Your Blog Is Fabulous

Wonderful Maureen at IslandRoar gave me this award. Thank you Maureen. Thank you also for writing so likeably about Martha's Vineyard, your teenagers, and the vicissitudes of life. I bet you are a wonderful friend to many people IRL. Forthwith, my 5 obsessions and the 5 bloggers I would like to pass this to.

5 Things I'm Obsessed About. In Real Life.

Let's say obsessed means unable to stop thinking about. Spending more time on than anything else, either in act or in dream. In that case, for me, my obsessions are listed below. These aren't what I might like to obsess about, like what did Jason Wu put on the runway, can I get to the Post Ranch Inn for a midweek break, or how to make sure everyone in the US has access to affordable organic produce, but it is my actual life.

1. Wait, Is It Too Late To Call My Best Friend In Belgium?
I wake up early. I have some tea, and a piece of toast. I read blogs, post or not, eat some yogurt with Cheerios and pecans mixed in, go for a walk. Around lunch time I almost always think, with a start, "It's kid bedtime in Belgium. Is it too late to call L.?" This may not count as an obsession. But it is a habit I will probably never lose. I still think it's weird she moved to Belgium of all places. I told her I thought of Belgium as the potato of Europe. She's such a good friend that she didn't even tell me not to be such a jerk.

2. NOW What Needs To Be Done To My House?
House maintenance, particularly once you are unemployed and in said house a lot, becomes all-consuming. The missing drawer pull you never noticed, chipped paint on the wall by the kitchen, faucets from which the water appears to emerge sideways rather than in the usual graceful fall. Dry rot. Let us not forget raccoons who eat our water hyacinths. Why it is so easy to do a full day's work in an office and so difficult to structure a productive day at home amongst Things That Require A Hardware Store, I don't know. I suspect the sofa, but it's not talking.

3. What Are My Children Doing Right Now?
When your children are born the alien tribes who send you those little blue-eyed windows to the universe also install a chip in your head. It's an alarm. It goes off, PING!, all the time. When the infants first arrive the alarm is a constant loud gonging in your heart, "Little one, little one, little one." By the time the babies can walk, talk, tie their shoes and wipe their own bottoms at school, the alarm is ringing every 20 minutes or so. Once said small creatures have grown taller than you, grown out of eye-rolling, and learned to use a credit card, the alarm is down to once or twice a day. To my knowledge, it does not disappear. We shall see.

4. What Will I Do For A Living?
My job appears to have gone into full time hiding. I am fine. But any sensible person, looking at the spreadsheet of my existence, would point out a high probability that some more money will need to be earned eventually. I have been striving to be sensible all my life, living for sensible, failing at sensible, succeeding at sensible. Hence a strong to desire to attempt the ridiculous. To take the risks I urge on 26-year olds. I understand I am twice their age. Getting older doesn't always have the effect you expect.

5. Where Can I Find A Snuggly Plaid Pendleton-ish Jacket? Or Something Of The Sort?
Fall is coming. Although many people think we have no seasons in California, they are wrong. We have seasons. One morning while summer still appears to be in full swing you walk out your doorway and feel a shadow fallen on the sun. The morning is a little cool. Just a little bit. And slowly, slowly, the days will get cooler. And cooler. Rarely cold. But when you rarely experience cold at full strength you become highly sensitized to little variations between cool, and cooler. I want a red buffalo plaid jacket. It's possible that I think about the plaid jacket to avoid some of the other items on this list. Ahem. Dry rot.

That's it. This is as true as I can, or at least am willing to in this context, make it. I do not have any idea whatsoever if it matters but I was asked.

Six Bloggers I'm Obsessed With. All Brilliant Young Women With A Voice. Some Good Pictures. I Know I Said Five.

A Practical Wedding - No nonsense, enormous sentiment. She had the wedding. Now she writes about marriage. This should be interesting.
first milk - Lovely, evocative, sweet vignettes, infused with the sensibility of the best children's literature applied to grown up life. A moment to stop and feel.
even*cleveland - Design, art, thought themes, carried over several days, curated. Moving to New York. This should be interesting.
east side bride - The most likeable sarcastic person you ever met. Recently penned a paeon to an expeletive.
What Possessed Me - Ha. Brilliant. Not kidding. Brilliant. Funny as hell. Writes like the rest of us locate a light switch in the kitchen. Without effort. She's getting married. This should be interesting.
Peonies and Polaroids - Beautiful, serene photos in a grayish pinkish palette. And writing. The writing seems to be aqua, purple, with flashes of red. But that's just me. Go read.