Ringing, Singing, and Blinging...

Summertime dictates that I get my kids to all their doctors’ visits so we don’t have to deal with it in the school year.  Why?  Because…I happen to have the only two children who get angry on the last day of school because the year is over!  Heaven forbid they lose time during the year for something important like a teeth cleaning or an eye exam!  Silly buggars!

Anyway, we’re at the eye doctor and Vz gets cleared, but Clair and I?  Hmm.  We need help!  While Clair is in her appointment, I go ahead and pick out my frames.  I admit, I went in there (like I do everything else in my life) with preconceived fashion ideas and thought I wanted the lovely Silhouette Rimless frames with the tiniest piece of bling on the earpiece which, incidentally, was bronze to match my hair color.  Well, that was until I saw the price tag and about croaked right there in the display room!  I mean, geeze Louise!  So I went shopping.   

And see, here’s the thing.  I had already dropped by there before to check out their frames to kind of give myself a heads-up…you know, for my pre-conceivedness.  And when I was there the first time, I saw these absolutely masterfully created bling-a-ling-a-dingy cat eye sunglasses.  Oh.  My.  Gawd.  I loved them!  But I needed real glasses.  So after playing dress-up I put them back on the shelf like any good little Fancy Nancy would do.  Until this particular day, that is.  I want you to know, I zipped across that showroom floor from Silhouette to Bebe so fast I made the air whoosh and blur!  I did, I tell you!  And there they were, shining their bling right back at me all sparkly and brand new!  I put those Bebes on and walked around while the bells of heaven were ringing to my singing and blinging.  And I convinced myself I just had to have them.  

So I placed the order real fast-like and put that business behind me as Clair walked into the room with her own doctor’s orders to pick out frames.  And the process began again.  However, this time, Momma Me was there pointing the way to the Bebe shelf.  But Noooo!  She doesn’t like bling.  She’s not like me at all.  That’s your thing, she says.  And an hour and a half later, we’re paying for her own pair of Bebes with bling-edy-bling-bling-bling!  Yes sirree!  She does in fact do the bling! 

Now why am I telling you this?  Because, as someone I admire in the publishing business said in a newsletter yesterday, writers write what they know.  And what they know best is who they are themselves.  Their personal qualities and experiences in life are the filter the fictional characters and stories come through.

So do we really know ourselves?  Think about it.  Clair was in total denial of her bling-gene.  She comes by it naturally, too.  Norma Jean, Doc M, Sister, and I all have it.  So it just goes to reason that the grandkids would have it too, right?  Well, the Man-children do not have anything close to the bling gene unless you want to start talking fishin’ beads and bobbles.  (Actually, that kinda works!  Huh.  Go figure.)  Anyway, as a writer in training, Clair learned a little something about herself that day shopping amongst the intellectual, the rimless, the round and square, small and big.  She found herself.  She found part of her true identity in the bling.  

Now using ten character words I ask…who am I?  I am…. kind, loving, flamboyant, enthusiastic, friendly, fun, and dependable, a bit provocative, artistic, and totally wacked-out!  And I think that’s pretty much what I write, wouldn’t you say?

Finally, I put the question to you…Who are you?  In ten descriptive words, what makes you You?  And be sure to tell us…what do you write?   

Grocery lists are acceptable.