Where in the World: My Hypothetical Dinner in Morocco with Agatha Christie

Where in the World Wednesday: My Hypothetical Dinner in Morocco with Agatha Christie

Today's musings are about my day in Spanish Morocco, a red Agate necklace, and how pondering the mumbo-jumbo of my life, I finally settled on a choice for a hypothetical dinner companion, Agatha Christie.

It all started back in high school when someone asked me: "If there was one person in history or present day that you could choose to have dinner with, who would it be?" I was just asked this question again last week, and I had to admit, a well-considered and honest answer was still alluding me. However, being the determined girl that I am, I decided that it was high time I answered this long-standing question for myself once and for all. Clearly, I took this question seriously, and only because I'm the type that likes to ponder the BIG questions in life.

So....who would I really want to have dinner with? Hmmm... To start, a person from history or present day? I figure a person from history would be more spectacular than someone in present day, because with present day people, all you have to do is ask. A historical person, is well, probably dead. So, that would be some dinner guest. A second consideration is that if I had to choose one person, it would have to be someone to whom I think I might be able to relate. Not liking awkwardness, I'd hate to be the kind of person who'd just gorge myself on a slice of Rib Eye and stare silently at my plate. For me, this automatically rules out breaking bread with a scientist or mathematician. And, dinner with a Hollywood celebrity would also have to be out, I no longer have an inner groupie in me. So, whomever I settled on, my dinner companion would have to be a creative type.

This takes me back several years to an odd and exotic place. I was on my way to Spanish Morocco. And, as I journeyed across the Mediterranean on a ship, the Agatha Christie story "Destination Unknown" kept popping into my head. Of course, being from the 80's, and with such a title in my mind, I started humming that Missing Persons song somewhere along the line (life is so strange, destination unknown, when you don't know...). But, my song-humming is really just a side dish in this hypothetical dinner extravaganza.

I was standing in the center of the Plaza de Armas in Ceuta, Morocco. There were red tile sidewalks all around the plaza walls, and on the inside, mysterious looking doorways and portal-like openings set into the ominous looking stone fortress. Being from out of town, I had no idea where all these portals led, so as I walked through them, I lost myself temporarily in a game of "What if?"

I began to imagine... what if I was Hillary Craven (main character, Destination Unknown, Agatha Christie) and what if I was approached by a mysterious and observant secret British agent? What if he asked me if I would pretend to be the missing wife of a missing scientist? Anyway...for blogging's sake, I won't digress. You get the idea...I'm a silly American girl vacationing in Morocco. I've got time to burn, and I'm entertaining myself by playing games of "Whodunnint" and "What if?"

Long story short, I'm now back in the states, and I've always looked back fondly at my mysterious Moroccan day. After doing a little research about this famous mystery author's life, I've decided that if there really was one person in history or present day that I would voluntarily want to have dinner with, Agatha Christie would be it. I think she would be an interesting and informative person to talk to, and a woman with whom I might be able to relate. Here is why:

• Agatha Christie was a painfully shy child who found solace and relief in music and writing (that's a lot like me).
• She was better at expressing herself on paper than she was verbally (again, like me).
• In addition to her mystery writing, she wrote romance novels under the Nom de Plume of Mary Wesmacott (Capitola Girl is more of an alter-ego than a Nom de Plume, but hell, aren't women kind of suckers for romance? I bet me and Agatha could talk).
• Like Hillary Craven in the story, Agatha's first husband left her. For a younger woman (Althought I've never been married, I did have a boyfriend do that to me once. Agatha and I might find a few minutes to commiserate.)
  
• Agatha was well traveled and visited all sorts of exotic places with her second husband who was an archaeologist (I could compare exotic place travel logs with her, sans archaeologist)
• Agatha was a determined and disciplined writer and entrepreneur (me, not so determined, but blogging daily requires discipline and I don't want anyone but me being my boss. If I had the honor of sitting across the table from Agatha, I'd definitely ask her if she would have blogged for money.)
• Agatha was very good at what she did and she got better and more successful over time. One very important factoid about Agatha, the combined readership for her books are second only to the Bible and Shakespeare. (I can't say the same about my blog, but one can have blog hopes).
  

Anywho... to celebrate my choice in hypothetical dinner companions, I made the AGATHA necklace. It features shiny blood agate tube beads (red for my "What if?" day in Morocco, and blood Agate for the mystery of Agatha), brown fossil beads (for Agatha's second husband, the archaeologist with whom she traveled to exotic places). It's also accented by Swarovski crystal, as well as red and black seed beads on Copper findings.

The AGATHA Necklace
I just added this piece to my SHE INSPIRES collection on Etsy. More pictures are available by clicking this link: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9103758