Selkie Calls a Press Conference

Good afternoon and thank you all for being here. I know you’ve got many questions for me since my starring role in the major motion picture, AFF GIVING TUESDAY PROMO. The film has just been released.

Let me begin with a few basics.23828923_947600555395967_1913690358_o Yes, this was my debut performance, but I prefer to call it my break-out. Anyone can see I’m a natural. And that I have a great instinct for choosing good scripts. At 12 weeks, I’m old enough to know what sells.

How did I get into Hollywood? I guess you could say acting was a way to compensate for the loss I felt after my family deserted me. So many of us in the biz have had troubled home lives; it’s the valley of shadows that truly makes or breaks an artist, in my opinion, getting in touch with the abandonment, the rejection, the heartbreak, the shots and worming medicine… From the dark path of uncertainty grows the true artist, giving that performance where the pain of the past is turned into pathos for the Big Screen.

My family? I had four brothers and sisters but they all got adopted and I was stuck here at the group home. I play acted to pass the time, pretended I was a fairy princess, rescued by a furrever family…23874247_947600735395949_1465708732_o {ahem} So when the casting call went out for GIVING TUESDAY, I knew this was the role I had been born to play. My character drew her strength from true life experiences. It was a bit traumatic, really, reaching down in there and remembering the hard times with no food, no warm bed, no security, but it was worth it to see the producer’s jaw drop at the audition. And the rest is history. Making history, one might say. Teehee.

No, I really wasn’t expecting the public reaction to be so huge. Okay, well, false modesty aside, I’m adorable and all, and I do have a certain je ne sais quoi on camera… you’ve seen the film, right? Then you know what I’m talking about. The accolades and offers coming in right now, they’re only what one might assume from such a magnificent delivery as mine.selkie

Yes, I do expect to hear from Meowimax shortly but right now I’m still under contract with Appalachian Feline Friends. They’re trying to raise money for spays and neuters coming up for some of the others in the group home. That reminds me, anyone who donates through Facebook on the Appalachian Feline Friends site between Tuesday and the end of the month gets their funds matched by the Gates Foundation. Double the money, no extra cost to the donor.

See it’s information like that I want to use my new platform of fame to highlight. My meteoric rise to stardom would be in vain were I to forget those humble beginnings with all the little cats back there who need a leg up. I’m planning to hire a couple as personal assistants before my next film. Stylists, carry my water dish, that kind of thing.

Shooting begins after Thanksgiving on my next project. It’s a biopic called “Furrever Family” and features me getting adopted. Kind of a “This is Your Life” documentary, focused on this one special moment.

Weeeelllll, the rumor is true. We did use a body double in a couple of scenes. I was unavailable for shooting the finale because of a vet appointment. A girl has to do self-care, you know.selkie

Which reminds me. I’ve brought copies of my rider to pass out, specifying my dressing room needs. Fresh tuna only, none of that canned stuff. Pedicures are weekly and I prefer white–whole and Vitamin D fortified is best, but I’ll drink raw as well. Now if there are no further questions, one of the little people has arranged a meeting with the funders for my next project. You can support it in Appalachian Feline Friends.

Thank you, oh, and I’d like thank the Academy and particularly Dirk and Martha Wiley, the production team. And now, we’ll watch my movie. Again. Here

 

 

The Plates of Breakage

Sometimes ya just want a little retail therapy. Even amidst the voices about “live simply, that others may simply live,” even after you’ve read “AFFLUENZA” and admitted to excesses, even taking Marie Kondo to heart, there are days when you just wanna go shopping.

Especially when your sister you rarely get to see is in town, and the two of you take Mom on a thrift store ramble. Off we went, three girls on a mission to visit all the thrift stores we could before Mom conked out. (Four.)

At the second one, SCORE. I found a brand-new duvet (those huge down comforters one rarely sees outside high end department stores) for $5. Those things are like $120 retail!

Standing in line to pay for this fluffy find, my eye fell on a stack of eight glass plates taped together. I picked them up. Old glass. Heavy glass. GOOD glass. Unusual design.

IMG_2480“I don’t need plates.” Feeling virtuous, I set them back on the counter.

My sister leaned over. “$1.25.”

“Each?” Mom asked, looking interested.

Tracy shook her head. “All together.”

Don’t judge me. They fit nicely packed inside the duvet. And I liked them, and I make my own money, and gosh darn it if I want to spend $1.25 on something silly, I can.

Home we went, where I opened the car door to unload the duvet – and all eight plates crashed to the ground. Sigh…..

Two were shattered, one lightly chipped. I did a quick attitude adjustment: now I only had to store six plates, and they’d just gone from 15 cents each to 20. Big whoop. I adjusted the dinner guest list: four friends over instead of six.

Back home that night I showed Jack my finds.

“We didn’t need plates,” said my Scotsman husband.

“Need didn’t have a thing to do with it,” I huffed, setting them on the table.

A few hours later, we heard a loud crash. Upstairs, where they were not meant to be, a kitten had gotten past security and hooked her claws into the tablecloth. Down one new plate, but the rest had simply tipped off the table onto the duvet I was going to put away later. One slight chip not mentioned, five usable plates remained. 25 cents each wasn’t really the point. Should I have bought something I didn’t need?IMG_2419

I called our friends Beth and Brandon. “Y’all need to come and eat before I break all the new plates I got for us to eat off of.”

Beth being the family vet and Brandon my chiropractor, as well as family friends, they’re used to idiosyncratic sudden phone calls.

“OK” was all Beth said.

Four plates to eat from, one to serve on… you know what’s coming, right? With an artistic cheese platter arranged elegantly amidst olives and strawberries (I repeat, don’t judge me; they made a nice color combo) on plate five, I tripped. Over thin air. Or maybe the kittens set up a yarn trap; they thought the resultant cheese spill was the Best. Thing. Ever.

We ate leftover pizza from the four plates of breakage. The plan now is to use them until Christmas is over, then throw however many are left into a fireplace. It’s not like 31 cents per plate prohibits this for fun. At this point, perhaps they owe me money.

Nor will they be wasted, these extravagant items purchased for no other reason than glass lust. I have a friend, Susan Powers, who Makes Things. She recycles broken materials, and inherited plate six the day after it fell. When we shatter the remaining Plates of Breakage, she will assist the phoenix that rises from their crystal splinter ashes.

Reduce, reuse, recycle–retail? I dunno, but those plates have bought us more fun than $1.25 ever should.