Part Two: Six Guilty Pleasures

Name six guilty pleasures you wish you had the courage (or money!) to indulge:

1. I have always had a longing to see Niagara Falls.  Now I know for those of you who are world travelers, that must seem kind of…I dunno…quotidian.  But, really, I’ve always wanted to go there.  Funny thing is, I’ve never had the inclination (or money) to travel overseas, but I’ve always yearned to see all of the United States and Canada, though I’ve barely made it beyond North Carolina or Virginia.  Maybe someday…when I have more time and money.

2. North Carolina has a rich heritage of literature, a very active community of writers, and a wonderful organization called the North Carolina Writer’s Network.  As Lee Smith once said, you can hardly throw a rock in North Carolina without hitting a writer.  The Network has lots of workshops and a yearly festival.  I’d like to go someday to the workshops and the festival and talk to other writers.  Maybe someday…when I have more courage, time, and money.

3. I’d like to learn to play the cello.  When I listen to recordings of Yo-Yo Ma, it really strikes a chord in me (no pun intended).  Sometimes I find myself listening with tears running down my face, and sometimes, I feel an actual vibration in my body, as though I am the cello being played.  Yeah, I know.  Weird.   But the cello…um…really resonates with me.

4. I’d like to own a laptop.  The idea of sitting outside while tapping away on my laptop is very exciting because outside is where my creative inspiration strikes most often.  Plus, people just look really hip and cool reclining with their laptops perched on their stomachs, and Lord knows, I’ve always wanted to look hip and cool.  My daughter Ariel loves the laptop she had to get for college, and she looks especially hip and cool with it.  When she was small, she drew a keyboard on the inside of old pizza boxes and pretended it was a laptop.  She really looked cool pretending that, but I don’t think I would.  🙂

5. I would like to finish my novel.  I started one about three years ago, but my life took a turn for the worse for a time, and I lost my muse.  That’s why I started this blog—to find it again.  Ah, well…maybe someday…when I have more…courage and confidence.

6. I don’t suppose this is a guilty pleasure, but it is a wish.  I wish I weren’t so painfully shy.  Perhaps you can’t see it from my writing, but I can barely talk when I meet new people, and I can barely breathe when I’m in a crowd.  So when I say painfully shy, I mean it is physically painful for me sometimes to interact with people.  Only my family (and my friends to some extent) know who I really am because it takes me so long to open up to people.  But now that I think about it, maybe you, my faithful readers, know me after all.  Because my writing, I think, reveals who I am–for better or for worse.  🙂

******Okay, well, I didn’t mean to get so serious here or be so long-winded either.  Sorry.  There’s something about the holidays that makes me pensive.  But, again, if you’re interested—Part Three will be tomorrow—Six Guilty Pleasures You Once Considered Guilty But Have Either Abandoned or Made Peace With.******

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