30 Day Writing Challenge--Day 7--What tattoos you have and if they have meaning

This day was easy because I wrote about my tattoos a few years ago and explained their meanings. So I'm just going to re-print it below. I have gotten another tattoo since then. A bit with reins around my arm because of lifelong love of horses.

I remember when I first decided to get a tattoo. A real tattoo. It was New Year's Eve 1996. I worked at a place where you had to go into work on New Year's Eve but you got to leave early. Some co-workers of mine were planning on grabbing an early drink before heading to various parties. I figured the place they were going was on the way to the 'el' so I tagged along. Well one pitcher of beer led to a few more and before I knew it, it was 8pm and they were planning on hitting another bar. I was out of money but wanted to wait until 9 when the CTA offered penny rides home. One of the women I worked with stopped for a bathroom break and brought us all temporary tattoos that you could buy from a vending machine in the ladies room. She had chosen a tiger for me, since I had gone to the University of Missouri. I placed the tiger on the upper portion of my left breast. I thought it looked good at the time, but again, my judgement might have been a little off. 9:00 came and I hopped on the 'el' with balloons tied to my head, and the tiger still on my chest.

The next day I took a shower and as I looked at the temporary tattoo before I washed it off I thought it looked good. I decided not to wash it off and to live with it for a few days to see if this was something I really wanted. When it finally started to peel about 3 days later, I reluctantly washed it clean. After the shower and looking in the mirror, I missed having something there. 

At this time I was dating a guy who was a biker, and happened to have a large panther tattoo on his arm. He had gotten that tattoo at Lyle Tuttle's tattoo shop in San Francisco. For those of you who don't know, Lyle Tuttle is one of the tattooing Gods. His store has been around long before the boys of Miami Ink or Kat Von D were even born. It just so happened that the company I worked for was having their Annual Meeting in San Francisco in August. I knew that's where I would get my first tattoo.

August finally arrived and I was still determined to get my tattoo. I would be at the meeting for 5 days and even though I would have to work days, I would have one afternoon and most of my evenings free. I told some, ok, most of the people I was traveling with that I was going to get a tattoo and they didn't believe me. My co-worker and good friend Jackie said she would go with me. I already knew what I was going to get. A Native American bear fetish with a heartline running through it on my left breast. (Right where the tiger had been). The bear fetish represents strength and wisdom which I thought was appropriate for everything I had been through in my life up until that point. I decided to get it on my breast so I could still hide it at work. So Jackie and I hopped on a cable car and ended up at Lyle Tuttle's. Lyle wasn't there that night but a very nice woman was. She asked if she could help us. Jackie turned and said "her...not me." I told her what I wanted and she looked through some of her books to find it. She found a design that I liked and she told me to sit down. She asked if this was my first tattoo. I said yes. She said, "Well, I'm sure people have told you that it hurts." I nodded. "It doesn't really. Feels more like a bee sting and you get used to it." I was nervous, but tried to relax. She put paper towels around my shirt so as not to get ink on it, and placed the template on my chest. She asked if that position was ok. I told her yes and we got started. She was very gentle. She explained that the closer to bone, the more it would hurt. That was true. As she got near my sternum, it hurt more than when she was around the fleshy part of my breast. In about 30 to 45 minutes she was finished. Jackie said she liked it. I said I liked it...probably still dizzy from the excitement of actually getting something permanent on my body. The tattoo got bandaged, I got my little card explaining the after-care procedures and Jackie and I went to dinner. It was a little sore, but not too bad. When I got back to the hotel, I took off the bandage, and washed the tattoo gently with soap and water. I still have the t-shirt that I wore to bed that night, which still has the ink impression of my bear on it. 

The next day people at the meeting asked why I got it where I did. Someone even said "Why didn't you get it on your ass so no one will see it?" I told her "Well then Iwouldn't be able to see it." Some people thought it was neat. Some people thought I was crazy. I was still in love. When I got back to work, the story of my tattoo had spread and I told everyone it was fun, didn't really hurt, and that it was the only one I was going to get. 

I was wrong.

I know that tattoos have become more mainstream and less "outlaw" these days. I can still look professional and hide all my tattoos. I never told my mother that I got the tattoo because I was afraid of her reaction, and now I have a memorial tattoo for her. I have gotten tattoos in Chicago and at a party in Northbrook. Most of my tattoos have come from trips to London, England, where I have been tattooed by a lanky teenager from Manchester, who spent the whole time with his tongue hanging out, a chain smoking Italian and a Dane. I have been tattooed by women and men. I have been watched while I have been tattooed and been photographed for an artists portfolio. 

