Saturday, September 15, 2007

it's a middle name anagram tag game


I was tagged by that lovely Galadriel at I Hate Laundry. You got me, girl.
Technically, I have two middle names since I added my husbands name to my own after marriage, thereby making my maiden name my second middle name.
My full name is Ahna Lynn Brandvik Logan -lucky you. So here goes:

L - laughter. I dig laughter. I think that laughter is probably how I judge everyone. Do you laugh? Do you make other people laugh? It's easy to get by in this life on good looks, but you've got to be one sharp cookie to make people laugh.
Y - Yellow. My bedroom when I was a little girl had lots and lots and lots of big pop-art-ish, Orla Kiely-esque yellow daisies climbing up the wall paper. We lived a house that my dad built in the great woods of pine trees in Northern Minnesota. (As I re-read this, I realize it sounds a little like Laura Ingalls Wilder. Not quite that idyllic, but rather quaint.) I didn't have shades on my windows, and my bedroom had a southeast facing window. Every sunny morning I was bathed in the early morning light. The sunshine would make my bedroom glow with funky yellow daisies. I still love to wake up in a puddle of sunshine - it's a very safe feeling.
N - Northern Minnesota. This is where I spent my formative years, which says a lot about me. I grew up in a part of the country that was so cold the schools actually built tunnels to connect the buildings, and the sun set by 4:00 PM for 5 months out of the year. There were also lots and lots of companies with strange names. For example, the D.Cease Funeral Home (D. is for David, Mr. Cease's first name) There was a hair salon called The Beaver Look (Why? Well, the college mascot was the Bemidji Beavers, of course. Who would really want the "beaver look" is beyond me.) There were many strange names, but did I make fun of them or mock them behind their backs...?
N - Nice. C'mon. I'm from Minnesota. I know how to be "nice."

B - Breakfast. One of my favorite memories of my entire life is having breakfast with my grandpa. I spent many lazy weeks at my mother's childhood home in the summertime. We'd start every day in my grandparents' warm, sun-bathed kitchen in the big old house in that little tiny town in the western-most corner of North Dakota. I was the first one through the swinging door that lead from the dining room to the kitchen, and Grandpa would already be there. His gray stubble was freshly shaved and he was wearing a white tank undershirt that showed his old man arms and he'd smile and he'd say to me, "good morning, pickle puss." The coffee smell filled up the kitchen. He'd cut my grapefruit with a little knife, carefully, yet swiftly separating each section from the rind. Then he'd cover that fresh, juicy pink grapefruit flesh with a huge mound of powdered sugar that he'd scoop out of a yellowing sugar bowl that rested next to the cookie jar on the counter under the window. He'd hand me a special little grapefruit spoon and we'd both dig in. I knew he'd been waiting for me. I felt important and loved. We'd tell each other stories and he'd make me laugh. My grandfather passed away many years ago. Still, on random, unimportant days, I walk into my kitchen and I am hit with the smell of my grandfather's aftershave and the smell of coffee that's already been brewed and the smell of that sweet, pink, fresh, juicy grapefruit that had been carefully shipped to the middle of the prairie in North Dakota just for my grandfather and me. And when I look again, I am alone. The first one through the swinging door that leads from my dining room into the kitchen.
R - radishes. I really hate radishes.
A - Anne. My Grandma Anne was really bossy. I prefer to think of her as knowing what she wanted out of life. I'm kind of like her. OK. I'm a lot like her. She was a big, round Norwegian farm girl who could swallow you whole in her fleshy arms when she gathered you to her heart. When I was little, we'd have private tea parties on her front porch. She'd take down her special cups - little Victorian tea cups that had belonged to her and my grandfather when they were children - and we'd put on our white gloves and she'd pour the tea. Then she'd serve the cookies. Wow. Could that woman bake. It was only 9:30 in the morning, and she'd be serving us frosted molasses cookies. I think this is sort of amazing because 1.) those cookies were fresh from the oven in the middle of the summer and 2.) she was feeding, no sneaking cookies to her 5 year old grand daughter at 9:30 in the morning. She'd wink and I'd know that we were part of a really important tea-time secret.
N - Nice. Ok, here's the truth about "Minnesota Nice." It's not really very nice. it's just a big smile and then we talk behind your back.
D - When I was a little girl, I thought I should be a dancer. I'd seen the ABT on tour and had watched some amazing dancers. I practiced standing in 5th position. I walked on the toes of my Chuck Taylor's like I was en pointe. I spent a great deal of time wearing a leotard everywhere I went. I knew I had what it took, even though at 12 I was a 4'8" chubby little blonde girl. It was shortly after this episode that I discovered the importance of laughter.
V - Vikings. I really don't like football. My husband loves it. He is first in his fantasy football league. Just ask him.
I - Ice cream. I'm not a huge fan of ice cream. It's a little too creamy. I like Breyer's Natural Vanilla Bean. It's a little 'ice milky' and the flecks of 'bean' are yummy.
K - Kids. My kids rock my world. My uncle told me that life would really begin after I had kids. Boy-oh-boy was he right. I had a great career before I had kids (I married later in life and I was 33-ish before I had my first daughter.) None of that seems nearly as important since I've had kids. Thank God.

That's it. You made it all the way through. So, now I'm it! I tag these lovely folks.
Chris & Rikki+E3
Inside Out
Puddle Wonderful
la vie en rose
Qwingk
Because I knew you...

7 comments:

Fibo said...

Nice Blog :)

Bethany said...

Ok, Ahna. Done. For now...that was fun!

. . . said...

David and I read this in the car on our way home from Ojai - so great! I love the way you write about your grandparents! Thanks for the tag. I think mine will be considerably shorter!

kalurah said...

I find it interesting that you and I both used the same things for "I" and "K"!
only, I happen to love Ice Cream to a fault! But we both love our kids.
and that's why we are "kindred Spirits", you and I.
I'm so glad I met you, Ahna.
Thanks for sharing this name tag.
I loved hearing about your Grandfather and Grandmother.:)

Sew Succulent said...

love it.

The Beaver Look? Oh, dear. That could be nothing but bad.

my grandparents are such a special part of my life...I loved your reflections on them,

xoxo

Sew Succulent said...

I mean, I loved your reflections on *your* grandparents, not mine, obviously.

it's late!

;-)

Galadriel Thompson said...

Good job! So are you saying that you're nice? I need to take some lessons from you I think. Thanks for playing!