Finding Work You Love; Blog Awards

I was recently given the awards above, by two bloggers whom I admire. Why? Well they are nice, and authentic, and interesting, but for this purpose because they are working at what they love. The first award was from Delia Lloyd, at Real Delia. Delia writes for a living, at The New York Times and the Huffington Post, among others. Need I say more? My favorite posts are Wednesday Tips For Adulthood, while her Friday Reading links have provided me with some of my more edifying online experiences. The second was from Belle de Ville at Beverly Hills Branche. Belle, in her life beyond blogging, runs Beladora. If you aren't familiar with Beladora, or Beladora II, they constitute a very nicely put-together estate jewelry business. And her posts occasionally show the pieces when they come out to play. Can you imagine if "inventory" meant this? I pass these awards on to two more bloggers, also working at what they love. I wish us all such good fortune. 1. Vive la Goos. Rachel Elizabeth graduated from Cornell and now works in San Francisco, in some kind of fashion role, for the Gap. She's a beautiful girl with a sense of humor. She owns bunnies, the Goos, that hop wild in her apartment, but she's preppy and, I infer, conservative. Thank goodness for unpredictable people. 2. Art by Karenna. A painter and an art consultant, she recently commented that she would never retire. This is my favorite of her works. These awards, it goes without saying, come with questions to answer. The first 10 are from Belle's award, the last from Delia. Rachel Elizabeth and Karenna, feel free to interpret - loosely. 1. Why do you blog? Because I would have died unhappy otherwise. Had I never tried to write, I mean. 2. What are your best memories? Memory leaves us as we age. The best therefore are those that stick around and allow us full value for the days we have lived. 3. If you had to change your name, what would it be? What kind of a question is this? If I had to change my name I would be living in a society where I had more important things to worry about than my name. Probably the question of nomenclature would evolve into a cause requiring symbolic resistance, and I'd want to be called Liberty and Justice For All. 4. Name five things you couldn't live without? Air, water, gravity, edible plants, a blanket, other people. That's six. And demonstrably true, vs. any hyperbolic statements about cashmere I might make. 5. Four best books that you have read? What kind of question is this? How can any reasonable person pick 4 books as the best they have read? I must have read at least 10,000 books in my lifetime. They are one of my greatest pleasures. I can pick 1, because 1 is so clearly arbitrary. Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee. 6. Tell us a unique and interesting fact about yourself? Everything about myself is interesting to me. No, I don't find that embarrassing. It's a fact of most human consciousness. So you are really asking me, what about myself do I think you would find interesting? I'll get back to you on that one. Tomorrow, and the day after that, and probably next Saturday. 7. What do you love best about yourself? My profound tolerance for fools and gentle, earnest, non-sarcastic tone of voice. 8. What is the best movie ever made? Who wrote this list? Young lady, we need to have a talk. If you ask people to make absolute statements when they can't possibly have the information on which to base said statements, you are inviting false and pretentious discussion. The world does not need more useless talk. That said, Groundhog Day. Because the New York Times and various Harvard professors said so. Since we are in the realm of specious reasoning and all. 9. If you had a Freaky Friday experience who would you change places with and why? The man I love. 10. What is the best part about being a woman? Biology, and all its implications. 11. If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you, and what would it be? I was invited to a wedding in Rajastan by the train paymaster. I wish I had gone, those many years ago, instead of keeping to my trip schedule. But I don't think I'd change the big choices, even those I understand differently, in hindsight. Given ignorance I did the best I could. Those big choices brought both the happy and the sad. Whatever you don't choose is lost. Read this post, on A Practical Wedding. The same thought, more fully explored. With a book recommendation to boot. Maybe I will go ask if it's one of the Top 4 Books Ever Written. Just to stir things up a little more.

Things That Come In Threes

Queen Bee Swain tagged me for some 3s. She is one to watch, and young, and full of fire, so I do what she says. A. Three names I go by:

1. Lisa
2. Mom
3. Old Horse

B. Three places I've lived:

1. Cambridge, MA (I was born there, while my father was finishing his Ph.D.)
2. London, England (Worked in theater administration, 1979.)
3. Glenmore, PA (Air Products and Chemicals. My address started out, "Rural Drop." Amish families sold their pies at the local convenience store.)

C. Three of my idols: I don't idolize anyone. I'm too old. Nobody's perfect. I'm certainly not perfect but I'm all I've got to work with. So here are my favorite American Idols.

1. Adam Lambert (go dude.)
2. Clay Aiken (and I'm over the shame.)
3. Kelly Clarkson (because the woman can sing.)

D. Three things I like to look at:

1. The screen of my computer. Where you all talk to me.
2. My back yard. In springtime. In wind. Late afternoon.
3. The face of anyone I love. In particular, the space below their eyes, and above the cheekbone. So vulnerable and unnecessary.

