1. I cannot type the word “the” correctly. Believe me, it has many permutations.
2. I type slowly but read very quickly. I took a speed reading class and started at most folks’ ending speed.
3. I have always been cheap with myself. The times when I have not been have made me proud of myself.
4. I am a kind person. (Surprise!) I love people and thrive in group endeavors.
5. I love animals. All of them. I especially love birds and have lived with them intimately. I have been closer to Great Blue Herons than is prudent.
6. I will be an uncaged wild bird in my next life. (I knew this before my Buddhist cousin, who has a book on this, told me.)
7. I am a compulsive editor. Mistakes leap out at me. (Don’t let this make you nervous. If it is egregious, I send a private email, never in comments.)
8. But for two winters, I have been married since I was seventeen.
9. I am fun at a party and have been told I could have fun at a funeral. (My response: Depends on whose!)
10. I used to have the “unearthly singing voice of an angel” before a virus warped my left vocal cord. I have since compensated for this, but the great control and high notes are gone. The blessing is that friends listen with their memory and find my voice unchanged.
11. I hate hatred which is counterproductive of me. I firmly believe that love is much stronger than hate.
12. Social justice is my core and center. I am a tiger when I advocate for others.
13. I am a late-blooming writer, beginning in my forties.
14. Since joining Salon, I can read a chapter, write a three-page essay, and get an A on it in fifteen minutes. (This is my fortieth post. Writer’s block is gone!)
15. I need the skill in #15 because I have short term memory loss.
16. Not planning to have children, I have been blessed with my daughter who is like talking to myself. The last thing my father said to me was to have children.
17. I have a full length mink coat. I am allowed since Dad was a mink farmer.
18. Because Dad was a mink farmer, I always open the windows wide when we happen upon a dead skunk in the middle of the road. Reminds me of him.
19. I have worn my mink coat nude with fur-side-in. (My Aunt Flo tells me that Marilyn Monroe was famous for this.)
20. I love my Mom and keep her myrtlewood box of ashes in the living room. I bring her flowers and light candles when I miss her. She was an incredibly sweet mother.
21. I love the Earth upon which I was raised. The Columbia and Willamette rivers are the blood within my veins; their wetlands are my home.
22. I want the long death of cancer so I can say goodbye well.
23. I am sitting on a ¾ done novel and half of my second project. (Am thinking of posting an excerpt.)
24. I crewed aboard the 90’ Sparkman Stephens Yawl Odyssey out of Tacoma. Being on the helm in gale warnings in the straits of Juan de Fuca was one of the high points in my life. I have spent enough time on the water in boats too small for the conditions that I have almost died more than once.
25. My sister, O’Kathryn, has been my live-long friend and has stood between me and the world many times.
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Comments
Thomas?
I've been called Ms. dicotomy before which suits all the persons that I am. When I borrow Daughter's scanner, I will show you more of the ship which owns me. Towards spring when the rivers are too high to run, I plan to do a sailing open call and invite posters who do anything on water to tell their sea stories. (Check out Ardee's post "Without a Paddle". Exquisite writing.)
I just blew coffee through my nose. This is a keeper.
You are "the sweetest young lady on the OS." Wait, I've said that before I do believe. ;-)
Brotherly Hugs
G
Bart,
I am an olfactorially enhanced person. Mom's joke about mink farmers was that old mink farmers never die, they just smell that way.
Hey Lonnie,
You know, a person always wonders if a poster would be the same in person. You preceived me very well and I found you to be the person you seem (except we never did get to that nude beach!) We will be back next July...
Greg,
Indeed, O'K and I are close sisters. Not at all twins, we encompass many qualities and have a world together.
paula
"23. I am sitting on a ¾ done novel and half of my second project. (Am thinking of posting an excerpt.)"
Please do.
12- Did you catch the post on childhood executions I think it was yesterday? Unbelievable.
10-Lost the voice! That was sad to read.
Thanks for sharing yourself , Peace
Just got back from your 25. (Want to hear about that best man thing...)
phSFca and Krissi,
Thank your for stopping by. I look forward to reading more of your stuff.
Hi Hy!
The excerpt I have in mind will make the rest of the book look good. heheh
Idaho!
Thanks, man. I did see that post but avoided it as I am so sensitive to images, mental or visual, and it would haunt me for weeks. I actually have studied issues concerning children worldwide. (Have a 3-inch binder on child labor, for instance.) I was not brave enough this time.
I did that fur coat thing once to great success, back in the days when I wasn't as sensitized.
Your post is at once appealingly sweet and informative. Love stands out as the foundation of your living - among all 25 (even the windows let wide open for skunk scent to reminisce about your dad).
Having stayed on the Willamette River several times and ridden bikes on her lush green paths allowed me to feel some of your post more than I may have without the experience. But your words convey more than enough so that even those unacquainted with Oregon can feel its impact upon your life as well as the other mighty influences that have shaped you.
Rated and appreciated.
Yeah, that fur-side-in thing was met with "great success" also... but I left that part out...
Dennis,
What can I say? Your writng is so lyrical and wonderful that I thrill when I get one of your great comments or emails. Thansk so much for your astuteness and kind words. Yeah. Love.
