At Least Three Weeks in a Plastic Box

Why is my blog called "rgdnapa" instead of something cooler and more clever, like crust.com, or toomuchzucchini.com? I started my design blog in January of this year, because I was frustrated with having a website that I couldn't just hop on and change whenever I wanted. I worked with a web consultant who set up a system for me that didn't address my need to post new pictures of my current work, change pages, etc.. I paid her anyway, but I still didn't have what I wanted. Then I came across blogger, and I thought I'd check it out. I put up my business site, resource graphic design became rgdnapa, and voila, here I am. Still working on learning enough about the web to make a better website. I have to-- it's printed on my business cards.

When I realized how easy blogging was, I thought I'd test the waters with a personal site, too. I didn't really have a specific goal in mind, I just figured I'd write about what was interesting to me, what made me happy, and I hoped that in the end the pieces would make up a composite of who I am and what I do. I didn't really intend for it to be so much of a food site, but that's how it worked out. I'm enjoying it. It's really gratifying to know that I'm sharing recipes with people all over the country. Good food, made from fresh things, is central to health and happiness for me.

Sometimes I wish I was irreverent and wickedly clever, like dooce, but that's not who I am. My husband Mike and I made a deal when I started doing this that it wouldn't be about US, so I don't write about the fact that I like to read in bed and he doesn't, or that he likes the shades closed during the day and I like them open, or that one of us watches too much TV (in my opinion). If any of those things were true, you wouldn't hear it from me.

At first, I was hesitant to tell people about the blog. It was a secret journal. Then I told one or two of my very best friends. Slowly, I opened it up to other friends, but only people that I would tell the same things to in person. I know, I know, it's the www for Pete's sake, but really, people who know me don't just find this site by accident. Now, if you google me, you get this. So it's out there now. If you're reading this, and you run into me on the street, it's ok to say you read my blog. All five of you. So, who am I?

I am 40...ok 41. My biological clock went off a few years ago-- I must have hit the snooze button, so no, I don't have any kids, and I've finally stopped saying "yet..." at the end of that sentence. But I love kids, and I love to spend as much time with them as I can. I'm married to a really super guy. Because he is a property manager, we have lived on beautiful winery properties in the Napa Valley for a little over ten years. It's a sweet gig if you have the skills for it, which he does.

By day, I am a graphic designer, dealing mostly with wine point-of-sale materials and media kit type stuff, but I enjoy doing lots of small jobs for individuals, like logos and business cards. I used to work for a great big prestigious wine importing and marketing company. I also work for a small winery, doing their materials and generally helping out a couple of days a week. For fun, I paint watercolors, mostly of fruits and vegetables, and take pictures. Lots of pictures. These days, they are mostly of flowers. I'm an ok artist, hopefully getting better all the time. Sometimes I even do something worth putting a frame around. I love my life now. It's very fun.

I read a lot (because without kids, I have a lot of time to read). I hate mysteries, I love quirky books, and I always pick a book by the cover and then read the description. I love to cook. I'm not a vegetarian, but because we subscribe to a local CSA and get a big box of vegetables and fruit every week, I have to find ways to use them up. It's not easy for two people to get through the box in just seven days. Some weeks, I curse turnips, or cucumbers, or aaaack! leeks! But as the seasons slowly turn, each new thing is exciting. Some things are downright beautiful.

When I was born, I was about a month and a half early and weighed a little under 4 lbs. (3 lbs. 13 oz.) Plenty of smaller babies have been born since and lived, but that was pretty small back then. I was put into a plastic box with a feeding tube. When I picture that, I picture a hamster licking at a steel waterer. It was not like that. My mom told me once that every time she'd come to see me (she had to come to see me, because she had to leave me at the hospital) I'd have squirmed around and pulled the feeding tube out. When she told me this, I said something like, "that's because I was trying to find my MOM," which I hope did not hurt her feelings. From time to time, I wonder how that experience has shaped who I am.