WIP

When I turned 50 a couple of months ago I felt a sense of liberation. I'm old enough to know what matters and what doesn't, and certainly too old to worry about what people think of me. WYSIWYG, as they say in my business, and let the chips fall where they may.

Then came last Tuesday. The Ten on Tuesday was ten words people would use to describe you, and I felt as if I'd consumed a quart of ice cream in world-record time. I guess I still care a lot what people think of me, and I worry that some of it might not be good. As a friend said, inevitably some people won't like me, and since there's nothing I can do about it I shouldn't worry; and after decades of practice I actually almost have that one. It's the people who do like me that I get bent out of shape about: do they really? and why? Because if I start trying to analyze it, I'm damned if I can come up with a reason. Of course it's hard to think when your brain is frozen.

Nonetheless, I'm going to take a crack at this, if (almost) a week late, as a character-building exercise.

Ten Words People Would Use to Describe Me

1. knitter
   
2. spinner
   
3. creative
   
4. funny
   
5. grammarian
   
6. ailurophile
   
7. sesquipedalian
   
8. tangential
   
9. unglamorous
   
10. bookish

Well. That wasn't nearly so hard as I'd feared. The factual ones are indisputable and therefore easy, but there are a couple there that I really could use if asked "what are your strengths?" — which, as you might guess, is the interview question I dread the most. #8 btw is a description actually given not of me, exactly, but of my conversational style: after (again) decades of self-training I am capable of staying on the same topic for more than half a sentence, but it's not easy.

Are you still here? If you've patiently read through all of this omphaloskepsis, the least I can do is give you some eye candy, even if it is Monday.



Bring on the next Ten on Tuesday: I'm ready. I think.