Not a Farmer's Market Stalker

(or, A Post In Which I Use Way Too Many Parenthetical Comments)

Hey Portland Blogger Mamas:

Were you at the farmer's market on Saturday? Were you minding your own business when you were approached by someone who looks like this:


Ok, maybe not. Maybe that's a guy paid to stumble around in a bear suit to promote some new kids' movie. (But in my total dorkiness I felt like that.) But were you approached by someone who looks like this:


Slipping gratefully out of the third person... I had Ada on my back and told the woman she looked familiar and asked if I looked familiar to her. Apparently I did not look familiar. (Was that my imagination, or did she give me a bit of a "back away, crazy woman" look?) As I walked away it occurred to me that I might recognize her face from a blog. But which one? I didn't know (and still don't) and was too shy to walk back and ask if maybe that is how I knew her face. Because what if it isn't? (I'd be even more embarrassed, that's what).

So if it was you I accosted, let me know. I'd feel better having solved the "mystery." I have a great memory for faces, though a crappy one for names. So it is likely that once you reveal yourself I'll laugh and say "of course!" and then promptly forget your name the next time I see you at the Market.

By the way - do you know how hard it is to find a half-decent photo of yourself? (Wait, most of you are bloggers, so you probably do.) First, I'm the one toting the camera, so when am I going to be in a picture? Second, when I find a picture that has me in it, it is usually off-kilter or shot at an angle that gives me a double chin, or (like this one) suggesting I have the world's highest hairline. (THAT is typical me, by the way. Take the thing that you most worry people will say and shout it out first so that HA! beat you to it! Now no one else can declare that I have ugly toes or uneven eyes or whatever else.)

After much talking to myself, I settled on the above photo. We won't get into why I think it is a mis-representation, because I am not trolling for complements or support on this. Just complaining about how hard it is to get a decent picture for a simple blog post. (And don't get me started on how wonky blogger is being about allowing me to upload those photos once I've settled on them.)

Updated to add: I think I figured it out. I think she's not a blogger. I think she was in a focus group with me. A few months ago I participated in a focus groups for women who had given birth at Oregon Health and Sciences University within the previous 12 months. It was actually pretty fun, and it paid pretty well. Turns out that all the women in the room who'd used the midwives had very good experiences, even the woman transferred to OHSU from home when her labor got more complicated than her home-birth midwife could manage alone. In any case, that's who I think she is. See, I am really good with remembering faces.