Hey, hi. I kind of think that “About Me” pages on blogs are a bit silly, because isn’t the whole blog About Me? (It’s right in the name, dude). I thought I would just give you a list of entries I’ve liked over the years (yeeeeaaaaaarrsss!!) I’ve been writing online. Before you get to those, however, you may wish to know:

My name (right in the URL!) is pronounced “key-ar-ah” not “chee-ar-ah.” In case you like to read aloud.

Most of this has been written from Seattle, Washington, in the States, but since August of 2006 I’ve lived in Wellington, New Zealand. That’s going to change in May 2008–whether I get to come back here remains to be seen. Read the entries in the Top Secret Plans tag if you are interested in how I came to move abroad; read the ones in the Wellington tag if you want to read specifically about, well, right, Wellington, and read the ones in the New Zealand tag if you just want to read everything I’ve written since touching down in Auckland the first time.

“Ampersand” doesn’t mean anything. When I first started this thing six years ago my “About Me” page said something like “It’s a long word for a short symbol,” but again, that doesn’t really mean anything.

So yes. Thanks for reading here, whether you’ve been doing so since I sent out an email to all my friends saying I was doing this new thing called online journalling or whether you got here by googling, as so many of you do, “my cat ate tulips.” Writing this
thing is one of the best things I do, believe it or not, and I’m glad you’re doing it with me.

California Knows How To Party. My first entry about my friends’ housewarming party down in Sunnyvale (they re-warm the house every year). It’s not that well-written but it has some funny pictures in it and it also tells you how to impersonate a humpback whale.

If I Were A Bus Driver One of the first entries I wrote that I really liked. (Also, one of the first entries I wrote that didn’t suck).

Et Tu, Haricot Vert? What happens when I try to eat vegetables.

I Love Strippers. I was going through kind of a phase.

Eleven Reasons You Need To Be Bellydancing Right Now. Very popular with the tribal dance set.

Tell Her This. Hard to believe now I was ever this sad, but damn, girl, I really was for a while in there.

Hip Hop and Nia An ill-advised attempt at an exercise class.

The Mountain. What used to be my big romantic crossed-stars story; also very hard to believe I ever felt this way. I still like this entry though, because I like the way I thought to write it: I was sitting on my bed working on something else on the laptop when! All of a sudden! I started to sort of hear some of the phrases of this story. Instead of taking myself off to be medicated I wrote them down, and when I was done I looked at the clock and two hours had passed.

Can I Paint You? My short-lived and ridiculous attempt at online dating. *shudder*

My Secret About a song that still makes me cry.

The Cloud Room I don’t actually think anyone else likes this entry as much as I do. I still have dreams about this room.

Heaven. Another one I don’t think anyone else likes as much as I do.

My Lady’s A Man About my former hair dude.

Spring Comes To Ballard A photo essay of the farmers’ market in my old neighborhood in Seattle.

Seattle Says Stay Yet another one of those that I think no one except me likes that much, but I do in fact like it very much.

The Beach Is Immediate Having moved to New Zealand, I immediately went on a walk to the beach.

Sweet As Trying to learn how to talk like a Kiwi.

I Fancy A Cuppa For some reason, people have a lot of opinions about tea.

The Mirror Bar About going out in Wellington.

My First Kiss Lizard tongue plus plunger mouth: how can you lose?

Just A Hint Advice to all you young lovers out there.