SoGoPro Street Team Sunday Interview Series: VICKI :)

Name: Vicki
Location: New Jersey, USA
SoGoPro.com Member for 1 year and 1 week
SGP Profile

About Me: full time law student, part time procrastinator, babysitter, daughter, sister, friend.

Favorite Music: Anything and everything. but britney spears and the fray run through my itunes daily.

Favorite Books: my sisters keeper, go ask alice, farewell to arms, all my sons. pretty big mix of the classics and modern bestsellers. partial to realistic fiction and anything that gets me thinking but i admit to reading harry potter and twilight like a junkie. i read A LOT.

Favorite Movies: a league of their own & many others

Read Vicki's BLOG

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Niamh gives us a great read- with our dear friend Vicki!

Color code: Niamh/Vicki

Ok, may as well get this out of the way at the outset: how did you come to find Southern Gothic Productions?
I really don't think my story is much different than many others following SGP. I was a fan of OTH and was puddling around the web when I first stumbled across the old blog. I believe the first blog was posted some time in January and I found it some time in February, but didn't actually "participate" for a bit longer. I kind of just silently followed along and tried to figure things out first. haha.

Can I just say, I love the image of you “puddling” around the web!!! Somehow conjures up a picture of visiting sites being like jumping in puddles! Which is bizarre but maybe kind of appropriate?!

Haha, I hadn’t thought of it that way, but maybe!

Anyway! I’m a weirdo - any highlights of the past 18 months for you?
Finally getting to see True Love Tale was really exciting because it was something that we all knew was kind of a 'let's just have a good time' type project for SGP (or at least that's my impression) as opposed to more of the 'serious' and 'business-y' projects that SGP has going on. But there was still a long wait for it and obviously a lot of anticipation. I think I remember KT described it as something like a little bonus for all of us who had stuck around, and it was definitely worth the wait!

Also, the Secret Santa was great. I loved knowing that there were little tokens of friendship being sent around the globe and that SGP was the common bond. I had a lot of fun shopping for my person, which incidentally was you! It was fun to try to find a gift for someone that you don't have a physical interaction with, because truthfully, it can be difficult to gain a genuine insight into who someone is based on a purely internet friendship.

I know what you mean, I was truly so touched by your gift and card! The thought that you took time out of your life (which I know is very busy) to do that was incredible. Never really thought I would participate in something like that, but it turned out to be lovely, and very festive!

And then I received mine (from the amazingly sweet Ali) and it was absolutely perfect for me. That, and seeing the photos pop up on Flickr (and how people had really chosen perfect gifts for each other) really gave me the feeling that we were a true community (not that I didn't feel that way before) and that we really know each other really well! One other quick tidbit is that I loved being able to go see Nick's play Population 8 in the Fringe Festival last summer. I am lucky to be in the NYC area and it was awesome to be able to see some of Nick's genius work.

I forgot that you saw that! So lucky! For those who maybe weren’t in chat or following SoGoPro at all back then, maybe you could share some of your thoughts on it….

Ah, it was so great! I really didn’t know much about the story prior to seeing the play, but the storyline was fantastic. Nothing my brain could have ever conjured up. I won’t say too much more, but instead I will point you to the blog post that I wrote when the experience was fresh in my mind! http://veeceekay.blogspot.com/2009/08/population-8.html

I think it's natural that different things will appeal to different people, and SoGoPro does seem to have fingers in lots of pies. What aspects of SoGoPro appeal to you most?

Well obviously the feature film, Pedestrian appeals to me. Nick’s a great writer and I’m anxious to learn more about the plot and everything! As far as the company itself, I love the personal connections we have built here. Whether we are chatting in the Cbox, or following each other’s blogs and such, I have made some great friends, and I think we all have.

You knew it was coming - what aspects appeal to you least?
Again, as far as specific projects, I would say the graphic novel appeals to me least. It’s not something I know much about and not something that particularly interests me, even though I hope it’s a huge success for SGP. I wouldn’t say that anything else DOESN’T appeal to me, other than sometimes it sucks that people I have become friends with aren’t in my local geographical area. That would be nice. That and the occasional crazy person who comes into chat or comments and starts spewing nonsense and we have to ask them to dial it back a bit ;)

You have a great blog, which i read regularly - and i've noticed you seem to be opening up more and more on it. Was this a conscious choice?
Yes and no. Yes in the context that I knew from the second that I signed up for Blogger that nobody I hang out with or know "in real life" would ever read it or even know that it exists. (I actually hate the term "in real life" because I DO know all of you in my life, just not in my physical interactions!) And I knew that this gave me a level of anonymity that I really craved as I needed a single, solitary place that I could say anything and not worry because there wouldn't be a real backlash with my friends and family. Yea, I could offend a reader (although in the beginning, I didn't really think I had any readers!), and that wasn't something I wanted to do, but there is still the safety that those aren't people I have to have an everyday interaction with. This gave me the freedom to open up, and I really wanted and needed to. But at the same time, no, I never, ever anticipated writing about some of the topics that I've written of and opening up as much as I have. I just planned to write about the things that I couldn't or wouldn't say out loud, but not necessarily things that were THIS private. But then I wrote a blog about something personal, and I got comments that were so, so, so sweet, and really encouraged me to keep writing and sharing. And after that I had a period where a bunch of really upsetting and hard things were going on and I got more comments, and even private e-mails from a bunch of you, showing concern and care, and I was blown away. I think the positive response led me to unconsciously open up even more than I had originally anticipated. Unfortunately I've been slacking with my blog lately, but I am hoping to get back to it more consistently in the next 2 weeks. Although I do try to make all or at least most of my blogs a quality and thoughtful post, not just updates and random stuff. And thank you for reading my blog!

