beetlegrass

Flashback Friday (1986) -- Random Things About Me

It's the classic tale of 2 birds, 1 stone.
My friend Dave Lowe tagged me to list 6 random things about myself.
Not sure if this is any different from the "6 Weird Things" list I did, but, hey, I'm playing along.
Since my brain is stuck in neutral re: thinking up new personal things to divulge, AND it's been awhile since I've had a flashback, I thought I'd COMBINE the two and show you a page from my journal from February of 1986. I was 20 years old and in my junior year of college. Which some of you may know better as the Mesozoic Era.

6. Think it's safe to infer from the above list that I like NIGHTTIME.
* BONUS RANDOMOID: I like making lists.*

My thoughts on these things now:

1. Now rain makes me worry, "Uh-oh, what's Mr. Basement doing?" and storms put me on High Alert Tree Watch. Being a homeowner is ruining my love of violent weather!
2. Still holds true.
3. Hey, I do this every nite! Way to fulfill a dream!
4. It's rare that I'm a passenger now. But every so often, just to keep that feeling fresh. I'll keep my left foot on the pedals, and slide on over to the passenger side.
It should be fairly apparent that "having the radio on loud" also = singing loudly.
And maybe badly.
The optimal situation: if it's spring and it's drizzling.
5. Hmmm... haven't done this for a looong time. I don't even know where there is a swingset in this town.
And I don't want to pull a Robert Downey Jr. and help myself to someone's backyard version.

Flashback Friday (1973 or 4) : All About Meg(an)

Below are my third grade (age 8) scribblings about my name and how I got it.



A few clarifications (What, no spell-check back then?):

• pragret = pregnant
• Golith = Goliath
• disscon = decision

I for one am happy to have been a girl; don't think for a second that my Dad was joking about the 'Goliath' thing! Our entire family will go a really long way for a joke, EVEN if it means being saddled with a dumb name.

Wanted to post this notebook page in the "Name Vein", as this upcoming week will mark my third anniversary of living in this place, and one of the things that I've come to notice: I seem to have undergone a name change.

People call me 'Meg' here.

I don't mind the name 'Meg', and there are people in my life who've called me that for as long as I can remember. Coming from them, the nickname is a form of familiarity/endearment.
It's just: I don't think of myself as a 'Meg', despite what my 8-year-old-self would have you believe.
I introduce myself as 'Megan', but I guess that the majority of the new people who've met me have come to know my e-mail address and website name simultaneously.
It's alien to me when someone I've just met e-mails me with a: "Hi, Meg!"

I realize that I may have contributed to this name confusion.
My initials are M. E. J.
When I was a kid, I thought that a backwards 'G' could look like a 'J', and then I'd have both a portion of my name AND my initials all tied up in one neat, 3-letter package.
So, that is the way I signed my artwork then, and that is the way I sign my artwork now.
This "M - E- backwards - G" signature became the name of my business, MEG Illustrations, and then my website, MEGillustrations.com, and is, most likely, the root source of my * new * name.

This 'new name' thing feels like a modern retelling of The Road to Damascus story -- the one in which Saul/Paul had his blinding, name-changing conversion.

Except for me, it was on The Road to Providence, my name changed from Megan to Meg, AND, while not blinded -- experience nighttime halos around streetlights.

And now I've officially talked too much about myself.
"THE END" (by Megan)

More Spambot Names

More Spambots who come to my website; a continuation of this list...

• Lena R. Tonsillectomies ("Of the Long Island Tonsillectomies?")
• Crusty S. Flyer (Think I'd rather drive, thanks all the same...)
• Dinghy G. Illustrating (Didn't I meet him? At some seminar???)
• Jackhammers S. Encapsulates (You can call him 'Jack' for short.)
• Cosmopolitan E. Hygrometer (He gets around.)
• Boilerplate M. Vestiges (He's a lawyer.)
• Loquacity D. Zeroes (He's an accountant.)

