One time I sang live on A Prairie Home Companion in front of thousands of people I could see and millions of radio-listeners I couldn't. I wasn't nervous a smidge. Give me a stage and a microphone, and it's a cocoon of safety and support. Last week I went to a book club with seventeen smart women, and I had to tell everyone my name and I about peed my pants with anxiety and fear.
It's typical social anxiety, and I can't really explain it. I don't know the number of audience at which I become comfortable again. But if I don't have the frame of a stage, then simply introducing myself is apparently terrifying these days.
Blame it on mental instability post-baby? I don't know, but all I had to do was say my name, my occupation and "one interesting fact" about myself. I was a mess. My friend had to whisper, "You play the musical saw," in my ear when it was obvious I couldn't think of anything to tell the group. After, of course, I thought of lots of interesting facts. I've had all kinds of interesting things happen to me.
And so, from the safety of my blog, I bring you: ten interesting facts about Brigid. At least I think they are interesting. Some of them sound really braggy. Or at least name-droppy. But I think they are still interesting?
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| Interesting fact not listed: I have more freckles than anyone. |
It's typical social anxiety, and I can't really explain it. I don't know the number of audience at which I become comfortable again. But if I don't have the frame of a stage, then simply introducing myself is apparently terrifying these days.
Blame it on mental instability post-baby? I don't know, but all I had to do was say my name, my occupation and "one interesting fact" about myself. I was a mess. My friend had to whisper, "You play the musical saw," in my ear when it was obvious I couldn't think of anything to tell the group. After, of course, I thought of lots of interesting facts. I've had all kinds of interesting things happen to me.
And so, from the safety of my blog, I bring you: ten interesting facts about Brigid. At least I think they are interesting. Some of them sound really braggy. Or at least name-droppy. But I think they are still interesting?
- I learned how to play the musical saw from my college roommate whose brother Guy Forsyth is a famous Texas musician who also plays the saw really, really well.
- When I was 5 years old I was in a national television commercial for a GE microwave. (It's not on YouTube ... yet.)
- I can do a back flip off the 3-meter high dive.
- I started my first career as Andy Cohen's intern in 1998 at CBS, and my first task was to update his Rolodex. I had everyone's phone number.
- I haven't owned a car in five years.
- I can write in cursive backwards quickly and easily and have been able to do since I read a biography of Leonardo da Vinci when I was nine and learned about his 'mirror writing.'
- I'm ambidextrous.
- I've played saw and accordion and sung backing vocals for Elvis Costello three times and in two countries.
- I've had breakfast with Walter Cronkite.
- I had perfect attendance from Kindergarten all the way through 12th grade.
2 comments
Now I'm wandering around looking at GE commercials from the 1980-era trying to decide if the maybe-5ish-year-old looking girls might be you. There are a few possibilities out there! How hard did you look? Ok, have to go back to work now.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm not too hard. It was 1983 or 1984, and at the end the "mom" gets a rose bouquet. I sit around a table looking bored. Bright red hair and freckles - hard to miss. My dad has it on VHS, so one of these days it'll end up online.
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