E. Three places I have been:

1. The Panama Canal at night. All the lights twinkling on an engineering feat that could teach Steampunk what for.
2. The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. And the surrounding ancient wooden cubicles.
3. Katmandu. On a bicycle. In hail.

F. Three of my proudest accomplishments:

1. Graduating from Princeton Magna Cum Laude.
2. Graduating from Columbia Business School at all. Accounting took me out to the woodshed. Taught me what for and then some.
3. Ranking in the top 3 salespeople in the Western Region at Air Products and Chemicals for an entire year.

Note that my children are not my accomplishment. They are their own. G. Three things I love to eat:

1. Chocolate.
2. Broccoli (good thing too, given the chocolate)
3. Pho. (Which is pronounced fuh, and is the best chicken noodle soup ever, in case you don't have any Vietnamese restaurants in your neck of the woods and don't know what I'm talking about...)

H. Three things I want to do someday:

1. Live forever.
2. Hold a grandchild.
3. Write a book proposal. Anything beyond writing a proposal is in someone else's hands.

I. Three things I am looking forward to this year:

1. My son coming home.
2. My daughter coming home.
3. Coming home myself. On any given day. Opening the front door, dropping my keys in the little crystal heart bowl I keep on a sofa side table, taking off my shoes, taking off anything tight or itchy, getting a glass of water, sitting down on the sofa, looking out the window.

Awards and Happiness

I have been awarded membership in the Preppy Mafia by Preppy 101 at All Things Southern and Preppy and the fabulous Beth Dunn at Social Climbers, given the Beautiful Blogger Award by A Basement, and directed to list 10 things that make me happy by Our Friend Faux Fuchsia. Thank you all very much.

I have always wanted to put together my own identity, not to have to accept one cut from someone else's whole cloth. So to be included by a gracious Southern preppy mother of the bride, a Main Line socialite who discusses her riding hobby and her anxiety attacks in the same breath, a lesbian wife documenting her project to conceive and her new life with her bride, and an Australian lawyer who rules in frocks, that, that is happiness for me. Thank you.

I feel compelled to merge these two sets of questions, so here is the Preppy Mafia Manifesto....that makes me happy.

1. Who is your style icon...that makes you happy? Paloma Picasso. I wish I had the consistency and impunity to dye my hair a stark color and wear strong lipstick every day. In my imaginary life I flout convention, stand tall, quell doubters with a hawkeyed glance.

2. What is your favorite socialite lit book...that makes you happy? Arabella, by Georgette Heyer. In which the strong-willed heroine discovers that a stomacher can be fun. Which makes me realized that I have assumed for 40 years that I know what a stomacher is. Perhaps erroneously.

3. Favorite party theme...that makes you happy? Birthdays. I love presents, dozens of candles on cake in a darkened room, and birth.

4. Go to Halloween costume...that makes you happy? I do not as a rule wear costumes on Halloween. The only adult costume I've ever put on was when I ran Product at a dot.com. My team and I dressed as software bugs. We thought we were hysterically funny, antennae and all. But as a child, my mother made our costumes. One year I was a letter to the Great Pumpkin, my brother was a pencil, and my sister a mailbox. It's amazing what a little posterboard and some desire can do.

5. Extravagance you cannot live without...that makes you happy? I hope that I could live without extravagance, if I had to. But I have no guarantee that's true. I wonder sometimes who I'd have become, absent extravagance, but I am unlikely to have the chance to find out at this point. Where do I indulge now? Massages. I love that moment when you wiggle into the warmed sheets. I've had to go to 90 minutes instead of an hour, otherwise I am too sad when they finish.

6. Living person you admire...that makes you happy? I'm going to keep this one secret. Everyone should have a secret that makes them happy.

7. Greatest fear...that makes you happy? Can any fear make you happy in the having? Or only in the overcoming? My sense is that in fear there is never, ever, any happiness. Which is maybe the point.

8. Trait you deplore in yourself...that makes you happy?
Thin-skinnedness. Both in the absorbing of the outer world and the communicating of an inner world. It's as though sometimes all the world comes rushing in and then overflows the usual buffers. I am prone to blurting out my thoughts. But I think this same thin skin sometimes gives me the ability to see things as though they were new. So, deplore and appreciate.

9. Which talent would you most like to have...that makes you happy? To sing well. For my own amusement.

10. Greatest achievement...that makes you happy? So far my greatest achievement has been getting as far as I did in a career to which I was not temperamentally suited. I spent a long time in corporate America, squaring my jaw and holding my tongue. I could have stomped off in a huff, and I didn't. Now that I'm 53, I'd like to use that same restraint and effort in service of something that I enjoy.

