Losing My Virginity

Alrighty, SPOILER up front. I know. The headline might be an attention hog, but this post is actually a chaste list of personal firsts. In other words, I’m not relinquishing my most intimate firsts.

Things came to light after reading Toni Morrison's (first) novel 'The Bluest Eye'(other thoughts here...and here), which happens to be my first experience reading any of her books, period!

I was one reader over the moon to FINALLY...and completely... read one of Toni's books. And so, why not have a little fun blogging about a number of other firsts.

The small stuff first; like taking my first trip by plane, and learning to swim… and ride a bike… and roller-skate …and jump double-dutch… and read full-length books. I was quite young when these firsts happened, under the double digits on all accounts.

Pare that with the first time I learned the ...ahem... in-depth story about Santa. I was almost in the double digits, if not IN the double digits! Gee whiz. #That.was.embarrassing. I left the country (America) for the first time, in my teens, an eye-awakening experience, as it was the first time I saw familiar franchises in America… in foreign countries. I may have lost my first set of brows seeing McDonald’s that far from home.

I didn’t learn to drive until I was well passed the legal age to drink, which further to note, I actually learned to drive, got my first car and driver’s license, damn near, on the same day. Seriously!

I didn't put on a pair of skis, and get on a slope, until darn near 40, which thinking about slopes…aka mountains… it took my breath away reading ‘Into Thin Air’ by Jon Krakauer. This was a memoir about climbers hiking up to altitudes where planes freakin’ cruise. I couldn’t help but imagine climbers on foot, and seated passengers, waving at each other. Yikes!

But here’s the real kicker. I wrote and published my first book, 2000. Was first traditionally published, 2002. Wrote and printed my first full-length novel, 2005. Four years later, 2009, I first began publishing, blogging and using one pen name, which really wasn’t a pen name, though news to me, this was when I first learned I was in a league of my own. Ha.ha. So me.

And yet, funnier, actually the funniest…well sort of… was ‘round about early 2019 was when I first saw time fly! Lordy, Lordy, to read about Toni mentioning them asafetida bags, which I do remember, like I also remember watching the cartoon ‘the Jetson’s’, and wondering if there’d come the day when I’d see someone, miles away, through a telephone, and telling my mother’s friends back in the 80’s how one day we would have to pay to see TV, and them telling me I was thinking crazy (again), along with watching the transition of banks, literally, and the event of the Internet, again literally, and …OK! I’ll stop here because I’m sure e.v.e.r.y.b.o.d.y gets the point. (I think) there has been more change within the…let’s say…past 45 years, than ever in the same period of time. I mean, writers were still turning in HANDWRITTEN manuscripts when I published my first book!

#still revising #writerlife #takingabreak #readanothergreatbook #justblogged #gratitude