ANANDA'S ORIGINS BECAUSE CUBE ASKED WHAT "ANANDA" MEANS AND HOW IT IS USED

deedrah - ananda Ananda music???
The question was asked by cube... how was "Ananda" used as my name and why.

First, Ananda means: "Bliss, free from form." That is it's true meaning.

Crazy4coens insists that this is me and will always be me and has always been me.

It is true that I have never been good at rules or fitting into any form or norm. I like to do things my own way in my own time. As for the bliss... well I don't know... take that as you like. ;-)

But how I got to the place where it became my moniker is a story that begins by blogging at Throwawayblog with dmarks.

Many years ago crazy4coens and Ananda girl both attended the same private school... well we attended the same public school as well before that, but did not associate with each other there. The private school we attended was called very simply "Ananda School". Ananda... free from from, bliss. It was a yoga term. Some school founder picked it.

(I really am getting there... it takes me time!)

That was one of the very best years of my life. It was an amazing experience filled with some very talented and gifted people... who were also freaks. We were malcontents, square pegs, loners, nonconformists and some were truly geniuses.
Together we became a family for a short period of time. There were 27 students and 7 staff members. We traveled. We did wonderful things. We did learn. And we had a hell of a time.

One particularly talented and great person at our school was Patrick Sean O'Neil. At age 15 he was the youngest nationally published cartoonist. His strip was called Sailor Tom and it was published regularly in Kids Magazine. He was even on the Dinah Shore Show's episode about extraordinary kids in 1971.

Back in the near present...
One day I was bored at work... oh, should I say that? Yeah, why not, it's true. So I was fiddling around on Google. I decided to google Patrick's name and got a ton of them. Nice common Irish name. So I googled his cartoon... and got Throwawayblog.
As a child, dmarks had read his comic strip. Dmarks copied a page of the comic and did a post on Patrick and Sailor Tom. You can see that post and Patrick's comic strip right here:

Throwawayblog: Patrick S O'Neil and Sailor Tom

I was not a blogger at this point. I was a very first time lurker. I read the post and left. The next day I came back. I decided to leave a comment. I did and when it asked me for a name I had to come up with something fast. So I thought... what would catch Patrick's eye if he was to ever read this blog? Well... Ananda was the name of the school we had in common... he would look twice at that. So I commented as "Ananda girl".

So I get my moniker for this blog from the private school that Patrick Sean O'Neil, crazy4coens and I all attended way back when. The people that I call Anandaites are our old school chums. It has zero to do with yoga. That is its only real connection to me. A school name. A word that fits me well enough and one that I like. The bliss of course was used yesterday in oodles of funch as my alter ego in the story... as Miss Bliss. I like that name too.

Originally Miss Bliss was supposed to give me the cover of fiction. But someone named crazy4coens blew that cover... ah hem! No matter, I do not really care. I will write some more Miss Bliss stories. I hope that they amuse you.

I hope that this satisfies any curiosity about my name. Sorry that I am not good a yoga... I did take a class once and nearly killed myself doing what I foolishly thought would be easy exercise. It is not easy. It is hard work. I hope to get back to it soon.

Does anyone want to know about "oodles of funch"? That's got a story too. But then all things have stories if you word them right. Thank you all for your patience with me and your time. It is hugely appreciated. I am so glad that I stumbled on dmarks at Throwawayblog. I like this place. I like you people.
My world expanded when I arrived here. Each post I read makes my universe expand even more. Thanks!

BTW aliencg... I am going to get to that post of the ten musical artists' music collections you would take with you if you knew you were going to be stranded without music for ten years. I'm not wording it right am I? Sounds confused. I'll have to work on it.

Big grins everyone!

BTW oodles of funch is doing its own thing with the fonts again. I don't know why it does that. It refused to allow me to change it. oodles of funch has its own ideas and reasons. I guess I have no choice but to trust it. ;)