Tell Me About Yourself Award

Today, Bella of The Citizen Rosebud was sweet and gave me the above Award.  The mandate of the Award is to share Seven Random Facts about yourself.

Those of you who've been here before know it doesn't take much encouragement to get me to share.  Sometimes, I worry about the opposite -- giving more information than you want.  I often refrain from doing that to avoid overstaying my welcome.  But now, thankfully, Bella has given me the excuse I need.  Ready?  Here goes!

1.  Blogging enables and facilitates my growth as a person.  It allows me to dive deeper into femininity and women's lives than ever before, which is intensely joyful for me and hugely educational.

2. My entire life, I've wanted female friends.  When you look like a boy, it's often hard to get women to see you as a potential friend.  Blogging helps me overcome that barrier; it enables me to offer information which people can use to understand me before having to decide whether they want to be friendly.

3. My work is very demanding.  I'm a commercial litigator, which means I fight other lawyers over business disputes.  I've been doing it for thirty years and am good at it, but it drains me.  I need activities outside of work to refresh my spirit.  Blogging and motorcycling are my primary passions now.

4. Your feedback over the past year has taught me so much.  Not only about fashion, but about how you think, how you talk, what you prefer and what you dislike.  I pay careful attention to every comment and e-mail I get in a steady effort to learn as much as I can.  I'm immensely grateful to you for every communication you direct at me.  They teach me what I desperately want to know.

5. I love to cook.  I make interesting, often unusual dishes with strong flavors and spices.  For example, I'll throw anchovies into a sauce to make it fishy; I'll toss tumeric into a dish to make it pleasingly orange and full of health-benefits; and I use Tamari (soy sauce) to add saltiness to most of my meals.

6. I've learned you can't predict the future; the best you can do is put one foot in front of the other and head in directions you hope will be fulfilling.  I handled school this way; I handled business this way; and I added motorcycling to my life this way.  I'm currently heading toward a more natural and enjoyable female life.  Over the past year, I've made greater strides in that direction than I ever thought was possible.  I have secret dreams of going all the way with this but, given my life-experience, I don't want to get my hopes up for fear of disappointment.  Right now, I'm enjoying the journey and pushing the envelope to the extent I can. 

7. I value friends more than anything in the world.  I prioritize friends and am willing to help them to a greater extent than is conventional.  When I like you, I pull out all the stops and will do anything for you.  Perhaps that's because I'm a Scorpio.  :)

Thank you for indulging me!