But in all seriousness, I am made happy by the smallest of things, the way the electric coils on my mother's range look when they are orange with heat. And by the largest of things, the ties and revelations of family. Everything else in the middle is a crapshoot, largely, as far as happiness goes. Sometimes you find it, and sometimes you don't. Still, you get to be alive, which puts me in a good mood almost every morning.

Awards, Of The Bloggish Sort.

I received three blog awards recently, Sugar Doll, Beautiful Blogger, and Sunshine. Thank you so much. As it turns out, they were from three bloggers I read regularly. As it also turns out, all these bloggers live outside the USA. I never expected that blogging would teach me, at 53, new things about the world. In retrospect, was I stupid? That is said with a smile. Of course. We are always stupid in one way or another. In the 6th decade, one learns to regard many flaws with affection.

So. I received the awards from:

A Femme D'Un Certain Age
Many of you know Tish already. If not, allez-y, tout de suite. She lives in France, and posts on cross-continental currents, fashion, and la vie Parisienne. My favorite amongst her features is the illustrated posts on outfits she and her friend put together. So, um, French. So insouciant.

Metscan
Metscan lives in Finland. Yes. Finland. She is new to blogging, and tells us the story of her style and her days. Her taste is austere, her objects beautiful. And behind every post you can feel the Finnish winter waiting. Summer should be good, if brief.

The Hostess Of The Humble Bungalow
She's in Canada. Has an adorable house, buy cute clothes. And one of the more cheerful bloggers around. Today she showed her face for the first time. Go tell her she's cute.

These awards generally require that I provide some details on my existence. Since we are already outside the US, let's keep going. Below are 5 of my more memorable foreign travel moments. I can never guarantee that I haven't told these before. In the 6th decade one begins to retell.

1. Crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth II in 1968. As we will looking back to childhood, I remember an odd non-sequitor. They had a drawing context in the ballroom. I won. I realized years later that I had plagiarized a New Yorker cartoon I must have seen at least a year before. I still feel shame for the undeserved win.

2. Christmas in Jamaica, at the Ocho Rios Inn, early-1970's, with my family. White-jacketed waiters served us on the patio. Afterwards I danced, with my brother, in a cream colored cotton knit dress. The matching jacket had navy blue and brown trim. And a zipper. The reality of decades is always more nuanced than subsequent representations.

3. Christmas in Cancun, a private villa, early-1970's. The cook served pork chops. A mariachi band came in and played to us. We were mortified, but didn't know what to do until my mother came back from the market.

4. My sister and I flew to France, in the summer of 1976, to travel alone for 5 weeks. When we arrived, we realized that the the houseboat owner we were supposed to stay with was in Germany. It was raining. The concierge let us in, out of pity. Who knew that houseboat colonies had concierges?

5. Traveled through Europe on a private jet, for Sun Microsystems, in 1999. Prague was beautiful, but the lobby benches in the Intercontinental were lined with prostitutes, like birds on a wire.

Finally, still on the track of new lands and new knowledge, I pass all three awards on to three bloggers from Australia. Why Australia? Because I'm sensing an Australia vibe. Just like a year ago when I thought, hmm, Swedish. And then Swedish design started showing up everywhere. So let's see if the next few years bring us Australian design swagger. If so, it will sound like this.

First, Faux Fuschia. One of the funniest, most engaging blogs I have ever read. Seriously. She calls her place of work the coal face. I can't do her style, verbal or fashion, justice. Outrageous. Remember AbFab? Just go read. Then pogo on over to Semi-Expat in Oz, and Sydney Shopgirl, for well-photographed and narrated accounts of Australian daily life, home style, fashion, food.

Speaking of awards, now for the Oscars. I'd wear navy blue, in case you wondered.

Blog Awards, More Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year, And Thank You

I have been remiss in acknowledging blog awards. The trip to Santa Barbara to take care of my stepfather put me behind. I'm gradually catching up. I'm going to bend the rules a little (tisk, tisk, tisk), but remember, we're aiming for eccentric in another decade or two.

The Preppy Princess gave me the Beautiful Blogger award, Town and Country Mom the Sunshine Award, and Alanna at Sparkles Of Life the Over The Top Award.

Here's a Valentine for all of you. I didn't even have to get my fingers sticky. And thanks. I appreciate you thinking of me.

