So here we are, the first person to sign up for the Great Portland Interview Experiment. My good friend (and wife of one of my oldest friends) Angela Leach. When we first met a few years back I was immediately fast friends with her since she’s a drumcorps fan and also we have similar senses of humor. In the years since I’ve gotten to know her as one of the coolest people around and am thankful every day that my friend Jason found such a great match and that I get to be her friend too. Alrighty enough introduction from me, let’s get to the interview questions.
1. If you had one tweet to summarize yourself what would it be?
“Redheaded, polyamorous, badass, tattooed, intellectual freak of nature. Wife, mother, friend, lover, complicated, musical, passionate.”
2. You won a pretty prestigious scholarship recently. What was it and how has it affected you?
I was awarded the Ford Family Foundation ReStart scholarship. It is an amazing scholarship given to individuals over 25 who have limited college experience and are looking to educate themselves after devoting their adult life to raising a family or serving the community.
Being awarded the ReStart scholarship has been amazing for me. I have been able to aggressively pursue the education I want at the institution I want without fear of having to pick up a full time job to help my family survive. The scholarship is significant enough that I will also be able to graduate with less than $20,000 in student loans, which is amazing in this day and age.
3. I see you have a blog, what inspired it?
I began my blog in November of 2004, one month after I started reviewing adult toys for Freddy and Eddy; someone mentioned that a blog would be a reasonable step for me, since I love to write. I had been a regular contributor on different forum systems and offered advice there, so it made perfect sense to begin a blog and start sharing the twists and turns of my life. The self discovery and amazing journey has been a side benefit, but a pretty significant one.
4. You seem proud of your celtic heritage, what made you embrace it?
I think, honestly, I’ve been pretty well reminded of my heritage since I was young. My grandparents brought home kilts for all of us after a trip to Europe when I was around 6 or so; my sister has hers framed in a shadow box and I plan to do the same. Both of my parents are very interested in genealogy and have helped me study my family’s roots, which in turn got me interested in researching these people that I came from. Beyond the bloodline, I have always felt a very real connection to Celtic spirituality and think that it is an important part of how I see myself.
5. Do you consider yourself a “sex blogger”
I sure do. While I blog about things other than sex, my primary focus still tends to revolve around sensuality and eroticism. I feel more at home in the “sex blogger” community than any other blogging “caste”, so to speak.
6. Since you’ve become a parent, how has that changed your sex life?
Well, that depends. I think that my sex life has actually been more affected by my being a student than by being a parent, but both of those roles do directly affect my sexuality. As a parent, I have responsibilities to care for my children and I expend a lot of energy doing so. As a student, I have responsibilities to focus on my studies and do what it takes to get the most out of my schooling. There difference between the two is that I can get help with parenting duties (can and, for the most part anymore, do get help) whereas I can’t ask someone else to do my studying for me and expect to learn anything. Similarly, I don’t think that being a mom has adversely affected my ability to be a kinky, perverted sex goddess long term – in the beginning it took some reconciling my different roles.
7. You posted weeks ago on your blog that you “came out” about being poly to your speech class. Were you nervous?
Are you kidding? I was pacing and ready to vomit going into that class, but I felt that if I was to be truly honest about who I am and what is important to me I had to find the courage to tell the truth about my family.
8. How did your classmates react?
Honestly, I was a little disappointed in the LACK of reaction. No one asked any questions about polyamory afterwards, and only two of my classmates have said anything since then. Both were positive and nonjudgmental about it, so I can’t complain there.
9. What inspires you about each of the following: parenting, education, technology, sexuality
I think, with parenting, what inspires me the most is the community of people I know and love. My husbands and wife, my friends with children, other bloggers with children, Ian and Alicia Denchasy (of freddyandeddy.com), and realistically the entire support structure of friends and family I have surrounded myself with. We all have different personalities and I see a great many wonderful things in each person that I can try to instill in my children.
10. What’s the most important object on the planet to you?
Object? Oooooh, that’s hard. I would say a computer, but that’s not entirely realistic. I think the most important OBJECT on the planet to me is my cello.
11. Why is it so important?
All through my life, I have been a very subdued person. Music is the only thing that brings out the passionate side of me, the personality that is always hidden behind these walls and defenses. My cello has the strongest effect on me, and without that, without the opportunity to express my true personality, I am nothing.
12. Worst thing you’ve ever done to someone?
Heh… I had to think about this one for a LONG time. I think the worst thing I’ve done to someone is put a rainbow sticker on a severely homophobic person’s car.
13. Did they deserve it?
Oh, she definitely deserved it. Trust me.
14. How would you change the world to make it better?
I would magically make people tolerant to alternative lifestyles.
15. Favorite 5 bloggers?
Oh crap… this is a hard one. Besides you? The five that I’ve been following religiously the longest are:
I have SO many more that I follow now, though, and have made a ridiculous number of blogfriends in the last several months that it’s ridiculously hard to answer that question without feeling like I’m missing a bunch of people.
If you’d like to learn more about Angela you can find her here:
@CelticFrog
SwelteringCelt.com (this is not very work safe so surf with caution)
Social Media Goodness