What shocks me is that some people get tattoos for the wrong reason. My best friend used to threaten to get a tattoo just because her fiance' said she wouldn't. That is not a reason to get something etched onto your body permanently. Each and every one of my tattoos mean something. The bear on my breast represents my life, the flowers tattooed on my right foot represent beauty. The horse on my right outside ankle, and on my right bicep represent my love for horses. The horse on my lower back is more of a spiritual horse. The bear claw on my left shoulder along with the ring of bears around my left ankle continue my life story of strength and wisdom. The cat on my left ankle represents my love for cats. 

My memorial tattoos include angel cats by one of my mother's favorite artists, B. Klieban. They are on my right shoulder because I have a birthmark there from pressing against her body while in the womb. The elk (no it's not a moose), on my left bicep is for my step-father because we had a long-going joke that elk don't exist. It's on my left arm because he was left handed. There are 11 points on his antlers because his birthday was December 11. The owl on my left thigh is for my father. My father was very wise and passed it down to me. He also had a collection of owls for many years. It is a snowy owl due to "Hedwig" in "Harry Potter" because my father introduced me to the "Harry Potter" novels. It's on my left thigh because he used to call me thunder thighs when I was younger. It's on the left side because the left side is where my heart is.

I have two other tattoos. I have a disgruntled bunny on the inside of my right ankle...just because I liked it when I saw it on the wall of "flash" in a tattoo parlor in London. It is also because I am often disgruntled and have the same face and blue eyes the bunny does. 

The final tattoo might be the only one I am not too proud of. It was sort of a joke, which I agree is the wrong reason to get a tattoo. But that one is on my ass and is hidden and only a few special people get to see it. But it still means something. Still is part of the "story" written on my body. 

Twelve years and twelve more tattoos later I still love my first tattoo. I will admit, that over the years, the bear has sagged a bit and sometimes looks more like a giraffe. (I'll let you figure out the visual on that). I am planning on getting another tattoo. I don't know when, but I do know where and what it is going to be. It will have deep, personal meaning to me and it will, like all the others, tell a story.

30 Day Writing Challenge--Day 6--Someone who fascinates you and why

I just looked up the definition of fascinating (fascinate) and it says "extremely interesting or charming" which I believe is selling it a bit short. I would think that would be admiring rather than fascinating, because if  that's the definition then I find lots of people fascinating.  Now another definition I found of "fascinate" was to attract and hold attentively by a unique power, personal charm,unusual nature, or some other special quality; enthrall and that's more of what I think of when asked about someone who fascinates me. But I'm going to name a general group of people who fascinate me because it was the first thing that popped into my head when this subject was listed and you should always go with your first instinct or feeling (or so I've been told).

The group of people I find fascinating is those people who choose to run for President of the United States. (Now, I will say I keep my politics very private so if I mention someone specific, it does not mean that he/she holds my same political view---I am just using them as an example.)  So why this group of people? Because I couldn't imagine a worse job. How can you have such an ego to believe that you can run the country and decide for EVERYONE what the rules should be? You have to be a complete narcissist, yet hide that to think of the betterment of everyone rather than just yourself. You have to have a thick skin to deal with all the negativity and you can't let all the positive comments go to your head either. I don't think that's how the Founding Fathers started out thinking about this position but that's what it has become. Ronald Reagan made sense to me because he was an actor, Al Gore was brave enough to tell people that he invented the internet. Donald Trump is running because nothing is more important to him than Donald Trump. Sure, somewhere--deep down, these people want to help, think that they can make the country a better place than the last President did and they have great speech writers who allow them to say the words that they think we want to hear. Why do you think Hillary stood by Bill Clinton after he was messing around with anything wearing a skirt? It was because it was a power move for her. If she had left him, she wouldn't have been as powerful (in some people's eyes) and then she couldn't go try to be President herself.

I'm just fascinated by these types of people. I'm fascinated by the fact that they want to do it...I'm fascinated by the fact that some of them do do it, and I'm fascinated by the process they have to go through to do it.  They all do have their own form of unique power, personal charm, unusual nature or some other special quality. They don't exactly enthrall me but they do make me pause and think.

30 Day Writing Challenge--Day 4--10 Interesting Facts About Yourself

Talking about myself...something I'm not very good at, so I'm just going to list these facts and maybe elaborate them on another occasion.

1. I am an avid reader and have over 3,000 lbs of books.

2. I've been riding horses and motorcycles since I was 5 years old.

3. I have a B.A. in English and have had jobs in retail, motorcycles, horses, computers, advertising, non-profit organizations, and music.

4. I still sleep with a stuffed animal I received my junior year in high school.

5. I have never broken a bone in my body.

6. My favorite recipes to cook are ones from my great-grandmother, mother and father, it makes me feel closer to them now that they are gone.

