Inspired by today's topic from The Gypsy Mama, here is my five minute stream of consciousness-no editing or lingering, about what you'd behold if you met me:

Ready, Set......GO!

If you met me on the street, on most days, you would see a woman who hasn't yet showered, who is dressed in sweats, who may not make eye contact because she wishes she'd showered instead of running out of the house with one kid or four, and she's feeling a bit ashamed because she's gained back nearly all of the thirty-two pounds she lost, last summer, because of her damned meds- which she takes so that the anxiety and panic attacks, that wrecked her for a long time in the fall, don't return....and this makes her depressed and discouraged.

Upside down prologue to my story MOTHup Pittsburgh, Feb. 2011

If you met me at the MOTHup storytelling event, once a month, on the South Side, in Pittsburgh, you'd see a woman who looks put together, hair done, make-up on, nice clothes, super slutty high heel boots, doing a respectable job of telling tales of her life with her husband and kids, sometimes self-depricating, but always honest to the core, and connecting with her audience in ways that totally rock her world.  She would have a fantastic smile because she made you laugh.

If you met me and we somehow got to talking, you would notice my compassion, my empathy for human kind, my willingness to be vulnerable to a fault, my lack of inhibition and my contagious sense of humor and love for laughter.  You would get that I love my kids and that I've had some trying times, which you'd probably already know if you live in my town, but you'd see that I'm not really scarey or crazy and maybe I'm a lot like someone you know who is normal and fun or maybe like you.

STOP