Everyone needs a biggest fan.
Jul. 9th, 2008 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seanan_mcguireEveryone needs a biggest fan; hopefully, your biggest fan will not be Annie Wilkes, as hobbling is absolutely no fun for anyone but the person doing the hobbling, but still, everyone needs one. This goes for you whether you're an author, an artist, an accountant, or the guy who counts sea urchins for the Australian government. Your biggest fan will pretty much decide that everything you ever do is wonderful, even when they lack the critical capacity to really understand what the hell you're talking about. Your biggest fan will applaud your failures, because they're yours. And your biggest fan will cheerfully agree when you announce that you have the ugliest toes in North America.
Your biggest fan is also going to be the first one waiting to puncture your ego if it starts getting too big, the one who says 'I don't understand this' without saying 'so it sucks,' and the one who tells you to wipe your nose, zip your pants, and go deal with your own messes, because your biggest fan understands that sometimes, you just need smacked upside the head and told to get over yourself. Everyone needs a biggest fan. But I don't.
The position has been filled.
Last night, I spent about two hours shopping with my mother. We shopped for shoes (which I hate doing) and came away with two pairs that manage to be super-cute without a) being super-high, b) revealing my tan line (I walk so much, in such similar shoes, that I have two-tone feet), or c) showcasing my terrifying 'I am a marathon walker who used to take dance classes, has broken each toe at least twice, and has never had a pedicure' toes. We shopped for supplies for my trip. We shopped for picture frames, because she needed to frame one of my comic strips and wanted to be ready to start framing my book covers. We shopped for Tootsie Pops (and were nearly defeated by the candy aisle). We shopped, in general, like an enormously tightly-wound neurotic blonde girl and her deeply placid mother. (Raising me pretty much killed her capacity for panic. 'Look, Mommy, this snake makes a noise!' had ceased to be a distressing statement by the time I was nine. This was largely a matter of self-defense.)
My biggest fan: my mother. And I'm pretty much okay with that.
Your biggest fan is also going to be the first one waiting to puncture your ego if it starts getting too big, the one who says 'I don't understand this' without saying 'so it sucks,' and the one who tells you to wipe your nose, zip your pants, and go deal with your own messes, because your biggest fan understands that sometimes, you just need smacked upside the head and told to get over yourself. Everyone needs a biggest fan. But I don't.
The position has been filled.
Last night, I spent about two hours shopping with my mother. We shopped for shoes (which I hate doing) and came away with two pairs that manage to be super-cute without a) being super-high, b) revealing my tan line (I walk so much, in such similar shoes, that I have two-tone feet), or c) showcasing my terrifying 'I am a marathon walker who used to take dance classes, has broken each toe at least twice, and has never had a pedicure' toes. We shopped for supplies for my trip. We shopped for picture frames, because she needed to frame one of my comic strips and wanted to be ready to start framing my book covers. We shopped for Tootsie Pops (and were nearly defeated by the candy aisle). We shopped, in general, like an enormously tightly-wound neurotic blonde girl and her deeply placid mother. (Raising me pretty much killed her capacity for panic. 'Look, Mommy, this snake makes a noise!' had ceased to be a distressing statement by the time I was nine. This was largely a matter of self-defense.)
My biggest fan: my mother. And I'm pretty much okay with that.
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Date: 2008-07-09 04:45 pm (UTC)I think that's awesome. Both your mom and the successful shopping.
Also - if you liked manicures than I am here to tell you that pedicures are also awesome.
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Date: 2008-07-13 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-09 05:08 pm (UTC)Made of awesome and win. We can tell you get it honest. :)
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Date: 2008-07-09 09:28 pm (UTC)Clearly you've never met Seanan's mom. Seanan is a changeling, pure and simple.
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Date: 2008-07-09 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-13 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-09 06:53 pm (UTC)Wow, that's a perfect description of my childhood and my dad. And yes, my dad is also my biggest fan (and I am his in turn - not a day goes by that I don't thank the universe for my getting the best parent ever).
And empathy on the whole shopping for "adult" shoes, I'm so glad you were able to find something for NYC. I've had a few pedicures, but still have the mutant feet (and ankles!) from walking/ballet dancing/taekwondo/swing dancing, so shoe shopping is a royal pain in the lower extremities even before I try to put the shoes on and walk ten feet. (If I could just be carried in a litter everywhere, that would simplify matters...)
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Date: 2008-07-13 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-09 10:43 pm (UTC)Of course, I'm biased, 'cause she brought me a Large Fuzzy Dog to pet when I was seriously in need of a dog fix while out there in January. :-)
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Date: 2008-07-13 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-10 06:02 pm (UTC)I would love that job? Only the count would officially be zero by the time I was done.
NOMNOMNOM
-- Lorrie does indeed know that the edible bit on a sea urchin is, in fact, its gonads. But if "has look and texture of snot" is OK by you, they are yummy, yummy, gonads.
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Date: 2008-07-13 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-13 05:57 pm (UTC)-- Lorrie
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Date: 2008-07-14 12:46 pm (UTC)