and falling so far behind on these postings, it’s crazy. I’d blame the weather, but that would be silly, because I already blame the weather when it’s cold and grey out.

This is perfect weather! I love it! I would never complain! But I don’t love sitting at the computer during it.

Okay, I’ll blame the weather. It’s too beautiful to blog.

I had a nice experience recently I wanted to mention, though this may be short (insert note: short? Me? What was I thinking!). But slog on I will in my blogular way, because I became recently re-inspired to do this writing thing. Nothing inspires like finding out you have an audience.

Do tell, you say?

Here’s what happened, since you so kindly express your interest, thank you.

I love Hornby art openings, and this one is my favourite of the year. It’s the ultimate Hornby experience, the one at Elaine Savoie’s place, which is indescribable. Therefore I needn’t try to describe it.

I’m too hot and tired (did I mention that?) to bother, to tell the truth. I’ll let you all know when I get the photos of the show up on my flickr page.

Aside from the gloriously gorgeous setting (stunning garden and oceanfront cliffside), the mind-boggling craft and creativity of the art (seven of the island’s most interesting artists), the delightful and delicious food and wine (I particularly liked the fruit bowl made of flower petals and ice), the people and conversations made the experience special.

One poignant moment was talking to a failed Phoenix (her own description). This poor Phoenix by another name had apparently made the error of trying to change her name (to Phoenix) without moving first to a new community! She found to her chagrin that nobody would call her by the new name. Yup, I nodded. I myself had to move to a new place in order to pull it off.

That place was, of course, Hornby Island (bet you guessed that), on January 15, 1988. That’s when I changed my name.

I was actually really surprised at the time that nobody blinked or questioned me when I introduced myself as Phoenix. No one said, “No, you couldn’t possibly be a Phoenix.”
And of course, nobody said, “Uh uh, your name is ——.” That’s how I became Phoenix. I encouraged this very cool and lovely woman to persevere, don’t lose the dream, try again!

This world needs more Phoenixes. That’s what I think. Phoenii?

Okay, here’s the inspiring moment: I was speaking to a beautiful woman who had sung stunningly, and she said (with the air of someone finally meeting someone they’d heard of for a while), “Oh, are you Phoenix?”

Since I had never seen her before (I didn’t think), I was a bit surprised, but I agreed, yup, that’s me.

She said, “Oh, wonderful, I’ve been reading your blog for years!”

Then she excitedly introduced me to her husband, who apparently also reads me blahg. Wow. I was speechless, kinda. Well, not exactly. I talked (try to stop me) but I didn’t say what I felt, which was:

“Ohmygawd, thank you!!”

I felt like a, what, a celebrity. Yeah. Sort of. I’ve been writing this thing for so long, and feeling like it’s mostly for me and my mom, a few friends, a couple of online acquaintances.

But I have that Leo Moon shy-bold desire to be noticed, so it was a sweet moment of feeling seen. I liked it. So Heather, thanks again for saying!

Enough for now. It’s still hot. I’ll be back soon, I hope. Thanks for reading.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under about me, photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.