelter, psychotic break and committal brought me to my JC. Then, I met Olivia Propenza through Andi-roo. That moment crystallizes my life. Things were beginning to fall into place. I was dabbling around with writing, but just kind of la-di-da-ing along. I had started “Homeless Chronicles in Tampa,” when I was homeless and had sort of let it wither when I got a new home. (surprise!)

I played around with other blogs and just some humorous stuff; nothing earth-shaking. Just fun, but something was missing. After my committal, I realized that I just was lacking the passion I had always experienced with my music. Andi-Roo pointed out to me, the passion that is life. The final deal was struck, then. The House Lost that day. Not having children, not having any close living relatives, is hard. JC is my love; I love this man beyond reason and purely. He has had a horrible life and he is the most wondrous of men. I am so, so very fortunate to have him and I cherish him. I love him unconditionally. This is where I was meant to be, as I was meant to be here doing this right now, answering your question, Aaron, and meant to meet Andi-Roo and Amberr, and all my other online friends. I have a rich life. I would have it no other way.

5. Book or movie?

Video game – Runescape!! Me with a whip and Dragon shield Slaying Dragons, Gold-Trimmed Black Armor, or Zammy Armor, Torva Armor, Obby Cape, level 121, Att 91, Str 90, no Def n00b, ViolaFury at her finest! Give me all the shiny weapons, new-fangled armor and bunches of monsters to kill and beat and rob. Yay!

Actually Movie, I think it would be really great if I could be in a movie where I was an Action Hero. “Legally Blind PD Girl!” Endless fun! Of course about 40 Politically Correct Language groups will holler right there. But I could be at the bus stop with my glasses and cane, having a fit and some bad guys could rough up some kids. I’d be there, and all of a sudden I’d bust out some of my famous hai-karate moves and scream out “hiyeeee-yaaa!” and do a can of whup-ass on their beans with my cane, and then I’d fall over with the bad guys in a heap. Just then the bus would come and my identity would be safe. No one would believe the kids. Yeah, it sounds totally great!

6. What was your favorite childhood toy?

It alternated between my father’s B-29 headset from when he flew in the Korean War and a collection of rockets my Mad Scientist uncle who was a nuclear physicist out at Jack Ass Flats in Las Vegas Nevada gave us to play with. I think my aunt and mom drank heavily in those days. I didn’t have many dolls.

7. Did you have an imaginary friend as a child? If you did, what was its name? If you didn’t, what
would you have named it?

Aaron, I love this question. I’ve never been asked this. I did have; I had 2 in fact. It may be because I was an only child. Now, I never was lonely, and my parents never chided me for an over-active imagination. Well, I had 2 imaginary friends and their names were “Gigard” and “Pourd.” They lived in the heat register that was in the floor of an old house we lived in Muskegon, Michigan. I ran across a picture of them I drew for my mother, when I was about 4. I found it in her belongings after she died. Of course, I still have it. It’s in storage. “Gigard” is vertical, “Pourd” is horizontal, unless it’s the other way, depending on what my mood was at the time. My mother loved this. Moms are special. Here’s a rendering from memory:




I Drew this yesterday; do I have a career as a Primitive Artist? I didn't think so either


8. Favorite season?

Whatever the season isn’t at the time. No, I was born in Michigan and grew up in California, which was pretty bland. I went back to Michigan for school and ended up staying 16 years, before moving to Florida. I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina for a year, before moving back to Tampa in 2000. I love Florida. I thought I would love being back in Michigan. I did for about a week after the first really big snow fall. Then I had to be an adult in it and I hated it. I hate even thinking about the snow.

What a PITA! (Pain In The Ass) No other season requires you to spend 45 minutes putting on Haz-Mat gear just to take out the damned garbage. You have to put all this gear on to keep from getting frost bite. I had these stupid mittens that zipped up to the middle of my upper arms that were plastic. They only had a thumb, one finger, and the other 3 fingers were fused together, like some kind of mutant opera glove-crab claw. I looked like a carny from Hell going to Opening Night. Add the snow suit and try picking up the garbage in the house wearing that shit. Then, I get half way across the driveway, and WHOOAAAHHH!!! Down she goes!!!!! And lay there until freaking April with a messed up back; think “Christmas Story.” So, I guess you can tell winter isn’t my favorite season.

In Florida, any season is okay. Perversely enough, I love the violent weather. It doesn’t bother me. I’ve never evacuated from any hurricane, or any natural disaster, for that matter. Perversely, I’d prefer something with no sun, being susceptible to skin cancer, that’s why I opted into the new State of Florida Medicaid Bat-Plan*, starting this Fall, only eleventy-jillion dollars.
  
*I'm planning another post about the State of Florida public assistance. This has been prompted by a completely asinine letter I received yesterday and will tie in with my last "MAXIMUM INEFFICIENCY" Post. Originally, it was going to be post 65 of ROW80, but this is the last day of ROW80 until sometime in October, so I have to find another batch of writers to leech off of, er, join for a brief while, until this cranks up in October. I plan on joining again. Quel sad, but not overly so. "Homeless Chronicles" is still kicking.