Thank You For The Blog Awards! by High WASP on Polyvore.com

The Preppy Princess was the first commenter ever on my blog. I started writing just about a year ago, and a little while later Susan said something to me on one of my posts. Made my day. She has continued to be a source of support and good counsel, as she is for many in the blogosphere. The Preppy Princess is very well known but may be new to you - she writes a blog on fashion news, focusing on classic or preppy style. In a dry, self-deprecating tone, most recently on the Winter Olympics. She and her husband also offer all kinds of preppy goods at their e-store.

Town and Country Mom has some serious town and country style. Most recently in a Southern snow frolic. And traveled to Peru on a mission.

Sparkles of Life chronicles the musings of a young woman in her last year of college. She likes fashion, photography, style. This is my favorite post of hers so far.

And, as there are different rules for accepting these various awards, I'm bending it all a little further. Yes, folks, this is what High WASP rebellion looks like. Think Katherine Hepburn compelled to an exasperated, "Drat!" I am going to:

• List three things I believe about love
• Write an entire post on new blogs I have found, later this week

So, love.

1. Feels much like blood running through one's veins. Thrums when you lower your ear to the pulse.
2. Compels one to rediscover one's infancy, burying one's head and breathing in.
3. Causes dreadful missing in absence, but gladness in return.

And, for those of Chinese heritage, or anyone else celebrating, Gong Xi Fa Cai and/or Gong Hay Fat Choy! For a personal telling of Chinese New Year traditions, read Joyce Lau's post. Thank you all.

Saturday Morning at 8:31am

So much has happened lately. I feel accelerated. Which is odd, since I'm not working. But life has its own adrenaline.

Not the least of which is this blog. I'm kind of embarrassed to talk about blogging. Very High WASP of me, I suppose. We want to do these things, and pretend we aren't. But here I am. More importantly, here you are. Welcome.


I was tagged, recently, by the adorable, determined, and effervescent Queen Bee Swain. That's Swain as in coxswain, not as in country suitor. To tell you ten things about myself. Before I start, I tag Mon Avis, Mes Amis. Found her via Maxminimus. She is British wit and verve, he's men's style in the traditional vernacular. Both quite fun. Also Pink Martinis. She introduced me to Sugar Daddy Ken. Need I say more? Now I'm going to conflate the tag (don't you just love the word conflate? So useful.) with my sense that it's time to take a minute and think, just what am I doing here, and to then tell you. So you know. Because things change, evolve, and maps, guides, directions can be good.

So.

10 Things You Might Not Have Known About LPC's Blogging. Because I Didn't Know Them Either. Or, I Knew But Hadn't Acknowledged. Because Being Human Is Complex.

Why am I doing this?

1. I have always wanted to write stuff that did not involve trying to sell anyone anything. And have people read it.
2. I lost my job and I have time to fill.
3. You all are funny, intelligent, quirky, enthusiastic, well-traveled, creative commenters who keep providing me with new thoughts and insights.
4. Taking pictures and making photo collages is fun. Like the part of kindergarten that I liked where they put scissors and construction paper and glue on the tables and let you have at it.
5. Life is short, and noticing acutely as you live is the only way I have found to make it go more slowly.

What am I going to be doing here? In order of focus.

1. Writing about style from the High WASP perspective, in clothing, in accessories, in travel, in houses, in careers.
2. Telling stories as honestly as I can, with disclosure of any personal complexities. Constructing and deconstructing.
3. Telling the particular story of my trip to India. Most likely every week. But I can't set a day, some Mondays are different than other Mondays, often Tuesdays vary quite a lot.
4. Blurting out how much I love my children.
5. Sustaining occasional moments of rapture about this, that, and the other thing. Whatever that other thing happens to be.

But, wait, there's more. (No Ginsu knives.) But, inviting you all to guest post, hosting giveaways (yes, really, just wait). Also showing pictures. And thanking you. Really, most importantly, thanking you. Where are my manners?

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Awards, Prizes, And Other Surprises

A recent spell of good luck has left me walking around happy. Rather like when you get out of bed in the morning and the warmth of your sleep stays with you in a cold kitchen.

First, I won a giveaway. Winning things reminds me that you don't have to work hard for everything nice.


Kate, at love you big, makes these vintage map notebooks and sells them via her Etsy shop. I won 3. I love them. My intent is to give as Christmas stocking-stuffers. However, I may be unable to resist taking one for myself. I'm a list-maker. Without a notebook list-making becomes a self-flagellating act, a neurological twitch leading to bad driving. Probably higher car insurance payments. With a notebook, list-making is almost as good as meditating. Can be done in public. Thank you, Kate.

Second, Buckeroomama at Mamahood, Among Other Things gave me the Blog de Ouro award. It has no requirements. Again, something nice, no hard work.


You may remember Buckeroomama. Or at least her kids. Zoe. Josh. Any time I need a dose of cute kids they're always there to help out. Thank you, Buckeroomama.


