Sunday Stalker Spotlight - TPGoddess

Welcome to this week's edition of Sunday Stalker Spotlight!!!

This week's focus is on a great little lady, who I swear that when I do get off my happy a$$ to go visit my sister in southern California (I promise honey...I WILL GET THERE) I am going to look her and Jenn the Juggler up.


This woman didn't used to like writing, and you won't find her doing "appointment" blogging (sorry NaBloPoMo), but You would never know it actually. She is frank, sarcastic, and all about her boys' sports. She is a tomboy after my own heart.


I found her back when I first started blogging, because her comment name struck me. Who is this TPGoddess? And how do I meet her? Readers...please allow me to introduce you to Christina from Trees and Flowers and Birds.




**Your Blog(s): - http://treesflowersbirds.wordpress.com/ . Just the one – really! Though I do sometimes post a diary at http://www.mothertalkers.com/ - like once every two years! But today they did put it on the front page today. I’m just Christina there. It’s about Middle School homework blues. Yes, an expansion on my recent post at my own site.

**How long have you been blogging?: - My own site has been up for 3 years though not as its current incarnation. I moved from blogger to wordpress in ’07. I’ve been on sites like Mother Talkers for 5 years.


**Why do you blog?: - Totally personal. I’ve always had this hang up that I ‘hated’ writing. I am an accountant after all! But as my friends here and there started their own sites I saw the fun of documenting yourself. Now, I never did keep a written journal or diary – that whole hating of writing thing – but I could deal with it being online and with no pressure to post every single day. Plus, by having it public, I was forced to find a way to express myself well. And I love adding pictures or cartoons to put some zing into the topic.

**What does your blog say about you?: - How about, what DOESN’T it say about me? Ok, it says that I am willing to put it ALL out there. The inane and the deep thoughts on absolutely any topic. I’m not the most private person on the planet. You might also detect some snarky and sarcastic tones.

**What is your favorite part about blogging?: - That it has changed how I view every day life because I am looking at things with the eye of a story teller. I feel more aware and more consistently in the moments. And comments! Man, once you get those first few you are like an addict! I enjoy the follow up conversations a lot.


**Any blog-types out there that turn you off of reading?: - Oh, this will sound so so so politically incorrect, but…the totally INTO it BlogHer attending, ads all over the page bloggers. It’s all a little too much like a popularity clique. Which tells you a lot about how I was in high school and how I am now IRL – skirting away from the popular crowds and having a blast hanging with the much smaller fringe groups who are more independent minded and unique.


**Does your blog personality match your offline personality?: - Oh yeah. Though I definitely cuss a lot more IRL. I try to edit that out on the blog since my mom does read.


**Does your family know you blog?: - Yes. They all have the link though my parents are the only ones who check in daily. The boyfriend used to until he was convinced that I don’t write anything he doesn’t already know and the kids kinda only care if I write something about them! Oh, and why – because as I said in #4 – nothing to hide and willing to share.

**What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re NOT blogging?: - Talk to my boyfriend or my kids (when I am not wanting to kick them across the planet that is!) Putter in my garden, nap with my kitties, watch sports (preferably with youngest son) and read.

...And my uber favorite question...


**Tell us more about YOU: -


Let’s see. The basics – single mom most of my life to two boys. One is 23 and the other is 12. Two marriage and two divorces. Now utterly content to call the love of my life my boyfriend and nothing more. We’ve been together 9 years and it feels like just one, I swear. Added two cats to the family two years and now the family seems complete.

As an only child, I thrive on rare days like today when I am home alone in a quiet house and able to just dither around on the computer or read or watch tv or play in the garden with no “have to do’s” on my plate. Rare moments since I work full time and serve on two community boards and have my younger son always on two sports teams at a time.

A recently added passion to my life is politics. I started really paying attention about 10 years and in the process I switched parties and really started to enjoy watching the game unfold. Also LOVE to mock the media. Easy and, I think, necessary since they have in many ways failed the public interest by becoming much too tied to corporate profits.

I’m an utter geek for cool technology on the web and social media sites to keep me connected to the people I’ve met in my life. Facebook and Twitter keep me connected daily with people who would otherwise have been lost. I LOVE that connectivity.

And yet, oddly, I could not be bothered to pick up the phone or write letters back in the day! Horrible and ironic isn’t it? I constantly fight the urge to be a hermit in my home and the urge to connect. Keeping that balance is key for my own sanity.

I am a guy in a girls body in a lot of ways. For instance, yesterday after my son’s Little League team had finished their game, I chose to go back to the field an hour later to watch the next game with our coaches. Why? Because that is fun for me and because the next team playing is the one we play next and a rival and I wanted to see them lose! And I could have gone to sit in the stands with a couple of mom friends who I know quite well, but no, I sat in the outfield with the guys because I love hearing them talk about the strategies of the game. A couple of years ago after a football game I went out to dinner with the coaches and listened to their post game analysis! Both times without my son who was with his dad at the time. I know I am weird and I know people probably think that, but I cannot help it and long ago accepted my oddities. I am what I am as Popeye would say!

While I am very even keeled and often called pragmatic by my friends, I can get pretty intensely irritated pretty quickly! Especially at what I often call “The Stoopid”. I also tend to have no brain filter and will rather quickly, verbally react to The Stoopid. Not always wise, but, there it is. Also have no patience for Woe is Me types. Pick yourself up, deal with the situation, let yourself feel the pain and then walk through it and out the other end please. Learn the lesson and then keep on keeping on. Wallowing makes my head hurt. Blaming makes me nauseous. Drama makes my skin crawl. Oh, and I can be kinda strongly opinionated.

Mostly though, I love being around different types of people because variety is the spice of life and I do love to learn. Watching my boys minds and opinions develop is pure joy. Tapping into the overall wisdom of people on the internet helps me get over humps, and I pay it forward by sharing my own stuff and fluff and how I get through it.

All this from a woman who never used to like to write.

Thank you, Christine, for opening up for all of us, and letting us see a different side of you. Thank you for being a Stalker of Grandy-Land. The place just wouldn't be the same without ya.