threeplusfire: (owl)
[personal profile] threeplusfire
Sometimes when I meet new people and talk a bit about my life, they say I should write a memoir. My reply is that such a book would read as unbelievable. Especially now in the era of James Frey and JT Leroy, my paltry collection of receipts and my newest chapter as a suburban homeowner might make it a hard sell. I joke that I live in the Twilight Zone, and anyone around me will eventually be affected by its strange ripples.

This is not the life I was supposed to live. Fourteen years ago I was a high school journalism student with a plan. I would be editor in chief of the school paper my senior year, win scholarships, and swan off to Stanford with my collection of science fiction and Russian novels. After college I would be a foreign correspondent in Russia and write stories that would make people care about the world. Then I would meet Peter Jennings at a press dinner, and he would fall in love with me. (I had a crush on Jennings for most of my life.) I'd have an apartment in New York with pale wood floors, a collection of unusual movies and pornography and never get married.

None of that actually happened.

Last month I bought a house in the suburbs of Austin with my second husband. My degree is in Czech & Russian Studies from UT Austin. I work part time from home for one of the new generation of dot-coms in the marketing industry. The rest of my time is spent watering the yard, reading voraciously, collecting shiny objects, taking care of our fourteen year old rescue cat and taking long baths or showers. A self taught baker, I don't follow any of those strict rules about measuring and careful chemistry. My chocolate strawberry pie is amazing. I never did meet Peter Jennings. But my house does have pale wood floors and a dvd collection which includes one of the greatest bad movies you never saw, Gypsy 83.

Perhaps this post should be about how I feel Josef Skvorecky is the greatest writer of the 20th century, that my first concert was Guns N Roses on their last tour, the time I ran away to live in the Czech Republic instead of going to grad school, how many times I've called the police on my sister, that I feel superior to other people because I can drive a manual transmission, about those awesome vampire cupcakes I made recently, that my characters are the only children I'll ever have, the gravel still embedded in my palm from a bicycle accident in 1993, why I was a social worker for nearly three years and why I quit, the David Bowie fanfiction I wrote in high school biology class, my favorite restaurants, the worst night of my life and my tattoos. That's a lot of minutiae for a first conversation. I'll get around to all of it eventually.

I'm writing in LJ Idol this year because of [livejournal.com profile] rm. She let me stay in her apartment without ever meeting me years ago just so I could see Alan Rickman and Lindsey Duncan in Private Lives and took me to eat sushi for my birthday. Over the past seven years she taught me how to use chopsticks, and never pulled a punch about my terrible interpersonal communication skills. I admire her fearsome eloquence and hope that this exercise will force me to work on improving my own writing.

Date: 2008-09-18 11:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] skimmed-miilk.livejournal.com
You sound like a very interesting person. I'm a fellow Idoler, & look forward to reading more of your submissions!

Date: 2008-09-18 02:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thanks for stopping in to read!

Date: 2008-09-18 01:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] schpahky.livejournal.com
Nicely done.

I keep meeting women who have/had crushes on Peter Jennings. I am one of those women!

Date: 2008-09-18 02:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Yay, someone who understands the Jennings love! He had the best ties, and the calmest voice. I miss him.

Date: 2008-09-18 01:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dabhug.livejournal.com
I enjoyed reading your words. I look forward to hearing all the stories you have to tell.

Date: 2008-09-18 02:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thank you muchly.

Date: 2008-09-18 02:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rosepurr.livejournal.com
This is not the life I was supposed to live.

This is always true of those of us who have the most interesting lives. :)

Date: 2008-09-18 07:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
I suppose so - rarely does it happen like a fairy tale.

Date: 2008-09-19 08:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jenandbronze.livejournal.com
I had similar things happen, instead of following a path I thought I'd do, I became a high school drop-out, very ill mentally, physically and psychologically, before i dived into college five years after that ordeal. I just graduated college in may. Not the best decision I wanted to make, but it is a path, that will soon be followed, with a new-found goal to pursue. The light is definitely at the end of the tunnel--somewhere!

Good luck to you as a fellow Idoler

Date: 2008-09-18 02:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] halfacork.livejournal.com

I would read your memoir.

Are you going to post your stories for the comm here too? I keep meaning to bookmark so I can "write at home" since posting no, never again.

I think I'm allergic to a larger audience than my flist.