Third, many of you made very supportive comments on this week's Saturday post. Out of the generosity of your hearts, it appears. I feel I am a lucky person. My suspicion is that feeling lucky isn't too far from grace.

Thank you very much.

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.

7 Summer Favorites For The AARP Crowd

Queen Bee Swain tagged me for this meme. I'll let it stop with me. If you like sports, crew in particular, go see Queen Bee. She is a natural born sportswriter. I hope to read her commentary on the 2012 Olympics but I am not sure that is her plan. Oh, and she didn't tag me for the AARP. She is a wee baby. That was me.

Movie: Anything playing at a drive-in. Your father will take you in his crimson 1968 Pontiac Bonneville with the paisley decal on the side. You will get to drink Coke and eat french fries, not something you are usually allowed even to smell. Since it’s California, you will all get cold, but you will have sweaters packed. Something embarrassing will happen in the movie, but it will be OK. Driving home, you will almost fall asleep, and pretend you have, so as to enjoy being near your brother and sister without needing to fight with them for touching you.

Oh wait. Drive-ins are a thing of the past. Well, no matter. Sometimes so are we.

Cocktail: Yes.

Song: Summertime, by Janis Joplin. Not because we are old and forgetful and need to be reminded of the season, but because the song gives us a shot of rueful joy and manages to remind us that right now we might be able to catch the children we used to hush, online. If we hurry.

Meal: Carnitas. Eaten outside, grease dripping from your fingers. Hot sauce hot enough to taste yet respectful of our ability to stomach spice. We may be getting older but we still want our tongues to burn, our eyes to water, and our teeth to bite through crunchy, fatty pork.

Outfit: Linen. Of any kind. Because our mothers taught us how to iron a shirt. Back first, sleeves and cuffs next, then front, then collar.

Read: A murder mystery complex enough to be fun and literate enough to feel like a book. This summer it’s the second book in Stieg Larsson’s series, The Girl Who Played With Fire. It reminds us of Ingmar Bergman. His film Cries and Whispers inspired and scarred us forever.

Moment: The word moment is a tricky one for us. The many moments we forget almost as soon as they happen? The moments when we feel yet again whatever stiffness is our particular nemesis? You see, the word moment reminds us that death is a problem we can’t solve. But. Cheerfulness is also best felt in moments. In fact I don’t find it hard, being cheerful at this point. The moment of breakfast on the longest day of summer, when it’s light before I wake up and the sun comes in the window while I drink tea. The moment when I first walk out into the backyard and hear my sprinklers. The hissing of summer lawns, as Joni Mitchell says. Any moment. Doesn’t matter which one. At any moment I can breathe and feel my fingers and see my toes. At 52 I feel cheerful just seeing blue sky above the highway as I drive.

In the summer I feel like the world is cheerful itself. I'm not sure why, but I do not need to know.

You Are A Great (Fashion) Read Award

I received this award from Sher at Fashion after 40. If you look on Sher's blog, you will see I did however put a longer skirt on our friend above. Awards should mutate and follow the laws of natural selection. I also changed the award name. I am going to trust that I will not get into trouble.

Sher blogs about, as she says, Fashion After Forty. She takes a picture of herself, and what she wears, every day. And then she shows us. Her style is cheerful, not at all old ladyish. Not to mention great bathing suits.

The terms of this award are to reveal several things about oneself. Since Sher is a fashion blogger, I am going to tell you a few fashion things about myself. And then I am going to pass this award on to the fashion bloggers I read. Because, since I am still unemployed, I have a lot of time to poke around on the Internet, and might have some as-yet-unknown fashion reads.


5 Fashion Things You Didn't Know About LPC:

1. In the late 70's I bought a long, black and gold and multicolored, silk dress, made by Carolyn Charles. Apparently she dressed Princess Diana later but I am sure it was a let down. Right now the dress is in a brown paper bag in my car ostensibly to be altered for my daughter. More likely just to keep me company on the way to the hardware store to buy new aerators for my faucets.
2. While in London I also bought a 4 inch wide bright pink patent leather belt that wrapped twice around my waist and narrowed to a 1 inch strap to buckle. I wish I still had it. Just to look at.
3. When I came back from India I had many glass and wooden bangles on my right arm. They jangled so loudly in business school that I had to break them off. I suppose my MBA has been of more value than bangles but I do feel there is a metaphorical similarity.
4. I once had a letter published in Vogue magazine but it had nothing to do with fashion.
5. I have cashmere sweaters in black, brown, gray, cream, pink, olive green, sea green, sky blue, navy blue, and pink. Pink with a rhinestone Hello Kitty on the lower left hand waistline. My sisters gave it to me when I turned 50.

