AficioNada

Yes, that's me at the, uh, wheel? And yes, my instructor is making a joke. So not funny.

 I've been tagged...

I love and hate the concept of being “tagged.” I love it because the concept has an appealing inter-web playfulness  to it, and it inspires casual communication and camaraderie among bloggers (which is one reason to start a blog  in the first place).

On the other hand, I agree with Diane of Napa Farmhouse 1885, the wonderful  writer, eco-entrepreneur and organically beautiful woman who “tagged” me. When Diane was “tagged,” she wrote in her post that this tagging presents a problem because she’s a private person and the parts of her life she has felt comfortable sharing are already posted…on her blog.

I feel much the same way about my blogging life, although I suspect I’ve shared sufficiently more “parts” of me on my site than Diane has on hers. Mystery and enigma are not adjectives most people use to describe me.  Still, I was thrilled Diane tagged me, and I have spent a few days trying to come up with some suitably scintillating – or at the very least, moderately interesting – details you might not know about me.

A small handful of my very large family.1.   I have a huge family back home, and this wouldn’t be the case had my parents not divorced when I was a little girl. Now, I am NOT, NOT, NOT advocating divorce and yet…I could not imagine growing up playing Boxcar Children without my stepsisters or spending Thanksgiving Eve with any group other than my stepdad’s wonderfully crazy family. I adore my mama, daddy, brother and Nanny, but my world would not be nearly as rich without my stepmother, stepsisters, stepbrother and stepfather. Not to mention, my step-everything else: grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and nieces.

2.   I love SEC Football. If you’ve read my blog, you certainly know this. I am proud of my Arkansas roots. What you might not know, however, was that I was a college cheerleader. For months, I tried to keep this on the DL here in Napa Valley, but word's gotten out.  And yes, I can do a mean hog call.

3.   I hate that I am afraid of flying. Two years ago, I agreed to take flying lessons for a magazine assignment because I thought climbing into the pilot seat of a tiny, two-seater Beechcraft might help me overcome my fear.  It didn’t, and I still am.

4.   I’m a magazine junkie. I think Esquire has the most gorgeous lean, masculine writing style, and Vanity Fair is out of my league. I discovered some of my favorite nonfiction authors through pieces they published in magazines: Jancee Dunn at Rolling Stone (and Elle, these days), Chuck Klosterman from Esquire, Lettie Teague from Food and Wine, John T. Edge from Gourmet and Oxford American and Garden & Gun…I could go on forever.

5.   To continue the writing theme, I also think the short story is one of the most underrated art forms. Along with the essay.  Annie Dillard is the essay master. Teaching a Stone to Talk, The Writing Life, For the Time Being, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – these are my writing (and living) handbooks.  Bill Bryson may fall under the “travel writer” genre, but I like to look at the chapters in his books as a series of linked essays. Ohh, I love his words! When it comes to short stories, Southern writers like Eudora Welty, Katherine Mansfield, and Flannery O’Connor all hold a special place in my heart. I also love Andre Dubus III, Lorrie Moore, Roald Dahl, Ellen Gilchrist and…again, I could go on forever. When I was a teenager, Ellen Gilchrist’s dream-like stories inspired me to write; in college, she and another incredible writer, Molly Giles, turned out to be my most treasured professors. I took as many of their classes as I could.

6.   If the last two “revelations” are any indication, my hunger for the written word came long before my hunger for "fine" food and wine. Again, you only have to look at my blog to know that I tend to poke fun at my lack of culinary skills when compared to the talented individuals I have met in the last year. Out here, I have watched five-year olds devour uni and offal with the same energy I reserved for my favorite childhood meal: tuna fish patties (canned tuna rolled in stale bread crumbs, crackers and mayo and then fried) and pinto beans. I considered it a special night if supper ended with a Swiss Cake Roll or anything made by Keebler elves. Note: My mother's really quite talented in the kitchen. I just refused to eat many of her other delicious dinners.

I didn't fall in love with wine and food until I worked in a small fine dining restaurant in college. A few months and a cooking class in Italy further encouraged this new obsession, but this doesn't erase the fact that I grew up thinking TGI Friday’s was fine dining, macaroni and cheese was always orange, and Chili’s really did make the ultimate margarita. I still rely on recipes for many things and long for the day when I’ll truly be able to “play by ear” in the kitchen.

So many books and foods are still out there that I haven’t yet tried. You have no idea how happy this makes me. It also makes me happy to “tag” a few fellow bloggers (who are all supposed to reveal six things about themselves, link back to me and tag six other individuals). These folks may one day be the very people I drawl on and on about….

1.     Napa Nest, because Ann’s beautiful site has inspired me to take many long walks and to get out my sketch pad and just let go. And because she hasn’t yet responded to Diane’s request, so I thought we might “tag team” her. Bad pun intended.

2.     365 Days of Wine. Cathy Huyghe’s got a big heart and a poetic sensibility about wine.

3.     The Run-A-Muck. Amber’s been MIA on the blog scene. I need her beautiful words.  Her writing is my soul food, literally. Maybe this will bring her out of hiding.

4.     Corked. Richard, over at Stoney Creek Winepress occasionally writes zany, creative wine fiction on his site. Could one day be a legitimate genre – and Richard would be a way-paver.

5.    Food Orleans. An Arkansas poet who has relocated to New Orleans, she made some of my most treasured meals during college. And she did it in a tiny kitchen in an old apartment in an old, old Victorian. 

6.    Anomaly Vineyards. Linda has become a treasured sounding board here in California. Both for writing and for life. She and her husband also make one stunning cabernet.