9. Did you play sports in school? What were they? If not, do you regret not playing sports?

I did not play sports and I don’t regret it. I played in so many different orchestras and ensembles, I’ve never had any cause to regret that part. Besides, sometimes playing with musicians gets to be like contact sports. One afternoon in rehearsal, we had a fist-fight break out in the viola section. True story; $100,000.00 violas and $10,000.00 bows were flying around. I ducked when my stand partner threw a left cross. So, I guess I got the best of both worlds.

10. Dvd or Blu-ray?

They’re both nice(?) If it’s moving, I see it. I can’t really tell the difference. As long as it stays IN the screen, I’m cool. My brain has a truce with it; move and don’t hit, okay. Move and hit, I hit back. Actually, we watch everything on HD on my 20” computer monitor.

11. You get to become a villain for a day from a Disney movie. Which villain are you?

I am not much of a Disney fan, I must confess. I worked for Disney for a bit; Disney is a villain all by itself. The couple of times I played for them, we ended up calling them “Mauseschwitz,” where “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which is absolutely tasteless, but musicians are NOT classy people at all! Still, we would play like 9 shows in 9 hours with 15 minute breaks between each show for a few weeks. Union rate, but killing pace.

So, villains… hmm, yes… I think either “Scar” from “Lion King” or “Cruella de Ville.” From the 1962 version of “101 Dalmations.” Scar is way awesome. Being a lion and all. But Cruella swaggering around with that cigarette and the holder and that giant coat that was some batch of animal pelts. I remember feeling all shivery thinking that she was going to make all those puppies into another coat from their skins. As a kid, I was just fascinated with that. I was probably all down with it and thought it was cool. We were barbaric in my family. I’m the last of my generation and I still have a veneer of barbarity, hee.
  
I want to thank Aaron for this opportunity to participate in the Awards process for Liebster Prize. These are my nominations for Liebster Award. Be aware that these Blogs may have over 200 followers and I obviously can’t nominate blogs that have been nominated before. Frankly, “liebe” meaning “love” I can come up with a whole bunch more than 11 blogs, but this post is too long already.

Before I put down my eleven nominations, this is a good time to mention that this is the last post for this batch of ROW80. This has been a hell of a ride. I've learned enormous amounts about writing and writerly type stuff and have actually become a much clearer, better thinker, although you can't always tell from stuff like what I just wrote. I would be remiss, if I didn't thank Kait Nolan for hosting letting me jump in mid-stream and post my gibberish and then have the patience to try and pry out of me, just what I was asking, when I wasn't even sure I knew. I'm like that a lot. I also want to thank Wayne Borean for giving my writing my writing such credibility and publishing my postings in #ROW80. Never before has reinforcement felt so wonderful.

My prior writing experience has not been a constant, but it is something I return to again and again. I could say I was forced to due to other things being taken from me. A less grateful person would say that. I prefer to think of it as winning a third chance. That's 3 for 3. .1000 for you baseball fans.

11 Questions for my nomination chosen by dadblunders and my Answers



My Questions for My Nominations


1.  What is your favorite flavor?

2.  Which do you prefer, 2 pm or 2 am and why?

3.  Have you done the things you set out to do, or are you “editing your script?”

4.  Did you pursue your “passion,” from childhood to adulthood, or has your “passion” changed?    If it has, what has it become?

5.  Coca-cola or Pepsi?

6.  If you were in a video game, what character or game would you be?

7.  Who would play you in a fictionalized treatment of your life and what final form would that take? (I love this question, feel free to expand all hellaz, here)

8.  What has been the defining event, or period in your life, if such a thing has happened? Do you feel you may be approaching a culmination, or is the process of learning with your children all of a piece? (I know I’m meshing 2 different audiences here, but hey, we’re all bi-peds; it’ll work.)

9.) What would you have for a Super Power? For Good or Evil?

10.)  Did you have a favorite sock or “binkie” or item that could not pried from your little paws, awake or asleep? Is this item still around?

11.) Did you ever play the same record/song/VCR tape over and over and over until your parents went mad with frustration and hollered and bawled and tore their hair? What was that masterpiece? Barney? 101 Dalmations? Teletubbies?  

**If nominees answered the questions and posted BEFORE 9/22, those were the questions dadblunders had asked, and will stand. The above were the ones I FORGOT to cut and paste to my post because my eyes were waging WWIII with Blogger and had lost. They were off sulking and forgot all about the business of trying to SEE images and send the info to my BRAIN. Sorry. My Part of the Liebster will just be schizo; how apt. This in no way changes anything. Carry on. <3

NOMINEES






Checked in: MBOK Answers (09/22/2012)







*I'm planning another post about the State of Florida public assistance. This has been prompted by a completely asinine letter I received yesterday and will tie in with my last "MAXIMUM INEFFICIENCY" Post. Originally, it was going to be post 65 of ROW80, but this is the last day of ROW80 until sometime in October, so I have to find another batch of writers to leech off of, er, join for a brief while, until this cranks up in October. I plan on joining again. Quel sad, but not overly so. "Homeless Chronicles" is still kicking.

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