Approximately 15 Fashion Bloggers Receiving The "You Are A Great Fashion Read" Award:

1. Inside Out Style. This would be my recommendation on where to look first, simply because Imogen has no fashion agenda per se. She has scientific guidance on how to choose the proportions and colors that look best on you. No kidding.
   
2. Une femme d'un certain age. My favorite "certain age" blogger to date. a) she loves Paris b) she knows what do with scarves.
   
3. Passage des Pearles. Fashion over 50. The Duchess knows what she likes and what she doesn't like. And she's serious about elegance with pictures to prove it.
   
4. Couture Carrie. How to get all you need to know about current fashion trends even when you will never wear any of it.
   
5. nitro:licious. How to get all you need to know about current fashion trends for groovy 20 year olds and more. Although you, if you are me, will REALLY never wear any of this. You will only dream.
   
6. a few notes on napkins. More 20-year old fashion, but in smaller, more digestible doses.
   
7. Corporette. THE site for women who work in conservative offices.
   
8. 3-Penny Princess. A J. Crew fan with friends who also like J. Crew.
   
9. + SlynnRo, Mojito Maven, and Kate. Not strictly fashion blogs, of course, but these three smart and fun women were recently made Gap brand advocates, so I expect a good telling of the Gap story.
   
10. The Lilly Bloggers. With Monograms and Manicures as the lead and many others. They now have a button, The Preppy Blog Crowd. I am most impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit.
    
11. Fashion for Nerds. Exactly what she says. If nerds are arty, edgy, and cute that is.
    
12. The Preppy Princess. A real newswoman, reporting on preppy and other fashion news, sometimes apparently fairly insider info, in a tongue-in-cheek, whowhatwherewhy style. I also have reason to suspect she hails from the High WASP 'hood. But don't hold that against her.
    

All right. If any of these bloggers would like to give us 5 Fashion Facts We Didn't Know Before, I, for one, will be waiting anxiously to hear.

Awards, Mentions, Flabbergastation.

On Friday I saw that Delia Lloyd mentioned amidlifeofprivilege on RealDelia. I was flabbergasted. I really like her blog on becoming a grownup. It is about becoming, rather than one day being done with the process. And she writes, as in she does it for a living, for periodicals I’ve read all my life. I was, as I said, flabbergasted. And grateful. Thank you Delia.

Last week I also received the Premium Meme Award from blogger Brown-Eyed Girl. Let me just say that she used to work as a Petrophysicist in Denver and her husband is now a professor of something that involves trips to Iceland. Thank you Brown-Eyed Girl.


The guidelines of the Premium Meme are to list 7 of your personality traits, as evidenced on your blog, and then pass the award on to 7 other blogs with notable personality. OK. Here goes.

1. Loquacious. (Big word of the day) Which, as the point of enumerating points of one’s personality ought to be to improve said personality, I will now address by making this list short.
2. Enthusiastic.
3. Analytical.
4. Optimistic.
5. Anxious.
6. Curious.
7. And thinking to herself, hmm, if English were a simpler language, less of a mutt, perhaps designed by a computer scientist, these adjectives would have one word ending only and this list might have included the words, Enthusiastious, Analyticious, and Optimistious, which I cannot figure out how to pronounce. And also thinking, this list should have included Having Good Intentions But Being Sometimes Swept Away By The Process Or The Task At Hand, as evidenced by the singular lack of brevity in item 7.

The envelope please. This award now goes to; Jan at Jan’s Sushi Bar for constant good humor, f8hasit for the best About Me photo ever, materfamilias for repeated evidence of intelligence (she is an academic after all), Academic, Hopeful because she is writing a thesis and might need to procrastinate, Princess Freckles because she, like my daughter, is a ballet dancer and a friendly one at that, Lipstick at the Mailbox because I still think her daughter is a huge cutie pie, and Muffy Martini. Because she is Muffy and she will be getting married in the not too distant future. Should they choose to accept, of course, and with all due respect for etiquette.

In case you had forgotten, tomorrow is Monday. Glad to be of help.

Honest Scrap Award From Little Bow Prep

Little Bow Prep has given me an award. She is a high school student, working hard and worrying, as most high-achieving high school students do, where she will go to college. And looking at fashion along the way. I am flattered to get an award from a teenager. It means I have not passed over to the land of old people who must be avoided. And I support her for blogging and slogging her way through the college admissions process. Thank you Little Bow, and BTW, clever name...

The award has rules, as these things do. I prefer, however, to call them requests. Here they are:

• Each blogger to whom the award is given must post these rules (we will just call them requests...).
• Each blogger to whom the award is given must list ten random facts/habits about themselves and pass the award on to other recipients.
• The award recipients then need to do the same.
• Don't forget to leave a comment telling the recipients about the award!