7. I have read (and UNDERSTOOD), the Canterbury Tales in Middle English and Beowulf in Old English.

8. I am very opinionated, but not very political or religious.

9. I am the only one in my immediate family who does not have a drinking problem.

10. Football is my favorite sport but I always fantasized about being married to a PGA golfer.

30 Day Writing Challenge--Day 1

Now that I have a laptop again, I have decided to participate in a 30 day writing challenge. Every day I get a new topic to write about. I think this will be good for me and will force me to write, think, and maybe even discover new things about myself.

Today's challenge is 5 Things Wrong with Social Media.

1. It's too easy to spread misinformation. With our attention spans getting shorter and our demand for learning things instantly getting stronger, I feel that social media fails from time to time with fact checking. How many people have been declared dead on Twitter? How many times does a tragedy happen and people are reporting whatever they think they saw, or retweeting information without checking facts? I find that people are quick to blame the news channels when they get something wrong, but have no problem retweeting that the world is coming to an end, when really it was just an acorn falling on their head. Plus anyone can write anything. Where are the "trusted" journalists? Anyone with a cell phone can become an "on the street" reporter.

2. It's making conversations/experiences less personal. I remember standing in line for hours to see "Star Wars" in 1977. The popularity of the movie was spread by word of mouth, or reading reviews in the newspaper. There was no "pre-release" of the trailer unless you had seen a different movie in the theatre a month or two before. And when the movie was over, you couldn't log onto Facebook and tell all your friends. You had to go to school and talk to people about it. You could have conversations in the car with your parents on the way home instead of being buried in your cell phone. Earlier this year I had surgery and my throat swelled from the breathing tube so I couldn't speak. My boyfriend and I sat next to each other on the couch and texted each other. We were in the same room, but we were looking at screens instead of each other. I hear that Chili's now has a little screen at it's tables so you don't have to talk to anyone...not to order, not to pay. That's all well and good if you're in a hurry, but where's the interaction? I went back to Chicago a few weeks ago and walked into a bar I've been going to since I was of legal age to drink (and maybe even before). The waitress who I hadn't seen in 3 years remembered me and told me about a breast cancer event they were holding the next day. I told her to give me her "information" so I could keep in touch. She gave me a phone number. She doesn't do Facebook, she doesn't do email...she likes person to person interaction and conversation and these days that's rare. You've heard the stories of actors stopping in a play because someone's phone went off or they were taping the event. Don't you go to a play to experience it? How can you do that when you're staring at it through a screen? I want to see Benedict Cumberbatch play Hamlet. I want to look at his reactions, I want to see the sweat on his brow...I can't do that while trying to Periscope the experience.

3. It may be distributing too much information. I'm just as curious as the next person and yes, I like to see how my friends are doing, and what's going on with a sports team, or even the headlines of the day...but do I need minute by minute updates of Lindsey Lohan's whereabouts? Do I need to know what Kardashian is doing what? Do I need to see bodies on the ground after a plane crash? How many times do I have to watch that college football player or basketball player fall down awkwardly on his leg and end his career? (I remember watching Joe Theismann break his leg on Monday Night Football--I saw it once and that's more times than I needed to see it.)  Also, now that I live on the West Coast, those people that watch a program on the East Coast know what happened before I do and they tend to distribute that information without thought for others. I found out what happened on "The Walking Dead" last week just because I was scrolling through Facebook before I watched the episode. I found out results of the Olympics before they were televised. That's taking the fun and the discovery out of things. Why should I pay attention if I already know the outcome?

4. It's giving people a false sense of power. The good and the bad about social media is that you can be anonymous. How many people have tweeted something to someone that they would NEVER say to their face? I remember writing a letter to Jimmy Carter back when he was President and mentioning in the letter that some of my classmates didn't like him. Yet he still sent me a picture of the White House (or someone on his staff did). I'm sure he got lots of letters, some positive and some negative, but I'm sure he didn't get MILLIONS of letters the minute after he gave a speech. (And I signed my name to my letter---not many would do that these days.)  Many people have said it before, but I do wonder how many people would say what they tweet to someone's face. The "Mean Tweets" segment on Jimmy Kimmel is funny, but I'm sure if they had the tweeter reading them directly to the tweeted that not many people would show up. Social media makes it easier to say anything to anyone at anytime. That's not always a good thing.

5. There's too much of it. There used to be one newspaper edition a day (sometimes an evening edition if something breaking happened during the day). There was one news program, a few radio stations. Now it's all there all the time. I can hop on the internet or twitter or Facebook at any hour of the day and something is being written about something. I can turn on the TV and see news or weather 24 hours a day. Where is the break? When can I turn my mind to other things or do I have to be "connected" all 24 hours? How long do we have to talk about Justin Bieber's dick pics? Do we have to stay with the protest until the last person is standing on the street? I like finding out about bigger events when they happen, but I don't need to know everything all the time. I need some time to shut down, turn off, experience the world around me and the people in it.