Date: 2008-09-18 07:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
All my entries for the contest will be posted here, so you can read them. :)

Date: 2008-09-18 04:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chite.livejournal.com
Just lovely. And I want to make vampire cupcakes too!

Date: 2008-09-18 07:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thanks! You should, the vampire cupcakes were epic and delicious. I had to make a whole second batch of the strawberry ones just for us. This is the best strawberry cake recipe ever.

Date: 2008-09-18 07:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chite.livejournal.com
oh yum. Now to clear my schedule for a day to bake! haha.

Date: 2008-09-18 10:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] coyotegoth.livejournal.com
Very nice (and I still have to catch up on Gypsy 83!)

Date: 2008-09-19 04:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thanks. You really need to watch that movie, because I'd love to hear your opinion.

Date: 2008-09-19 01:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sabbysteg.livejournal.com
You sound cool. *add*

Date: 2008-09-19 04:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thanks very much!

Date: 2008-09-19 05:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] abbismom.livejournal.com
Awesome intro Amanda! But then you know what a fan I am of your writing.

This is gonna be fun!!!

Date: 2008-09-19 05:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. It was hard to figure out where to start!

Date: 2008-09-19 11:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] libra-dragon.livejournal.com
Lovely entry and I look forward to reading more

Date: 2008-09-19 04:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thanks, I am glad (and relieved) to know it is engaging.

Date: 2008-09-19 02:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] walkertxkitty.livejournal.com
It might not be the life you planned, but it's still and interesting and eclectic one. Good to meet you and I am looking forward to reading more.

Date: 2008-09-19 04:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thank you.

Date: 2008-09-19 07:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kf4vkp.livejournal.com
I'm told to write a book too, and my answer is the same. It's my brother who I called the cops on though.

I look forward to reading your entries!

Date: 2008-09-20 03:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Always glad to meet others with peculiar biographies. There should be an LJIdol merit badge "Calling the police on family members." ;)

Date: 2008-09-20 05:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kf4vkp.livejournal.com
Totally would get that badge.

Mine's very peculiar, some of that may come out during the contest, I'm sure.

Date: 2008-09-21 12:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beeker121.livejournal.com
Us manual drivers have to stick together!

Pleased to meet you.

Date: 2008-09-21 03:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
We do! Glad to meet another master of the stick shift.

Date: 2008-09-21 03:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] java-fiend.livejournal.com
Sorry that things didn't work out with Peter Jennings, but it sounds like you've had an interesting life nonetheless.

Best of luck this season. I'm looking forward to your entries!

Date: 2008-09-21 03:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Aww thanks. Peter and I never did meet, but we always had World News Tonight.

(Also, icon love!)

Date: 2008-09-22 05:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] java-fiend.livejournal.com
Yes, you and Peter always have that and nobody can take it away from you. :-)

I can't take credit for the icon though... a friend made it, I loved it, so I snagged it. :-)

Date: 2008-09-21 01:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kittenboo.livejournal.com
i am really looking forward to hearing more from you, great intro, pulled me right in and kept me reading!

Date: 2008-09-21 03:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Thank you! I'm glad it was engaging. It took awhile to write, but I was pleased with the setup of the story.

Date: 2008-09-21 07:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bodlon.livejournal.com
Oh. Oh. I like you. I identify with this on a billion levels. I seriously cannot wait to read more from you. This is going to be awesome.

Date: 2008-09-21 07:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Yay! Now I need the teleportation device so you and [livejournal.com profile] rm can come over for pie and Torchwood. Where is my sci-fi future and teleportation device?!?

Date: 2008-09-21 07:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bodlon.livejournal.com
Don't know, but when you find yours, could you send me mine as well?

Date: 2008-09-21 07:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Will do - it is probably in one of those boxes I haven't unpacked yet...

Also, that is the best icon ever. I need to make that into a big sign to plant in my front yard!

Date: 2008-09-21 10:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] baxaphobia.livejournal.com
Interesting how our lives take turns we don't expect! Good to meet you and good luck.

Date: 2008-09-22 03:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
It certainly gives one something to write about on Livejournal. Thanks for reading, and good luck to you!

Date: 2008-09-22 12:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thenodrin.livejournal.com
Nice entry.

And, I know what you mean about not living the life you were supposed to. Last Christmas I posted about how I was supposed to grow up to be George Baily.

Theno

Date: 2008-09-22 03:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Well, if we had too many George Baileys, things might get a little crazy. ;) Thanks for reading.
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