My Interview with Kate

Country Girl Kate did an interview meme/project with Daryl, who had done it with Willow Manor. It goes back from there too. Anyway – Kate asked for volunteers to be interviewed and I raised my hand. You can raise your hand too – read to the end to find out how you can be interviewed.
These are Kate’s thoughtful questions for me:

1. What prompted you to start a blog and how long have you been doing so?
My very first post is dated November 11, 2004. There are a handful of posts in 2004, another handful in 2005, and only 2 in 2006. There were more, but I ended up removing the majority of them because they were really…bitchy actually. My blog was a place to complain and “vent” about things that were bugging me. It was anonymous and no one I knew ever read it. I decided that venting was overrated and actually made me feel worse, so I gave it up, cleaned out all the bitter ranting stuff and refocused on more creative aspects of my personality. This is far more entertaining. At least for me, and I hope for other people too.

2. What do you most value in your friends?
I value a lot of different qualities, but I think number one – in all my relationships – is loyalty. I just about never[I admit there are some extreme exceptions] talk about people behind their backs, I don’t like when other people do it and I find it very hard to forgive if I find out someone has talked about me behind mine. If I have a problem with someone, I tell them, not someone else, and I expect the same in return. No one criticizes the people I love to me – no one!

3. How did you meet your husband?
We met in a bar. We were both there, handing out spiritual material to the poor souls who were wasting their lives in a bad bad place. No – really! [ok – so we were partying – whatever!]

4. Your love of photography is obvious. When did you first realize this and what was the first camera you ever owned?
I have always loved photography, I just never thought I could do it. One of my favorite books when I was a kid was my Mom’s copy of “The Family of Man”, a coffee table book of black and white photos of people. The way the photographers had captured all these different people just fascinated me. The first camera of my own was a Kodak 126 which was followed by a a couple other little Kodaks and then a Pentax 35mm which I still have. My first digital was a Sony Mavica which is roughly the size of a VW bug and at 1.3 Megapixels, has less power than the one in my phone now. I also have a Nikon Coolpix 5600 which is the one that started people noticing the photos the I was taking. A year ago I got my Nikon D70 and in October the D90. I rarely look at anything any more without thinking about how I would take a photo of it.

5. I noticed from your blog that music is something you love. Who are some of your favorite recording artists?I think “variety” would be the best word to describe my musical taste. Here are a few of my faves: Bonnie Raitt, Santana, Third Day, Selah, 10 Years After, Annie Lennox, Glen Kaiser, Nina Simone, Van Morrison, Blind Faith, ELO, Lyle Lovett, The Band, Jethro Tull, Otis Redding, David Phelps, The Commitments, Trace Balin, Allison Moorer, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Janis Joplin, Darrell Mansfield, Ry Cooder, Warren Zevon, Traffic, Nicole C. Mullen, Donna the Buffalo, Nickel Creek… Ok, so that is more than a few – and it could be a lot longer, but I will quit there.

Here are the directions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Thanks for the great questions Kate – this was fun. Now it’s your turn – just leave me a comment and I will send your questions as soon as I can.