Glad you got to enjoy the Willamette. I have very deep roots in that river system. Towards spring, I will post about her.
I do sense the pain behind your comment. My dad went slow whichwas hard, but my mom went fast, which was harder. No way is good!
Smile,
Dean
Lalucas,
I am just heading over to your 25.
#5 - my sister returned to her home in the not too distant past to find a great blue standing in her koi pond - finishing off the last of the koi. Her small pond now had heron-proof netting ......
#7 - I wish! I'm a horrid proof reader. I can read over the same blatant mistakes in my own writing any number of repetitions without catching them at all.
12. Social justice is my core and center. I am a tiger when I advocate for others.
Me too and it gets me in a lot of trouble.
I should have mentioned other person's writing. I skip over some of mine all the time. Yeah, those great blues are impressive. Sorry about the koi! Owl and heron statues can add some fish safety as well. We also have osprey all the time. I keep my big goldfish inside.
Natalie B,
Yeah, I bet that does not stop you any more than it has ever stopped me. Where angels fear to tread.
Yeah, sisters. There is no one else in the world who is more like you than a sister not to mention the shared history.
Odette,
I thoroughly love you, girl!
I love your water story idea. I have many of those to share.
You also have a very fortunate fur coat.
Happy New Year, Nature Girl! M
Will need to check you out! My bestest friend was a "fat David" and I miss him a lot. And there will be many more stories. OS really broke open my writer's block and I can't seem to stop myself!
David,
You cutie! You too can have this experience. People shed furs which is why you find them in Goodwill stores. Just pick one out and try it on in the dressing room. You will have to enjoy it quietly however or they might throw you out! (Moaning Oh my Sarah will do it)
Melinda,
So glad to have you stop by. I am hoping to get around to all the folks I have neglected during the holidays.
Michael,
You made me laugh right out loud! Actually, the nudist camps here are open all winter as well. I am going to our New Years Eve party and have picked out my (little) black outfit. As long as we have our warm pool and hot tub, we can cope.
I do love south Florida as well because my o'sister lives there and I visit her every year at the beginning of hurricane season. For three years now, I have kept these buggers at bay.
And we will do that sailing/boating theme more towards spring when I start itching to get out.
Great going, O'Sister!
The Columbia and Willamette rivers are the blood within my veins; their wetlands are my home---is exquisite.
Great to see your smiling face on my site!
hmmm...You've given me the idea of posting it as another comment story. See what folks can make of that. I know what I made of it.
I waxed lyrical on my river system. As soon as I can talk my daughter out of her scanner, I'm going to post about this river. Long history complete with battles such as possible siting of the Nuclear Waste repository and the Mobiloil spill of 1983. I was there.
Sorry to be late stopping by, but it's been busy in my neck of the woods. Loved your 25, no surprise there.
I so look forward to meeting you in person some day, lady - if not in this life, then in the next.
Thumbed.
Good to see you here always! There is talk about a real convention but, with a continent between, it might have to be the next one. I will be a bird remember so you better not be a cat. Wildlife photographer would do nicely!
Your mother was fortunate to have shared time with you...
#10 made the old salty drops fall........
"I want the long death of cancer so I can say goodbye well."
I also wanted to comment that your photo makes me smile. It is so wide open and friendly. It's happiness personified. Maybe you knew the photographer.
Also, also...work on that voice thing. You'd be surprised. Either work more on your lower range or start doing daily high range exercises. I feel you could accomplish a lot with this.
Gary,
Special thanks to you for picking out #10. It was the hardest loss to deal with. Up until the age of thirty, I sang everywhere--in public restrooms, school, work, car. Mine was an unusual voice, quite unlike my speaking voice which is low. All loss teaches, however, and I am grateful for friends who begged me to sing and then listened with a loving ear. Karoke mics are kind.
Bless you!
Beth,
Great to see you here! enjoy your work very much and am so glad to let others know.Yeah, the cancer death thing is probably one I will have granted considering the family history.
The voice has actually improved but not to the point where I can sing my own songs which were designed for my voice and what I could do with it. You are right though, so I will start singing in the car again.
Thanks!
Stephanie,
The better I know you, the more I think we share. Your 25 was like that for me too. Maybe the name, eh? I had a long period of writer's block before I found OS and now I can't seem to shut it off. I don't get much housework done.
Without a Paddle
Your post with the above name is one of my favorties. I am so impressed how you paddled without a paddle and can only imagine what you can do when you have one! Thanks!
I have my mother's fur coat (I always say I'm allowed because my dad gave it to her in 1936 and it has her initials embroidered on the inside). I can't wait to try wearing it inside out while naked.
How come I never thought of that??
Thanks! It is always well to be "grateful".
Sierrasong,
Yeah, it was just hanging there and I was looking at it and thinking--"I wonder if it would hurt the coat to turn it fur-side-in." And then it just didn't matter. It is a great place to wear it if you live in places where fur is a sin. Nothing warmer! When I have worn it outside (fur-side-out), I have never met with any bad comments.
Thanks for looking me up. I have been dipping into tarheeltoker's excellent collection the same way.