The ABCs of Me, the sequel

N is for - nose. I hate mine. Always have. Straight on, it's fine, cute even. Side to, it's a different story. It resembles the ski jump at the Olympics.

O is for - (L') Orangerie. Or (D') Orsay.  My favourite museums in the world. I've realized I'm an Impressionism kind of girl; I don't even like my art to be literal. Les Nympheas take my breath away. I spent a very happy couple of hours waiting in line with hundreds of like-minded Gallic art lovers the first weekend L'orangerie reopened after a 7 year renovation. One very perturbed frenchman could not understand why I was going alone to see such beautiful art. I told him it was a long story, in any language.

P is for - photography. Photos are probably my favourite visual art form. I love paintings and sculpture and mobiles and all manner of quirky arty-ness, but the ability to exactly capture a moment in a photo is something I greatly admire. I love Man Ray, Cartier-Bresson, Brassai. Mapplethorpe, and Avedon. Diane Arbus was a genius, but she gives me nightmares. And no one does celebrity portraiture better than Annie Leibovitz.

Q is for - Queenie, my childhood collie. Lovely girl, incredibly loyal. Could have kicked Lassie's ass. I don't know if you've ever tried to get a half-blind, soaking wet collie out of a brook and up an embankment, but it ain't easy. For you or the collie.

R is for - rhinoceros. Got to feed a baby one and its mother once. Can never remember if it's black or white rhinos who are more dangerous and prone to charging. This was the non-charging kind. 

S is for - sauna. I am considering getting one of those 3 or 4 person ones for my deck. They look like a cross between a phone booth and a giant wine barrel. And what they say about drinking in a sauna? Very true. So I hear.

T is for - Tuscany. Love it. The food, the pace, the landscape, its essence. Driving around Tuscany in no particular hurry with no particular destination is a joy. The crazy quilt hills seems both familiar and like nothing you've ever seen before.

U is for - underwear. I have been guilty of spending way too much on lacy bits of impracticality in my day, and you know what I finally figured out last year?  Men don't care, not really.  Sure, they'll say they appreciate it, they may even give you an unprompted compliment, but when they look back on your relationship (and oh, they will), they will not remember the panties. But guys, if you could always wear those Calvin-esque boxer briefs, I'd really appreciate it. I promise I'll remember them.

V is for - vanilla. I love the smell of vanilla. Every perfume I've worn in the past 20 years has had vanilla in it. Maybe longer - anyone know what Bonne Bell's Skin musk had as a base note? I also remember being quite surprised at how not yummy vanilla extract is when sampled directly from the bottle. My brother was pretty surprised too, especially since I'm assured him it was a taste sensation. Seriously - who falls for that?

X is for - xylophone. One of the few instruments I can say I played decently. Granted, I think I was 11, but I rocked that mofo.

Y is for - Yaz and Alison Moyet. One of my favourite Brit New Wave bands, and one of the best voices to come out of Britain in the 80s. I'd nearly forgotten about them until recently, when someone mentioned "Only You". Fantastic song. So imagine my horror when I youtubed it and realized that Enrique Iglesias had covered it. This is not recent, apparently, but I'm not really up on his alleged career.  Song ruiner.

Z is for - Zindel, Paul. I read several of his books in my adolescent years, and I remember loving them. It's the first time I remember laughing until I cried over a book, and I loved that feeling.  His Pigman books, My Darling, My Hamburger - so good. He gave Judy Blume a run for her money on my bookshelf.

There you have it - the second half of my own personal alphabet. Some of them were really hard. A few were incredibly easy. And a few have likely changed since I started this...