LJ Idol, Week 0: Introduction

[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 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.

Comments

[skimmed-miilk.livejournal.com]

You sound like a very interesting person. I'm a fellow Idoler, & look forward to reading more of your submissions!

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Nicely done.

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

[dabhug.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading your words. I look forward to hearing all the stories you have to tell.

[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. :)

[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.

[chite.livejournal.com]

Just lovely. And I want to make vampire cupcakes too!

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Very nice (and I still have to catch up on Gypsy 83!)

[sabbysteg.livejournal.com]

You sound cool. *add*

[abbismom.livejournal.com]

Awesome intro Amanda! But then you know what a fan I am of your writing.

This is gonna be fun!!!

[libra-dragon.livejournal.com]

Lovely entry and I look forward to reading more

[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.

[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!

[beeker121.livejournal.com]

Us manual drivers have to stick together!

Pleased to meet you.

[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!

[kittenboo.livejournal.com]

i am really looking forward to hearing more from you, great intro, pulled me right in and kept me reading!

[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.

[baxaphobia.livejournal.com]

Interesting how our lives take turns we don't expect! Good to meet you and good luck.

[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