I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!

Willow has come up with my very favorite meme of all time, because it's so personal, invites creativity and helps us all get to know each other better. Blog interviews! Oh Yeah. Following is my interview.

1. Besides the increase in visitors to your blog, how has being chosen as a "Blog of Note" changed your experience as a blogger?

It’s been a wonderful, overwhelming experience! First the good stuff – I’ve “met” literally dozens of bloggers I knew nothing about previously. That part has been great. I wish I had the time/space to catch up with all the wonderful commenters. I love blogging and love seeing the world through the eyes of my blogfellows. My blogroll is now so long that there’s no way I can keep up with everyone. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

I had to turn on comment moderation as well as switch off the anonymous comments in order to catch some spam and a small handful of malicious comments. With so much extra traffic, I’ve been impressed by how generous and positive the response has been.

My friend Hammer threatened to kick my butt if I tried to please all the new readers by changing the tone or content of The Gold Puppy. Hammer is always true to his word; I know he is not kidding. Also I’ve seen his boots. Ouch! But seriously, I wouldn’t know how to change it even if I wanted to. Stream of consciousness it has been, stream of consciousness it will be.

2. Are you a native of the D.C. area? If not, what brought you to the city?

I was born in Denver, Colorado, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, spent my early adulthood in Portland, Oregon, San Leandro, California, Lake Tahoe, California and San Francisco, California. Lord I was born a ramblin’ man [sic]. I’ve been in DC for ten years. The short version of what brought me to our nation’s capital is simple: destiny. The somewhat longer version is that my partner was offered a great job here during the hideous dot-com boom in the SF Bay area. I came along for the ride, and the rest is history. As often occurs when destiny intervenes, my ex and I split up a couple of years after moving here. She left Washington a few years ago. I stayed. Like I said: destiny.

3. Besides your wonderful photography, what other forms of artistic creativity do you enjoy?

Thank you for saying my photography is wonderful! It’s so fun. I believe that therapeutic massage, the way I practice it, is definitely an art. I think of my work as a combination of a very technical kind of sculpture combined with dance and prayer. Other arts I enjoy include writing and drawing. My box of colored pencils is always close at hand. I also love to cook, dance around and sing – sometimes all at the same time. I’m a good cook, but dancing and singing? Not my best thing in terms of skill, though, as the dancer and/or singer, I have lots of fun.

My mother was a big believer in artistic expression. She always encouraged us to be fearlessly creative, bless her heart. One of my great teachers used to say that creative expression is the perfect tonic for depression (something she described as too much energy coming in, not enough energy going out.) She would say, “Are you spiraling down? Get up, dance around, shake your ass, make an apple pie, draw a picture. DO SOMETHING! You’ll feel better almost immediately.” How true!

4. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

This is a great question, the one I had to think hardest about. The transformational process of healing myself to the degree where I was able, finally, to discover and develop my calling as bodyworker/healer is by far my greatest accomplishment. I am very grateful to psychotherapists, massage therapists, homeopaths, osteopaths, and great teachers of the spirit as well as ancestors, spirit guides, animal guides, my dog, my family and of course the great wisdom I call “God” for guiding me through that process. It literally took decades and was worth every dollar spent, not to mention every bit of excruciating self-examination and the inevitable thrashing that always accompanies transformation.

I’m not saying that the transformation is complete or that I am totally healed. Oh no! It’s ongoing through life, to be sure! I was so wounded as a young woman that I could never have taken on the responsibilities of being a healer without all that personal work. Thank you for asking!

5. Which living person do you most admire?

This one is very tough because I admire so many people. I’m an Aquarian who detests things like the Nobel Prize because it’s never just one person who comes up with the brilliant ideas and theories. There are always hundreds of hard working, brilliant people behind every Nobel Prize winner. Singling out “the best” always seems so unfair.

If you’re going to insist, though, I would most likely pick one of the great Buddhists. The Dalai Lama and Pema Chodron come to mind immediately. Give me a first term and I could switch to Barack Obama. Time will tell.

Many thanks to the amazing Willow for making me think! Bravo!!

Below are the rules. I'll interview the first five people who ask.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." Please include your email address if I don't have it. I'll delete it before publishing your comment.
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.