Thursday Thirteen – Questions for Claudia
Ok, it’s probably the cheese, but I received so many birthday question that I thought I’d spend a TT answering some.
Am I ridiculously narcissistic?
HEY, shut up! I am not a psychopath! It was MM who did all that stuff when we were kids, not me! Hell, he lied to Congress….
Ok, we’re moving on…
Anyway, the birthday question center closes tomorrow, February 8. So if you’re wondering, you best get asking…
Thursday Thirteen #16 – Questions for Claudia
1. What one indulgence can’t I live without? (From Jill at Another Day in the Same Life)
Sex? Ok, we’ll call sex a life necessity, not an indulgence.
I’ve lived without almost everything, including housing. I can live without everything. I wouldn’t want to live without:
- Lemon & Sage soap from Bliss Spa,
- Stilletto boots,
- Expensive lingerie,
- Weight lifting,
- Rose,
- of course D…
- OH and Macchiatos – 2 shots espresso, 1 Tbs hot milk foam……mmmmm….
2. What is the thing you are most proud of in your life? (Michelle at Lede Me On)
I am most proud of my sense of personal freedom.
I believe that I create meaning in my life. Thus, I believe that I am completely free to do whatever I’d like to do.That’s pretty amazing for the kid who was the “smelly” bottom of the totem pole in elementary school. Shit, my sisters shunned me at school. I was too “embarrassing” to them.
The joke’s on them! 
3. Who are the men in my life? Why are these men in my life? (From Greatfullivin‘)
I love men. I have a male friend who says that every man who meets me thinks, “At last, this one will understand me.” And I usually do.
I’ve never been promiscuous – I just have had a lot of male friends, male clients, male business relationships and male employees.
There are a lot of men in my life. My grandfather and father shaped my early life. I had MM to harangue me and 9 male friends in high school. (They are still around.) I dated a guy from 17 to 27 years old then met D. During that time, I had male friends at university, male friends when I worked at the lab, male friends when I programmed computers, male friends at the wilderness outfitters…. Then became a therapist to men. That’s a lot of men.
I think all of those men are counter balanced by my 3 sisters. If you have sisters? You’ll understand this.
4. What’s should your business card say you do? (This is from RileyBerry who needs a blog but has yet to take the plunge.)
Dream maker
That’s pretty much what I do.
5. How did I get in my current profession? (Josie at C’est La Vie)
When I saw this question, I wondered which profession she was talking about.
- Severe Trauma Therapist: I grew up with so many nutty people that I’ve never been overwhelmed by people’s experience. When I had a full practice, I was one of 10 people in the country who worked with this population. A couple people quit, so you do the math. (Look at the media now. No one knows what to do with the folks returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) When I had a full practice, people came from all over the West (1 person from NYC) to see me. I still get some of this.
- Therapist: I’m nosy as hell. People like to talk to me. I figured I should make some money doing it. In a town with more therapists per capita than any other place on the planet, I’ve done really well. I like it. It’s good work.
- Writer: I always wanted to communicate via fiction. Having learned to read at 3 years old, I have read a lot of fiction. I also read the newspaper from the time I was 4 1/2 years old until the papers merged here in Denver. (NYT online, baby!) I wrote non-fiction, self help article for the Open Grove for 6 years and had a column in a local paper for 3 1/2 years. Then one morning, I woke up with these characters in my head. I ignored them for a while (6 months) until I couldn’t sleep or eat without bringing them life.
- Beekeeper: I love bees. There’s no explanation for it. I just love them. To me, it’s concrete proof of past lives because I know stuff about bees that I really shouldn’t – like the sound of a hive makes when it’s queen flies off vs. when a queen dies. Specifically, I read the Secret Life of Bees and told D. that I loved bees. He said, “I have a friend that is selling some.” And whaa la, they moved into our backyard.
6. Why don’t I show more pictures of myself? (From She became a butterfly)
This is a complicated question.
I’ve been on the Internet since 2000. I ran the Open Grove and the Open Grove Audio magazine. I had some professional photos up originally but was recognized in… well odd places – my husband’s workplace, at dinner, while I was sobbing my eyes out in an airport bathroom stall, stuff like that. As a board, we decided to remove all photos of me from the web.
I also hate having my picture taken. I usually have the camera – I take the pictures – thus there are few photos that exist of me in the world. This Christmas we sent out photo Christmas cards. In every Colorado trail picture, I making the: “My husband made me take this picture” face.
7. What superhero would I like to be? (This is from Rileyberry)
I love Diana Prince. I love her husband Steve Trevor. I also love Wonder Woman. I like how small she is as Diana Prince and how big she is as Wonder Woman. Steve is hot. Rileyberry, you’ll be interested to know that Steve is a Special Forces Intelligence officer. Go figure.
Original Wonder Woman “…was described in the splash page of each story, as “beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules.” Isn’t she great?
8. Do I have any children? ( A couple people asked this)
The gift I give to the world is not to pass my genetics on. We’ve talked about adapting but there are issues with people (I swore not to speak of here) that would need to be resolved. We’ll see.
9. Do you have an regrets? (Michelle at Lede Me On)
I don’t believe in regrets. I have none.
Sure, I’ve made mistakes. Sure, I feel sad or guilty about this thing or that thing. But I love life – the good, the bad, the ugly and the magnificent.
I regret nothing.
10. How do I stay so fabulous? (Wonderful Kelly at What did you do?)
I don’t really know what she means here. Taking a stab….
I’m a very optimistic person. I always have been.
That said:
1. When I am blue, I work hard to move out of those feelings. I listen to Tony Robbins or some other motivating person. I watch Ted videos. I talk to friends who are doing great things with their lives. I don’t wallow in these feelings because I know they are self serving and lack real perspective on life. In other words, they are lies.
2. Here’s the big fat hairy truth: I know what it is to really suffer – day in day out suffer. Not just one incident or one day or one week or one time or one year or even one decade, I know real pressed to the absolute “I-will-not-survive-this” to the wall suffering.
After that? What’s to complain about?
11. What is my hair color? Do I wear glasses? (From Jill at Another Day in the Same Life)
My natural color is a kind of dark brown with red and blonde streaks in it. I’ve died it every color you can possibly imagine including purple. Yeah. First day on the job at UCSF, purple hair. I only have a few gray hairs – at 44 years old. I’m lucky.
I started wearing eyeglasses when I was at college. I’ve worn glasses, contacts, glasses, big glasses, small glasses, contacts, and on and on. I currently wear Day and Night contacts. My father and I shared the exact same prescription. I haven’t needed reading glasses yet, but that will come.
I have almond shaped brown eyes that take up a good portion of my face. Soulful eyes, that’s what people say. (Shrugging)
12. What is the books are important to me? (A couple people asked this)
Growing up, a few books stand out.
- Lord of the Rings: I could relate to Aragorn’s experience in that book. Was he able to set aside all that he thought about himself to become what he was meant to be?
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond: This unassuming tween book helped me understand real cause and effect. Yes, the girl was treated poorly. Still, she understands how her own actions unintentionally made others feel poorly. That was big learning for me.
- Bourne Series: Jason Bourne has horrible post traumatic stress disorder. I understood what was going on with me through his eyes. Later, I’ve assigned it to people with Complex PTSD. Like me, for the first time, they really get what is happening to them.
13. How do your friend describe you? (Rileyberry again!)
I have no idea how anyone describes me. What would you say? How would you describe me??
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