These are Spambots that I would NEVER HIRE and WOULDN'T WANT TO WORK WITH:

• Untruthfully M. Wilton
• Traffickers H. Fibrous
• Slowest L. Benumbed
• Recriminating T. Beginner
• Penitentiary  H. Fetter
• Cat K. Ineffectiveness
• Barricade D. Rotisserie
• Bamboozle J. Avocado
• Himself Q. Humorless
• Dawdled A. Repels

Spambot Names

I get a host of interesting spam coming in through my website. Sometimes the addressor and the subject lines are just an alphabet soup of letters, numbers, and symbols. Sometimes the content of a spam looks like I came into a poorly-written, poorly-edited novel midstream. But most amusing, by far, are some of the inventive 'names' of the addressors. I think that they should be characters in their own novels. I share these with you today.

• Underflow S. Polecat
• Spiritualists D. Koestler
• Solecism F. Remonstrated
• Soir P. Overtures
• Rheumatism P. Waco
• Permutes F. Quandry
• Plumes K. Parish
• Optimist B. Recapped
• Mezzanine R. Austrian
• Jurisprudence L. Pixels
• Heedless C. Alarmingly
• Connector G. Enid
• Sideburns F. They
• Obstructive O. Decorum
• Coyotes P. Lily

I like how the addition of the middle initial gives the name an aura of authenticity.

ETSY Shop Updated!

New stuff in the SHOP , now that the RISD Alumni Art Sale is over. Six Couched Cushions (brown, black, rust, celadon, maroon flame, brown flame) and eight Finger Puppets (2 Bears, 2 Pugs, 2 Kitties, Beaver, and Yellow Tiger). You may notice that Beans the Boston Terrier is missing from the Usual Suspects line-up. He was SOLD! at the sale on Saturday.

ETSY Shop Now Open!

A second post today to let everyone know that my etsy shop is now open!  You can click on that link, or on the link in the left hand column under Links!, or if you prefer: www.megillustrations.etsy.com.
Currently in the shop are seven of the pillows that I've featured on this blog.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Welcome to Memory Lane!

       So, I hear all the millions of you asking, "Who or What is Beetlegrass?" Well, all can be revealed now.

    Beetlegrass was the dressertop village that I had when I was a kid, and was started with only one town member, Fribbie.  He was soon joined by his wife, Fibbie, and their son Furbie (are you sensing a trend here?). 

    Other town members were: Orange Walrus; Mandrake; Tee; Fledging; Fiorella (the mouse); Zibbie; Zubbie; Perciville (the bunny); Edmund Q. Taratoochie, Esquire; Benjamin and Azulla (who was blue, naturally).

    Are you getting that I liked naming things?

    The town boasted of an apartment building (made from strawberry baskets), a restaurant (a shoe polish can with one of those cone-shaped drinking cups on top-- click on the photo to see a larger view), a newspaper building, a post office, a town park, and a Methodist church.  Also, in the photo you might see a little plant marker. This said, "WELCOME TO BEETLEGRASS". 

    (Sorry for the quality of this picture, it was made at a time when photographing something was slightly easier than making a full-scale oil painting.)

    As you may have guessed, besides being a delightful way to spend time, Beetlegrass was a giant catch-all for DUST, so it was packed up and moved into the attic, as was the dresser that was its home.  (That dresser now stores all of my linens in my Dining Room.)

    I wrote this about Beetlegrass when I was in junior highschool:

  Unfortunately, not long after the box with the town in it went up to the attic, so did the  dresser with the anchor sticker on it that had held the town for those many years.
    Someday I plan to reincarnate Beetlegrass, but it won't be on my new dresser.  It will be built  onto something... so that it will be permanent.

 How freaky is that?

    Today's Jane Moment is also from the Memory Vault. Jane likes making up silly lyrics to familiar songs, and here's a fave from a loooong time ago (Sung to the tune of The Fiddler on the Roof's Matchmaker):

Mapmaker, Mapmaker,
Make me a map,
Tip me a tap,
Sit on my lap.
  

WEB-liciousness!

The website is up and running!  Oh what joy, oh what rapture! And, in a related news story: yay for choices in type SIZE and color !