I'm a boring person....

....well, at least I think so. I read a lot of blogs and am fascinated by the goings-on of people. I wish I could write about my life like that. I go to work, I come home tired, and I go to bed. Okay, maybe I'm not that bad, but close. I'd love to write about my job, but I work in social services and pretty much everything I do is covered by the HIPPA law and is confidential. Besides, I'd be terribly afraid some of the clients might discover my blog and know I am writing about them. I couldn't do that to them.

I like letting everyone know about my writing, but I mostly only write on the weekends and there's really not much to tell about my writing. I know everyone gets tired of hearing about how much, or little, editing I get finished.

I thought about hobbies, but I really don't have any. But, then I remembered a hobby I used to do. Before postage became to too high, I used to collect autographs. It was really a fun hobby and the postmaster at my post office loved it when I had to go to the window to get a large envelope containing an autographed photo. She insisted I open it right then so she could see who I had gotten that day.

I did get a new autograph the other day. I was listening to the radio a few weeks ago and Karl Rove, from the George W. Bush administration, was telling how to get an autographed bookplate for his recent book. I sent a SASE and received the autograph this week. In addition to the bookplate, he also included a signed postcard.

I probably have well over 100 autographs in my collection. Most I got through the mail, but many were in person. The collection includes actors, singers, politicians, journalists, athletes, military personnel, and astronauts. If you notice, I left off authors. That's mainly because when I collected, I wasn't writing and didn't think about authors. I have since collected a handful of author autographs. Most of them are friends that I got in person, or they sent me one of their bookmarks. (Marian, I don't think I have your autograph yet.)

I'm always asked what my favorite autograph is. I have several favorites. I always wrote a letter requesting the autograph and made it a personal letter. A few times, along with the signed photo I received a personal letter from them. Those are definitely special. One time I wrote to an astronaut for an autograph and after about six months I gave up on getting anything from him. Then one day, I got a large envelope in the mail postmarked from Houston. It contained a signed photo and a letter from him explaining that my letter to him had gotten mixed in with some other stuff on his desk and he had just found it. As a way of saying sorry, he also included about six authentic NASA shuttle mission patches. How cool was that?

But, my absolute favorite autograph is from then Senator John Glenn of Ohio. When I wrote to Senator Glenn, I explained how much I liked and supported the space program. To my surprise, I did not get the signed senatorial portrait photo that he normally sent out. He sent me a photo of him in his space suit after a mission and even signed it personally to me.

I had hoped to scan a few of the autographs from my collection, but my scanner isn't working right now. If I ever get it fixed, I'll have to post a few.

Do any of you have any autographs that you cherish?

Carol