Saturday-8
Fame and Fortune!

the link to a website that i created and maintained has been published in a national magazine for this month. we got over 3,000 hits in less than 2 days, which is amazing. it made me feel all warm & fuzzy inside. :) therefore, here are today's saturday-8 questions!

1. have you ever been recognized publicly for work that you have done?

I've been recognized for sports and academic achievements, but never for any of my 'work'. Though, someone liked my blog and/or geo site enough to sign my guestmap the other day. And that's a public venue, even if 99.999999999999999999% of the public has never seen it.


2. how did it make you feel? (happy, embarrassed, angry, etc.)

It made me feel down right giddy. :) It meant that people are actually reading my blog, making it through all of my ramblings to any shameless plugs that might be lingering at the bottom, and then they're liking my stuff so much that they follow the shameless plug and take the time to leave a message. Sure, 'Ummdumb' was probably incurably bored at the time and was suffering from this fetish for signing random stranger's guestmaps, but even as I realized the enormity of that possibility, I was still giddy. Giddy Giddy Giddy! Reality was having a hard time raining on my parade for a good solid fifteen minutes.

3. have you ever met anyone famous? who was it?

I met Princess Diana once but don’t remember it. I was only about 4 years old at the time. I know it happened though because I have photographic proof!

I've swum at swim meets were previous Olympic gold medallists are competing but I never met any of them. I touched Pablo Morales as he walked past me once, but I didn’t really 'meet' him. It was more like a stalking as I kept staring at him thinking "OMG! It's Pablo!"

I met Janet Evanovich at a book signing a little over a year ago. I had all these things in my head I wanted to say to her. I wanted to tell her that I loved her books, that they inspired me to get off my butt and start writing myself, and that they were excellent procrastination tools when I had tons of homework to do. As I'm standing second in line and listening to the lady in front of my drone on and on and on the things in my head started to sound lame. Next thing I knew I was getting my book signed. I was suddenly face to face with one of my all time favorite authors and I was paralyzed. Speechless. What a time to have a brain fart! All I did was stare at her and grin like an idiot. I think I tried to say something but only barely audible syllables came out. Just thinking about it makes me want to smack my forehead all over again. Stupid stupid stupid. I blame (and it's always helpful to know where to place the blame) my deer-caught-in-the-headlights experience on the time I got Pam Tillis's autograph when she performed at my hometown fair. I was about 10 years old, horribly shy, and got up the courage to say "I really liked your show." And you know what she did? She ignored me and started signing the next autograph! I know she was busy and probably tired, but at that age I was traumatized! And still am, apparently, with my performance at the Evanovich signing as a prime example. :)

4. is there anyone famous that you would like to meet?

I'd love to meet with some of those people who invent stuff all the time, have hundreds of patents, and make tons of money. But seeing as I can't name any of them off the top of my head, they're not really famous, so...

I once had to answer this question in an essay for school. I picked Charles Schulz, but he's no longer among the living so...

I would love to meet the director that just has to cast me in his next picture because I'm absolutely perfect for the part.

I would love to meet Matthew McConaughey because he's just so damn adorable.

I would love to meet J.K. Rowling and have her bestow all her knowledge of storytelling skills upon me. In fact, I'd love to meet all my favorite authors and just soak up their wisdom and expertise.

5. if you could be famous for one thing, what would it be?

I'd love to be the person who invents the cure for cancer, AIDS, heart disease, the common cold, etc., but since I'm not a scientist none of that is even remotely possible for me. So what I’d really, really love to be famous for is creating something (novels, comics, whatever) that people love, that people cherish, and that people will be talking about and be affected by long after I'm gone from this planet.

6. some celebrities are more 'infamous' than 'famous.' what thing would you NOT like to be famous for?

I would not like to be known as The Woman Who Streaked Through Disneyland With Lewis Black.

7. some celebrities have gained their fame at an older age. would you rather be young & famous or older & famous? why?

Old and famous, because maybe then I’d be able to deal with the whole fame thing a bit better.

8. were you to become 'rich and famous,' would you spend your money like there was no tomorrow, or would you invest wisely and spend conservatively?

I fit somewhere in the middle. I'd buy all kinds of fancy gadgets, pay off all the evilness that is credit card bills and then invest the rest of the money wisely... so that I could buy more fancy gadgets later. :)