My pleasure, I think it is kind of fascinating to follow a life from so far away. Kind of like reading a novel, but the character is real. Ok, let's go for some quick fire questions. Some of these are borrowed from the famous Pivot questionnaire - some are just born of my own curiousity. What would your best friend tell us about you?

That I'm a bitch, haha. Just kidding. Well, not really. Both of my best friends would tell you that, although nobody ever believes it! It's just that I can say things that are generally really offensive or rude and they 'get me.' I don't have to worry about my funny-bitchy being misunderstood for bitchy-bitchy. But I hope that they would both also say that I am fiercely loyal and would do anything for them. (And I apologize if I offended anyone with the word bitch!)

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A loving marriage and a house full of children. And a meaningful, satisfying job that allows us a comfortable lifestyle.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Wow, tough questions!!! Failing. At anything and/or everything whether it be my school / career or personal life. Disappointing my friends and family would make me more miserable than any amount of physical pain.

Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
Vicki: Eesh. Just one? Well I am going to go with Joe Keller from All My Sons, mostly because that is one of my all time favorite literary works and he is a tragic hero in a nontraditional and often overlooked sense, in my opinion.

Oh my goodness, Joe Keller takes me back! I remember writing essays upon essays about whether he was a tragic hero, and the American dream, and his “myopic vision” - (that was a particular phrase which my English teacher loved, and liked to see included in every essay. That, and some reference to Henrik Ibsen! Anyway!)

Haha, Yea, I definitely had to hold back on going into a full literary schpiel (sp?! hehe) about the tragic hero. Way too many of my undergraduate papers written on that topic!

What talent would you most like to have?
I would LOVE to be able to be a fly on the wall whenever I wanted. Although I'm sure I would see and hear some things I wish I never had!

What is your favourite word?
I say "seriously" and "fair enough" a lot. Not necessarily my favorite word by choice but just extremely common in my vocabulary. My favorite word by choice would be something fun like flamingo. How could you not like a word like that!?!

What is your least favourite word?
Vicki: By the way, I love that you add the extra "u" to these words. So adorable. Least favorite word, hmm. Honestly, there are more than one crude and vulgar words that I cringe every time I hear and wish they were banned. As far as real words, I kind of hate the word 'victim' for lots of reasons, most of which would probably bore most of you. ha.

What are you proudest of?
Gah! These questions! Umm, I suppose I am proud that even though my schooling has not been the easiest or greatest in the past two years, I haven't given up. And when I graduate law school next May (EEK!) I will most definitely be proud of that accomplishment!

Do you have a motto?

I used to live by "everything happens for a reason" but over the past few years I've amended it to "It is what it is" because sometimes, it's too hard to think about what reason could exist for the unfortunate things that happen in our lives. So instead it's easier to just accept that whatever happens happens, and move forward from there.

Very wise! And for the record, I think everything DOES happen for a reason – but sometimes that reason doesn’t make itself apparent right away, and so there is no point torturing yourself looking for it. All will become clear. In the meantime, keep breathing.

You are definitely right. (which leads me to realize that ‘definitely’ is also one of my favorite / most used words!). But that also reminds me of another of my ‘mottos.’ It’s not really a motto, but song lyrics (rap, actually!). When I was pledging my sorority in college, the physical and mental aspects of it all can be really draining, combined with the fact that I was fighting with my parents on a daily basis (not just normal parent-kid fights, serious stuff.) So essentially, I was a hot mess that cried everyday. One of my ‘sisters’ started playing me this song “Breathe, Stretch, Shake, Let it go” by Mase, and that line is the chorus. To this day, that song can calm me down in any situation. It came on my iTunes shuffle during finals one day and it made my day. I even e-mailed the girl who had introduced me to the song to thank her for getting me to de-stress, even years later!

Very cool! Anyway – let’s end on a less philosophical note! Every lawyer i know has a "my worst moment in court" and a "my best moment in court" story? You got either yet? I know i do...
Well, I haven't actually practiced in court yet because I haven't graduated law school and we aren't allowed to argue in court as students until after we have completed our second year. So I am hoping to have that opportunity this summer and school year and have some REAL moments in court. But I have spent time in court as an intern, and observing I've definitely had my fair share of best and worst moments. The worst was probably when family services had to take a child away from a parent and the girl (actually a teenager) was so hysterical it was heartbreaking. My best moment was just talking to the various attorneys that came through the court and realizing that I actually knew a lot more than I thought I did!