I would like to receive and pass on this award in the spirit of my current post thread, i.e. careers, because, no, I am not quite done. So. How about 5 not so random facts about my career to date?

1. When I was in high school, my mother thought I would be a poet when I grew up. At 52, poetry is one of the few genres of literature that I don't much like.
2. When I was in college, I wanted to be an actress. I still like to stand in front of an audience and talk, but I no longer want to perform as someone else.
3. When I got out of college, I took classes at San Diego State in economics and calculus, to prepare myself for a future MBA. This turned out not to be necessary.
4. When I took my first job after college I lived in London and worked for Sir Cameron Mackintosh (think Cats) for 6 months. He hadn't been knighted yet. I had nothing to do with his future success.
5. The work assignments I have most enjoyed to date have been: running the team that launched a dot.com site, presenting on e-commerce to an industry conference, and leading a project that required rapid analysis of the nature of financial exchanges. I could have known I would like standing up and talking in front of people. The financial exchanges thing probably surprised everyone. Some things you can know in advance, some things you can't.

I would like to pass this award along to the following 5 bloggers. In this case, I am congratulating them for their initiative in starting new things and following through on what they began.

Vodka Mom at I Need A Martini Mom. She writes about her experience as a kindergarten teacher and tells very funny stories about what kids say. Recently there was apparently some consternation in her work environment about her blog, but she hasn't quit. Still making us all laugh.
Maureen at IslandRoar. Maureen lives on Martha's Vineyard (one of my all time favorite places) and just recently started up a blog. She is dedicated to writing posts that have real personal meaning. This is my favorite, about an older man she visits with.
Allie at Summer Is A Verb. Again, a fairly new blog, one that tells what I think of as the High WASP story from a lighter perspective with lots of fabulous stuff to covet including skin care, my personal weakness...
Colleen at communicatrix. Colleen is well-established in the advertising/marketing industry as a speaker and consultant but is doing the difficult thing of reaching out to readers to drive referrals. It's always hard to ask but it's always a good idea. Her blog is a good resource for personal growth inspiration.
Kate at love you big. Adorable crafts/art/little creatures from Australia. Recently she posted a new craft project every day in May. I admire her sheer persistence but true cuteness is an extra added benefit.

Award From Wedding Planning In Exile

Bride at Wedding Planning In Exile has given me this award. As it happens, I've received it before, but since I am a ninny and don't put these things in my sidebar, how should she have known? Were I adhering strictly to High WASP precepts I would say nothing, NOTHING, about how I had received this already and I would just carry on. But in this transparent day and age I would like to propose a modification. I will confess to prior receipt and I will say thank you. Thank you very much. Deeply appreciated.

Wedding Planning in Exile is, as she says, planning a wedding on the East Coast away from her beloved home in Colorado. She's one of the graduate students getting married crowd, that also includes One Barefoot Bride, Accordions and Lace, and Sweet Tea (fabulous New Orleans wedding pictures) as a post-grad student bride. I love graduate student brides, they deconstruct. As an extra added benefit, Exile knows a lot about wine and will tell you something she knows about said beverage on most Wednesdays.

I would like to pass this award on to five bloggers. That's about the maximum number of similar items I can hold in my mind at one time.

the class factotum speaks - Writes about a) her libertarian attitudes b) living in Wisconsin c) her engineer husband d) her cats e) her travels through Morocco and Latin America - all in a dry, mildly cantankerous, sharply intelligent, make me shout with laughter prose. I imagine she will cough sarcastically at the sight of this award.

The Peak Of Chic - Design blog with a High WASP seal of approval for all-around casual elegance vs. the current aesthetic that involves making chests of drawers over by covering them with paper the of the type we used to put into the bottoms of our kitchen drawers. Not that I'd tell you not to cover something with sticky paper if you want to.

Beach House Dreamer - A series of beautiful pictures of beach houses. Who doesn't like beach houses? My family has owned three that might count over the years and I'm not tired of looking yet.

Polka Dots & Paisley - Ashley seems to have a rare truly good heart. I like to support her.

Stella's Roar - Jill lives in El Paso and recently asked her readers whether to wear a leopard patterned- or giraffe-patterned dress to the zoo fundraiser that requested women dress like "trophy" wives. It's kind of like if you are a fairly buttoned-up High WASP and you have a red-headed bombshell for a best friend who makes you margaritas and lends you her gold bikini. You'd really look forward to days by her pool.

