I was tagged by Natalie to write five things about myself. If you read this, please picture a shrug after every point. I’m not that fascinating!
About the pictures in this post: today I was looking at a photo blog that I really enjoy, Hawaiian Coconut, which collects photos by Emily Faulstich (one of the founders of Wildfox), who is now based in South Africa, when I saw my blog’s name listed here! What a treat! Thank you, Emily. I’ve included a few of my favourite of her photos with this post. They can be a silent sixth item about what I wish my life looked like. It certainly wouldn’t be raining slush in my dream life, but there would be quite a few Byredo candles, pink candy, plenty of Veuve, and palm trees. And so, so many roses.
1. I don’t enjoy cooking or baking at all. I find it tedious and if I’m preparing food all I can think of are all the things I would so much rather be doing with my time. Unfortunately for me, I love eating fresh, good food and I prefer eating at home than at a restaurant. Fortunately for me, Geoff does most/all of the cooking (he makes lovely meals with beautiful ingredients such as farro and mushrooms and black kale and caramelized onions). Incidentally, I haven’t eaten meat in over a year. It’s not for any particular reason; I just don’t think I need it, and not buying it certainly keeps grocery costs down. I do eat fish and seafood from time to time, because when I was a vegetarian years ago I really missed it and broke years of vegetarianism for a tuna sandwich. Too bad I don’t live on the ocean.
2. I was engaged to my first boyfriend when I was in my early twenties. I don’t talk about this because it’s not a big deal and I rarely think about it (it was so long ago!). At that time I thought it would be romantic to be married young, the first of all our friends. But it felt wrong. It was the greatest and most true “It's not you (or marriage, or marriage at a young age), it’s me.”
3. When I was in high school I went through a period of being, I don’t know, religion-curious? I went to a few different meetings, including one for a very sexual, science-fiction based religion. I pitched it as a story for a teen publication I worked for at the time. I took some friends with me and we ran out of there at the end, laughing breathlessly, because we thought for sure there would be an orgy (!) and we were just kids. I am no longer curious.
4. I left journalism school after two miserable years so I could study Latin and read a lot of books and think about them (so much more enjoyable than calling people at City Hall for interviews, especially at 19. I cried on the phone a lot).
5. I love lists of things that people are into, or not into. My favourite Beatle is George. I love movies set in New York in the 1970s (Taxi Driver, Dog Day Afternoon, Panic in Needle Park). One of my favourite things at the moment is an audiobook of Lolita narrated by Jeremy Irons. I could watch an episode of Seinfeld every day. I use the public library three times a week.
(This last one is Turkish Delight ice cream. Are you kidding me)