depicting self

so this post has been haunting me for the past few weeks. i've written different intros. they fizzled out. i became absorbed in club stuff. i wrote another intro. i took a nap. the post went un-posted.

even now, i'm struggling to find the words and thread of these thoughts, but i'm pushing through, because a. i actually have a few hours of free time today. and b. the this post i'm talking about (you know, this one) is all about self.

this past week, my uber-extraordinaire agent asked me to write up a few blurbs about my works in progress. while both mysteries of sorts, on the surface, the manuscripts are night and day books. teen high school drama vs. period piece bizarreness. but when i thought about the main characters, it was obvious i'd written about two people who were very much trying to figure themselves out.

and when i thought about that, i realized all the books i've written to date have had that same theme.

now, i'm not trying to get all deep. every novel is about characters trying to sort out their shite. still, why was i obsessed with it? the common thought is write about what you know. and even though i don't at all endorse that saying (seriously), clearly girlfriend is infatuated with introspection.

so i did what anyone would do upon having these (not at all) deep thoughts. i Google imaged myself.

*disclaimer: truth be told, i Google imaged myself at least a week in advance of the WIP excercise to make sure there weren't any boogery images of me out there, but for the purpose of this blog post, first i had the deep thoughts, then i did the funny search.*

now, i know we've all Googled ourselves. but have you ever Google imaged yourself? i found a world of Corrie Wachob that i never knew existed.

i mean, i knew this was me:

hiiiii bangs.

and i know some blondies are hard to tell apart, but um, last time i checked, this wasn't me:

and yes please, but for real? not in a million years:

while i was scrolling, i kept thinking, what if this isn't random, but it's a cosmic, techie, fortune telling, horoscopy kind of thing that is depicting the true me. while the mega amount of hair model images is a debatable equation (i mean, Dear Google i haven't washed my hair in a week and these knots ain't going nowhere), the fact that i love dancing in big groups in sweaty gyms is not a debatable equation.

and i do tend to do crazy, spontaneous...tumbling routines?

okay, maybe not so much. but scrolling through, i kept making happy gasping noises. smattered amidst the tiny head shots of smiley people who i don't know at all and mean nothing to me:

were images of people that mean the world to me. my sis has an amazing web presence. but to my knowledge, we aren't linked through it. so it's like Google just knows that any image representation of Corrie Wachob isn't complete without some representation of her family.

you all know my sis is an
amazing artist, si?

likewise, inserted between all the Etsy-esque drawings of birds, Google placed pics of a big sum of the sum of my parts -- photos of sum of the terrific friends that i've been blessed with along the way.

senor jared.

senorita ellen

senorina amy

and how google attached me to my wonderful
friend anna, i have no idea. this is a super old
photo of her, right around when we first met. weird.

so the point in all this? exactly. now you see why the blog post kept going un posted.

but as my life has done a wonderful, whirlwind 180 in the span of a few short weeks, you can't help thinking about what that all means, and what you all mean, and you can't help feeling so frickin' lucky. to the point that you see all those random tiny headshots of smiling asian ladies under your name and you think, they must be there because life is so awesome.

and by you i mean me. but according to Google images, you are me. especially if you're this guy:

corrie wachob, she's a cheetah.
oh god, phonetically it sounds like, cheat-ah.
not true! okay, that one time...no, what?
i mean, corrie wachob, she's fast.
pfft. forget the cat analogies.
this is why i like dogs.

and that's a wrap.

successes

today, trolling Facebook while i had my first sips of coffee (Facebook is the only thing my brain can handle when i wake up) i saw that something good happened to my friend Carla's friend, Colin Hagendorf.

sorry, this link is the best i could do to getting the video on my blog:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/slice-harvester-20120105#.TwXAZyPrOQc.facebook

it's easier if you just watch the clip (Colin, you should post it on youtube so it can start accumulating views. and other people can more easily link to it. i'm just saying) - and the boy's cute, so it's not like it's painful - but basically Colin ate at every pizza joint in Manhattan, blogged about it since 2009, and is now getting a little (or a lot of) press coverage for it. i love watching the newscast. Colin handles himself so well, while also seeming completely shocked to be there.

in other (Facebook) news, i've been having a great time watching Ms. Lauren Morrill go through the stages of getting her first novel published. one week it's whoo-hoo, i just saw the cover art! next week, it's hey friends, help me chose an author photo... because yes people, let me repeat myself, she's a YA author who's actually getting published.

and the awesomest thing about Lauren's story? she hit it out of the park on the first go! but i'll let her tell you about it....

in other publishing news, my dear friend and former community activist collaborator Amy Cappelli is racking up a list of accomplishments ranging from articles in the Buffalo News to published short stories. she's doing this all whilst raising four children and regularly posting an illustrated blog.

accomplishment. pay-off. success.

a few weeks back a young woman and her friend were celebrating at the wine bar i work at. after ordering a second bottle of prosecco, my interest was peeked enough to ask, what's the deal? both women were infectiously giddy with happiness. they were people you'd easily become friends with at the gym or waiting in line at the grocery store.

"You're looking at," the one woman said, gesturing to her friend, "the new Editor-and-Chief of Vogue Latina."

it felt like a success for all of us because the woman was so...normal. wasn't success something that happened to other people? people i knew didn't appear in Broadway productions i wished i had a ticket for. they didn't write the books i read. or edit the magazines i saw in the stores.

or so i thought.

happily, i'm starting to get proven wrong. years of hard work, great ideas, and first attempts get rewarded in this real life. success happens. it does. so work hard, be patient, and celebrate other people's achievements when you see them because great things can and will happen to you, too.