(Leah, I’m stealing this photo you took to give
others a false sense of my sophistication. )
On Friday night, I saw the musical “Wicked” at the Pantages Theater with Wendy from Quiet About Alot of Things.   Although Wendy lives in Colorado, she grew up in Pasadena, and came to town for her high school reunion.Â
Although I didn’t find Wicked’s music that memorable, the story was fantastic. It is based on a novel by Gregory Maguire, and is a revisionist re-telling of “The Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch is the moral heroine, the Good Witch is a bimbo, and the Wizard of Oz is a selfish, power-hungry tyrant. It all works perfectly and makes you feel as if the Judy Garland movie is nothing more than a propaganda film. I’m a big fan of the Wizard of Oz, but I always felt there was something sinister about the Wizard, especially the way he hid behind his curtain.
Do bloggers hide behind curtains?  I love meeting bloggers because I get to see them without the smoke and mirrors of their blog posts. I don’t suggest that we are sinister behind the scenes, but that we can only show a representation of ourselves in our writing.  Most of us hide behind curtains, even in real life. Part of the reason I’m in therapy now is that I’m trying to peek behind MY OWN curtain. I think we sometimes would rather see our own superficial self-image than confront who we really are inside.
If I read someone’s work, I usually get a sense of their character from the page. What is surprising is how much MORE the person is in real life, as if the real Wizard has just stepped out from behind his curtain.
I talked a little bit about this with Wendy because I visualized her to be slightly different than she turned out to be. On the page, she is very introspective, and she writes very evocative, sensual poetry. I imagined her as a pretty, but somber Poetess, perhaps someone who wears a lot of black. I did not expect a feisty dynamo of a woman jumping out of her rental convertible, her hair flying in the wind, someone who relaxes at home by showjumping horses competitively! Which one is the real HER? Probably BOTH of them!  She is a MOMMY and a WIFE and an ATHLETE and a POET. I really enjoyed hearing her stories. I might write “spicy” stories on my blog, but believe me — there are some who have actually LIVED them! (I’m not going to mention anyone’s name, Wendy, and ruin their innocent reputation)
On Saturday night, a group of bloggers got together in LA to welcome the very cool Heather B from No Pasa Nada, who was visiting California.  She seems to know everyone in the blogosphere. I’ve met Leah and Abigail before, and they are both really wonderful people.  Leah — who organized the LA Bloggers Live  group — always seems to be working on some new creative project. Here is her new Leahpeah Store!   She took some nice photos of our meeting, like the one on top.  I recently kicked Abigail’s ass on Facebook’s Scrabble.  Next time, I need to be a little more careful because her confidence is strong after winning five thousand dollars on a game show.
I didn’t know Heather from Nabbalicious until recently.  Her photography is terrific. I expected her to be very chic and artsy in person, but I didn’t expect her to be a little… klutzy, in a sexy, Lucille Ball kind of way. She walked around all night at the Grove and the crowded Farmer’s Market with this beautiful, expensive camera around her neck, looking very professional, but she also had a habit of poking random strangers in the back with with her zoom lens.  Now, that’s sort of goofy, but hot.Â
Sophia liked this photo that Heather took of me.  Â
Probably, my biggest surprise of the evening was Joe, Leah’s husband.  First of all, I tend to avoid talking to men when there are four beautiful women around. The first time I met him, I was under the impression that his blog was mostly about PHP code, which is about exciting to me as… well, PHP code.  But I was totally wrong.  Joe’s been blogging before “blogging” was even a word. Even though there is a lot of tech stuff on his blog, there is also a good amount of heart-felt personal stuff, including recent posts about his mother and her health. His blog is also the perfect place to sneak a view of what Leah looked like in 2002.
The next blogger I’m scheduled to see in person is Laurie of Crazy Aunt Purl. She starts her book tour on Thursday, October 11th at the Barnes and Nobel at the Grove at 7:30 PM, right across from the restaurant where I met the other bloggers.  When we passed the bookstore, I told Heather B. about Laurie’s book signing. Heather spoke about Laurie’s amazing writing talent, and how popular she is with her readers.  I had to laugh to myself because if I had known about Laurie’s popularity, I would have feared approaching her, much like Dorothy meeting the scary Wizard of Oz. Instead, the first time I accidentally came to her blog I noticed a photo of the Farmer’s Market, where she is involved in Stitch N’ Bitch. I emailed her, excited to see this location in a photo, because it is one of my favorite places in LA. After she responded, I immediately started to flirt with her, as I tend to do, making mention of some sexy boots she was wearing. At first, I didn’t even bother to read her blog. Who wants to read a blog about knitting and cats? Is there anything more girly? However, once I started reading her blog, I realized that Laurie had a lot more to say underneath it all. She doesn’t just write about knitting. She has a unique way of combining humor and emotion, so you laugh while getting a glimpse behind the “curtains” of her personality.  I remember thinking to myself, “This blog should be more popular because it is so good. I really should tell people about it,” imagining a shy woman who is writing just for herself and her cats.  And then I noticed she was getting like 300 comments a day.  Oops.
(Laurie, no need for any thank you for this public service announcement about your book tour, but I wouldn’t mind a photo of you wearing those boots for my personal collection — and please write my name as “Hot Stuff” when you sign my copy of your book tomorrow)
