Danielle’s Life List

My Life List

This is a woman with a dream.

Her name is Danielle, and she’ll be one of the attendees for this year’s Mighty Summit. I first met her last week in New York, but perhaps you remember her from her community keynote at Blogher ’09. It began,”There’s something stuck in my vagina. Day One.”

Number 55 on Danielle’s Life List reads, “Have a photo session in Times Square (KISS makeup)?”

I love how she phrased it furtively, because when I wandered into the bathroom to find her, Antonia, and Krystyn applying KISS makeup with Zan madly snapping photos, there was nothing halfway about it.

Had I arrived thirty seconds later, I could have easily missed a deathbed-flashback evening, and the thought made me slightly panicked. I yelled, “Why did no one come get me?” And Danielle silently passed me the pancake makeup.


Photo by Zan McQuade.

We headed over to Times Square on foot, stopping periodically to provoke security guards.

And make new friends.

And then we were there.

Posing like the Broadway show posters — laughing, occasionally embarrassed, not nearly drunk enough.

But these are my people, and I found them on the Internet.

This night was the best example of how making a life list has drawn great people my way. Chasing my goals is fun, but now I’m living dreams that are so much more imaginative and crazy and happy than I could have come up with on my own.

Danielle, my sweet?

I’m keeping you in my pocket.

The rest of my photos are here, but Zan’s are better.

Published

21 thoughts on “Danielle’s Life List”

  1. Love it! I need to write my life list down. I have it in my head and am doing many things on it but I need to record it.

    (And this is sorta funny… Of all the awesome things at Blogher09 (my first blogging activity of any kind), Danielle’s “Stuck in my Vagina” keynote has stayed with me. She was so funny and I loved her writing/reading.)

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  2. OK, THANK YOU! I’ve been seeing these photos pop up in multiple blogher recaps and I knew there had to be story but nobody was saying anything. Like “no big deal, bloggers in KISS make up taking funny pics in NYC. What? Isn’t that what you do at your conferences?”

    The fact that it was part of someone’s life list is very awesome. Maybe fulfilling something on a life list could be a regular feature at these Mighty Meetups…

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  3. Um,where did you get your dress? (I know I know super inspiring post and I ask about clothes but it’s adorable and my sister needs a birthday present…)

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  4. Jesus H., that dress is fantastic. Where did you get it? (You know a dress is great when it can distract the eye from KISS makeup!)

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  5. “These are my people, and I found them on the Internet.”

    YES. I used to do this kind of thing with my friends here in England, but everyone here has grown too old and boring (although they’re all younger than me).

    It frustrated me that I didn’t get to share this kind of fun with people last time we all met up in San Francisco. This is exactly what should happen when the Internet gets together. I’m so glad you were in on it. x

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  6. “These are my people, and I found them on the Internet.”

    Could not agree more. The fact that you walked in and were like, “What’s up?” and then started putting on makeup? Instantly solidified your spot on my list of BEST PEOPLE.

    Antonia, it pains me that we do not live on the same continent.

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  7. We need a commune, ya’ll.

    The dress is American Apparel. It’s technically a shirt, and I can’t find it anywhere on the site, unfortunately. I wear it with their hotpant shorts underneath because I am a chicken.

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  9. “These are my people, and I found them on the Internet.” KISS lyrics have never been appropriated more appropriately.

    When I said goodbye to Antonia, we joked that we were all going to scurry back inside our computers and we’d see each other on the internet real soon. That’s what it feels like. We ARE all hanging out together. The In Real Life time is just bonus.

    I will join whatever commune you all decide to start. I am very good at digging up potatoes.

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  13. The picture of the three of you in Times Square should be a poster. I love the story behind this — even better than the photos, which is hard to beat.

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  14. These pictures are amazing. It looks like such a good time.

    I’ve always thought that it’s too bad there weren’t more members of KISS and, therefore, more face paint options. Tend to think this way in larger groups of mischief makers. We used to say, “let’s frolic!”

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  17. I love how you’re all rocking out in the makeup and pulling shapes and no-one in Times Square is batting an eyelid or paying you a blind bit of notice. Yeah, it’s just those chicks from the internet out living their lives.

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