Twelve Years Later...

Tough lesson to write about today, mainly because I don't really know who exactly reads this thing. But, this self-taught lesson is what I learned today, and like it or not, I'm blogging it baby!

If the second biggest (probably the biggest but I'm trying to be a little humble here) account your company has is because you built the relationship, and because it's your designs they keep re-ordering, asks you to design a small line exclusively for them, just shut up, do it and tell the owners later. Especially if designing isn't your main job.

I know this sounds like a brag fest, but seriously, after getting a bunch of unwanted, uninteresting, and dare I say bad "suggestions" from the boss and the main designer today, I asked myself why I even told them what I was working on. And then I was mad at myself because I should have known better after all these years. It was then that I said, "This is it Donna, you are finally going to learn this lesson. Today. Just shut up and let your fabulousness flow."

I'd like to thank Laurence Acland for this perfect image today. Check him out here.

The Morning Shows

I didn't expect to be out until after 3am this morning, but I guess I actually learned something from that.

If you're planning to have a little afternoon meeting with some of the greatest personalities of the best newspaper and radio in town, there's no way you're going to be home before midnight and there's little chance you'll escape a hangover the next day. Also, as the now evening meeting progresses, the number of people attending will triple.

I'd say that I learned not to mix whisky, champagne, wine, more champagne, more whisky and then beer, but I'm pretty sure I already knew that. I must have forgotten.

Even though this learning event started out yesterday, I didn't actually think about it until today when my head stopped pounding, so I think it qualifies as what I learned today. Besides, I already learned some things yesterday, when I did the morning radio show for 3 hours, starting at 7 am.

• Three hours will fly by when you're on the air
• Getting up at 6 am is totally no big deal if you're heading down to the radio station
• I'm a lot more awake at 7 am than I thought possible
• The next time I do it, I'm going to be a little more prepared with more interesting things to talk about
• I won't be afraid to go into more depth and drag a topic out a bit more
• Being on the air isn't exactly like normal, personal conversation
• I totally love doing it!

And they want me to come back as often as I want!

Make Sausage, Not War

Today the snail mailman, and I can say mailman because he is in fact male, brought me a newspaper clipping sent by my aunt and number one fan, Sharon. It's about the sausage making traditions of Volga Germans, and not only did I learn a bit about sausage, (and I thought I knew a lot about sausage, wank wank, I mean wink wink) but I learned some of our family history as well.

First of all, Volga Germans are part of a larger group of Germans from Russia. My dads side of the family belongs to this particular know-it-all, better-than-everyone group and I'm very proud of that because, of course, I know everything, I'm always right and I'm better than you. Just like my grandma. Just kidding. Sort of. Anyway, this group came to be known as Volga Germans because they moved from Germany to Russia and lived along the lower Volga River in search of peace after the Seven Year War. Catherine the Great made them a pretty sweet deal to move there and live on her land because she knew the Germans kicked ass. It was here that they started toying around with sausage. Sounds fun eh? Since the empress forgot to include refrigeration in her package deal, sausage became the way to preserve meat, and they got really good at mixing in the right spices for some pretty tasty stuff.
Secondly, I learned that these sausages are an essential part of the Volga German Christmas table, but they are on the road to extinction. These unique, hand mixed, hand stuffed sausages are mainly being made by the older generation with little interest by the younger crowd to learn the craft. My aunt says that once a year the Edison Social Club members bring a son to their gathering and show them the ropes of this sausage making tradition. She got to go once as a scab for one of her cousins, and guess who gets to go and master the sausage stuffer next?

I'll be a natural.

La Hanau Mahina

Sagittarius in Hawaiian is Welehu.

As a Welehu, I can verify the accuracy of the following Welehu attributes.
We are candid, impulsive, and restless with an insatiable curiosity and an extraordinary power of mental activity. True to our archer symbol Pana Pua, we aim well with remarkable intuitive knowledge. We can do just about anything we put our minds to.

Sagittarius is also the "Surfing Moon" month. Surfing is the favorite sport of the Welehu, and here you have it; an official Welehu, better known as Donna (Kona) Piranha, surfing in Maui to prove it.

La Reina and the Virgin

Not being a religious person in any congregational sense, what I learned today is certainly well known to the rest of the world. But every year on December 12th, instead of saying, "Day of Worship- Donna Piranha's Birthday", my calendar always says, "Virgin of Guadalupe (M)". So I want to know who this bitch is that's taking my place on my sacred day. Now I know.

One day in December of 1531, a guy was walking up a hill on his way to attend Mass when the Virgin Mary appeared to him and told him she wanted a church built right there on top of the hill. So he went and told the Bishop his story but he didn't believe him and wanted proof. A few days later on the 12th day of December, he went back to the hill and there she was again. He told her he needed some evidence for his incredulous Bishop and she looked around and said, "Take him some of these roses". He gathered some up into his cloak and ran back to show him. When he opened his cloak, the roses fell to the ground and a perfect image of me, oops, I mean The Dark Virgin, was imprinted on the cloth. Centuries later, a priest named Morelos enscribed December 12 the Virgins feast day, and now millions of the faithful believers gather on this day to honor "La Reina de Mexico" (The Queen Donna Piranha).

Since I'll be the center of mucho attention-o tomorrow with all the feasting and fireworks, I won't be able to blog on this most revered day, December 12. I expect to see all of you on your knees with roses.
To enhance your December 12th pleasure, although I'm sure my birthday alone will suffice, here are some other amazing things that have happened on this honorable day:

1917- In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founded Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.

1950- Paula Ackerman, the first woman Rabbi in the US, holds her first service.

1982- 30,000 women hold hands and form a human chain around a 9 mile perimeter fence at Greenham Common. (I have no idea what this is but women did it and they are cool)

And other amazing people born on this day are:

Madeline Sophie Barat, another saint like myself, but a French one.

Edvard Munch, best known for his painting, The Scream


Sammy Davis Sr., Frank Sinatra, Bob Barker, Ed Koch, Keiko the whale, and Bridget Hall the supermodel.

It is also Kenya's independence day.

Thank you in advance for all of the wonderful gifts!