5 Interesting Things about Pog

Apparently, I have been tagged to produce 5 interesting things about myself. So here it goes...may I present to you ...

5 Interesting Things about Pog

1. I used to be a sharp shooter. I won the CT regionals for rifle shooting in my class, I was the captain of my rifle team in prep school and we beat the uniforms off of the Westpoint cadets, much to their embarrassment. I am very rusty but given some practice, I bet I can still shoot the arse off a fly at 100 yards.
2. I worked in TV for a number of years before going to Ireland for my Master's. I was a pushpin girl (pushed pins in a map to indicate the location of the callers) for a sports show on NECN when it first started up. I also worked for Channel 5 in Boston and Channel 8 in New Haven CT (where I saw my first dead body)
3. I once flew to London from Boston to go to a party in a castle on the Beaulieu Castle in Southhampton. There were some famous people there, especially by British standards (so that means they weren't all that famous). Prince Edward, Charles's brother, was there. My sister went up and talked to him. I was too busy looking for the member of Pink Floyd (Gilmour, Waters?) who was supposed to be there. So was Mick Jagger. Both a no-show but it all got written up in Hello magazine.
4. I was arrested for fighting once, again in Boston, the site of most of my indiscretions.
5. My first story is being published in a book put out by the Dublin Writer's Centre. The launch in on November 16th and a famous Irish literary scholar and politician is launching the book. My mom doesn't know! I am going to surprise her with it for Christmas.

So, there you have them. I have more stories. I get myself into stupid situations out of boredom and restlessness.

Top 10 Lame Pog Excuses

Hi Guys!

Thanks to Rose, Trish, March, Dim and the others who have sent me notes, asking me about my absence on the blog scene! I am sorry to leave such a stale looking page having apparently dropped off the face of the earth. I am touched that you noticed and cared! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about my blog friends. It also makes me feel guilty... but I usually feel guilty about something, I am Catholic. Without guilt, where would I be?

This is a bit of a cop out post but, hell, I am rusty. So I offer you today...

Pog's Top 10 Lame Reasons for not have Posting

1. Pog started school and can't believe the amount of crap that she is being asked to do that she doesn't want to do. This includes, collecting and creating an anthology of "poetry with passion" - oh and writing a 10 page introduction. How is this going to help me with my own writing, especially since I don't write poetry? Not sure but "ours is not to reason why, ours is just to do or die". Hey! That's Tennyson! I can use that one!
2. It was a "bank holiday weekend" which is Ireland's name for, "day off for no reason". We get one a month except for November and December, but of course, we get a lot of days off in December anyway and the whole month is one big coming into work hungover so really, the only month to bitch about is November.
3. Pog is busy writing short stories like a madman! My routine is finish, read blogs, revise, write a post, revise again, read blogs - I have just finished one so I am on the blog part of my writing cycle.
4. Pog has been up in the country cottage, mucking about with the horse in the mud. I have two "love" bites to prove it. It is "love" or "where is my goddamn apple" bites. One or the other.
5. As soon as I get on blogger, I am so busy reading y'all, I never get around to posting.
6. I have been spending some quality time with my fella, whom I only see on the weekends, so even when I have blogging time, I get distracted - now before you get any dirty ideas, I usually am getting distracted by cooking dinners and cleaning up after everyone!
7. Its either blog or exercise. Ok, that was the lamest of all because I am not doing either!
8. I went to see the musical Wicked in London. I loved it! And I am not a musical kind of a gal! Showtunes are really only for gay men. Having said that, I loved it. This probably didn't stop me from blogging but just so you know how I am spending my free time.
9. I am busy writing work related emails so people keep paying me. I have to keep up the illusion that I actually am busy during 8 hours a day on company business.
10. Pog is lazy.

Thanks again for the shout outs guys! I hope I am back to a more normal posting routine!

Sacrilege or some much needed perspective???

You make the call! Over on Sucky CD Sunday. And don't miss the new post on this blog situated below this one.

The Curse of Sting

The inspiration for this post came from March's FDF. It was all about the Police - the 80's rock band, not the group of civil servants who have also been referred to as "the Cops", "the Fuzz" and their personal favorite, "Pigs".

I loved the Police. No. That is an understatement. I LURRVVEDD the Police. My bedroom when I was 13 years old was totally covered in posters and cutting from Cream and Rolling Stone Magazine. I had everything they ever recorded, including some stuff that may get me a little of the ready on Ebay! Ever see a 2 mini-album version of Regatta de Blanc? I didn't think so. Most people haven't.

Central to my love of this band was my love for Sting. Yes, let retching commence, however, in my defense, remember the 20 year old Sting ... blonde, blue-eyed, talented, broody with a soft, yet pebble-dashed high class English accent. He was my world from the tender years of 10-13 when a early developing Pog was very, very bored with the boys in her grammar school and longed for the days when blonde, rockstar princes such as Sting, whisked her away from the dodgeball playing, nose-picking freakazoids which peppered her world! So, Pog made a deal with God. It went something like this...

Pog: Please God. I will never marry until I meet Sting so at least I know what perfection in a man is and I will have at least been in the presence of my only true love.
(Secretly, I hoped that upon meeting me, Sting would fall madly in love with me and whisk me off - somehow the horse was there on the occassion. Or at least he would ask me to go on tour with him...one or the other)

Well, by the time I hit high school, at 14 and turning the corner to 15, I was over my everlasting love of Sting. Why? Simple. The boys in high school were older and better looking and were real. Eventually, "the Police Shrine" as my parents called it, came down and were replaced by high school things. I continued to attend Sting concerts long after the Police had disbanded but my tastes in men changed too. I am no longer partial to blondes. Sting is a bit skinny for my liking and posh English accents turn my stomach now that I have heard the music of Irish brogues. I marvel at the women, who at my age, still scream for Sting as if they were 13. I feel a bit sorry for them.

Ok Pog, but what about the curse? Well, I never did meet Sting but apparently, God as held me honor bound to the committment I made that I would not marry (despite my best efforts) until I did meet him. I have been trying for an audiance for ages - I even told this story to his light man after a concert in Boston - just to break the spell and get me out of this contract!

I still love the Police. I am no longer in love with Sting but if anyone knows him, or knows someone who knows him, or is just really good at getting the personal emails of the rich and famous, let me know. I will plead my case with him and perhaps, just perhaps, he and I can address the higher authorities of fate which are at work here.

My future depends on it!

Hurry don't be late, I can hardly wait!

It's been a long time coming but Sucky CD Sunday is available for your consideration. If you are interested in a little reminiscing.