Note that I tend not to give awards to the bloggers with hundreds and hundreds of readers, as I am not sure they will find value. But, I think in future I will post celebrating those people too. Just because you are famousish doesn't mean you don't like to be appreciated.

Queen of ALLL Things

The Preppy Princess has given me an award. Apparently I am now the Queen of All Things. Aside from being kind and helpful, the Princess also runs a business and has already had a career in media. It's wonderful to see someone who can accomplish so much. And her blog has just enough tongue-in-cheek to make me go back every day. Plus Gossip Girl. Thanks Princess.

The terms of this award are to pass it on to 7 bloggers and say 7 things about myself that make me aww-summm. Oooh. That's really hard for High WASPs. Counts as showing off. So, here's what I will do. We are all awesome because the simple state of being alive is astonishing. Here are 7 things that at this moment remind me I am alive, and therefore awesome.

Seven things that make me Awe-Summm

1. My sheepskin slippers are really comfy.

2. The house is completely quiet except for the hum of my refrigerator.

3. My roses need pruning again. This time I will wear armor.

4. Almost everything in my house is a reminder of something important, presents given in love, things acquired in need, a globe of the world, millions of photos of my children in their little guy days.

5. My fingers hurt from typing. I am aging. I don't regret the diminishment of physical beauty at this point, but I feel every year when I move. Luckily even aging means you are alive.

6. I love my new garage door. After 25 years without an automatic garage door I now understand their glory.

7. My cellphone is on the kitchen counter. The last person I called was my best friend in Belgium. She and I have been mothers together since we met, 18 years ago. She moved to Belgium last year. She and I still talk almost every day. Having a best friend is a good way to remember that you are alive.

I now pass this award on to:

Confessions of a Plate Addict (Just what it sounds like. Don't you love the Internet? Lots of tablescapes that brides might find useful)
Doux (Remarkably stylish, in both words and pictures, written by two young women. I'd even say it's got a High WASP vibe for what that's worth.)
Mamahood, among other things... (Mother in Hong Kong with possibly the cutest children ever, clearly dedicated to doing the best possible job)
Accordions and Lace (Planning an interfaith wedding and rather honest about everything)
One Barefoot Bride (A green bride, a graduate student,
My Life Interrupted (She takes care of two grandchildren AND is quitting smoking)
Weddings Fresh (A wedding planner who posts lovely simple images)
It's a Dog's Life (She's my age. Do I need another reason?)

Awards And What To Do About Them Redux

As I suspected, I am guilty of rudeness. This is not what High WASPs enjoy. Aubergine Ink, who blogs in a lovely way about her wedding, gave me an award and I have not responded.

My mother always says, in matters of etiquette, "A simple thank you will suffice." Blame my wayward spirit for the following. Because of my initial lapse in responding I am going to try a different mode of thank you. Aubergine, I made you your very own award. One that no one else will ever win. For anything. Just for you. It is in return for these beautiful photos which make me want to lie on the ground and hang ribbons in multitudes over my face and turn on a fan. To watch them wave.

I do know that typewriters in real life rarely splat ink on anything. So let's pretend this was a savage typewriter. They exist you know.

Awards And What To Do About Them

I received my first blog award from another blogger and am both flattered and flummoxed. I am new to blogging and therefore unsure of the protocol. As you can imagine, being unsure of protocol makes a High WASP want to go on a very long safari. To Africa. And then throw in a trip to Egypt on the way back to delay the inevitable. The possibility of offending or annoying someone. So.

Thank you Midlife Musings. For the award. Here it is, below. I even put it in a frame.


The instructions were to pass it on to 15 blogs I have recently discovered. Eeek. That's a lot. How about I do 5? And how about I do my best to give this award to 5 bloggers I think might be award-amenable? So, with no further muttering, here are 5 blogs I have recently discovered and either added to my RSS feed or followed them with that follower widget (always makes me a LITTLE nervous, given that I lived through the 1970's in California, the heyday of cults, but never mind.)

Here are 5 blogs new to me. To all of you, I enjoy your blogs and I thought you might like this award. Thank you all for writing. And here you go. You can decide if you feel like passing it along to a blog or 2 or 5 that are new to you.

Beadsme - I'm not a beader but I like to look at her stuff.
Paisley and Pearls - I do love preppy girl blogs.
Livin' Louisiana - The title says it all. Now I just need All Alaska All The Time, Make Mine Minnesota, etc.
The Cape House - Fantastic family photos from days gone by. Love the header image too.
indigo doll and the spectrum sprites - Mom with unique boy child. She herself has killer word talent.

If anyone else reading here is up for the award process, just comment here that you don't mind, and then if I am not scarred forever by this experience, and if someone else decides to overlook my qualms, I will know where to look. You can also tell me if you really hate them:).