Saturday, May 12, 2007

I Got Tagged

I just found out that I was tagged by Casey Klahn of "The Colorist", http://thecolorist.blogspot.com/, a terrific artist from Washington State! He does beautiful work - especially landscapes in pastels. I love his vibrant tones. So, the gig is to tell 7 things about myself that others may not know. HMMmmmmm....here goes:

1) I live in Portland, Oregon and am an academic advisor at the community college here. We've lived here since 1992. Before that we lived in Iowa City, Iowa and I worked at The University of Iowa for 7 years. Before that we lived in St. Paul, Minnesota for 4 years. And before that we lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I'm originally from Brookings, South Dakota - home of the SDSU Jackrabbits! When I came to Oregon I thought it was odd that the prominent college mascots are Beavers and Ducks, but I guess the Jackrabbits and Coyotes from South Dakota are pretty weird as well.

2) I have a master's degree in theology from Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary. At one time I wanted to work in the church or maybe be a pastor. I got into higher education instead.

3) I'm 52 years old and have been married since 1979 - how many years is that???? I'm not sure, but I know it's more than 25.

4) I love to read. I quit buying books and now use the library. I check out 6 or 7 novels at a time and sometimes come home with books I've already read, but forgot. My Dad does that and I used to think it was crazy, but I guess aging will do that to you. After turning 40 a co-worker told me she has CRS (Can't Remember Shit). I think I'm getting that too!

5) I used to think I'd get a PhD in higher education administration or some such thing. I wanted to be a Dean of Students in a college. But now I'm not sure I want to work that hard. I think I'd like to earn an art degree instead. I've always loved color and shapes and design, but never thought I had any talent. A few years ago I took two drawing classes and realized that I can LEARN. What a concept! I'd like to learn more and do more art in my spare time and on into retirement.

6) I am just learning to golf and am pretty bad. But, there is hope! We went out today with some friends who do not believe in keeping score. Now, that's my kind of golf!

7) Last summer my sister came to visit and taught me how to blog. She's The Old Bag, http://oldbag.blogspot.com/. It seemed fun. Later I found the Everyday Matters Group and have been having a blast with it. My office neighbor and I had been joking about being drones and pods in a big organization. I had used the pseudo-name Emma Pod for something as a joke and decided it would be a good blog identity. My real name is Mary.

Now, I have to tag 7 other folks, so here they are. You can let me know if you've already been hit:

Brenda at http://amberridgedesert.blogspot.com/
Teri at http://painteddaisies.blogspot.com/
Casey at http://caseytoussaint.wordpress.com/
Ronell at http://rnllvanwyk.blogspot.com/
laserone at http://pookieart.blogsome.com/
Lin at http://viewfromtheoak.blogspot.com/
Platitudinal at http://loocheeta.blogspot.com/

Emma Pod

10 comments:

Africantapestry and Myfrenchkitchen said...

Great to get to know you a bit better..
A very dear friend of mine lives in Portland and she is a phenominal artist...Teresa o Leary, so I do know a little about Portland.
You are a professional student as well, I see! May I never lose the desire to keep learning and growing...so I am encouraging you in going for your arts degree and enjoy!
Enjoy your days on the golf course and I agree...keep those score cards buried deeply in the bags!!
I thoroughly enjoyed your selfportrait, I love life on a skewed grid..
What an interesting person Mary is...it's been a pleasure meeting you!
Ronell

Africantapestry and Myfrenchkitchen said...

Me again, Mary...may I please ask for your email address, I'd like to write you? (rvanwyk@free.fr)
Ronell

Teri said...

Hi Mary, I love reading these tags, it helps us to get know you better. Very interesting life and love your self-portrait.

I have done a few of these last year but now there are new friends so maybe I will repost an update old one. Thanks for thinking of me.

platitudinal said...

Thank you for the tag, Mary. I like reading the 7 things about you, they are very interesting. I don’t think coyotes are weird, they may be called wily but they are very loyal to their mate. I cried when I read about how coyote wouldn’t leave its trapped mate, and they both ended dead. Oh, I love your self portrait as cat lady. The cat ears are fabulous, but the hair is fantastic! Yes, you should definitely get your art degree. You are very talented. After visualizing you as cat lady, it’s rather hard to think of you as church lady. Meow! ;) I visited your sister’s blog, seems like your family is passionate about learning. Just imagine if you live in Denmark, education is free. I can easily imagine both of you with several PhDs. I also love to reread favorite books some writings are just too incredible to be read only once or twice or …
I hope you’ll continue to enjoy playing golf!

*I don’t know that many bloggers, but I will try to come up with 7, okay?

mARTa said...

Hey Mary....that's how I play golf too!!!! Sometimes when I play with my husband, we both tee off and then we go pick up my ball and drop it near his!!! I think I suffer from CRS also!

Alison said...

It's funny - when I don't know someone, I still have a clear image of what they look like - the image flies out the window as soon as I see a real image - So now I know what you like! :)Self portraits are such fun

Emma Pod said...

Hi Ronell, Teri, platitudinal, Marta and Alison, thanks for visiting! I'm glad to know that others play golf like me! There are so many things to be obsessive about in life, and gold should not be one. And, yes, my sister also works in education, but with younger students than me. She's also a great cyclist and blogger. I'll have to see if I can find my original photo for the self-portrait to post.

caseytoussaint said...

oops - just noticed you'd tagged me too! I'll add a link to my post, and thank you. I've really enjoyed reading your list and getting to know you. Your self portrait's great!

Margaret McCarthy Hunt said...

NOw honey GOLF is obsessive here in Augusta GA home of the Masters golf tournament...thats why I DONT play...:> we rent and runaway from town that week if we can:> Lutheran...my mothers whole family is Luthrean as are we...interesting people on edm...

Brenda Yarborough said...

Mary, Such fun to read "tags" and learn that we have books and CRS in common! I was delayed in responding to you tagging me because I was out of town visiting dd and sil in Vegas. LOVE your self portrait - that is so COOL!!