I've stumbled into 23/ Go one week without visiting a pop blog.
Last Friday, I declared I'd do it: I am simply too persuaded by the lives of others. I see a thin so-and-so and want to be like her. Instead of wanting to be like me. I am perfectly wonderful, so I'm not sure exactly what I'm thinking. Clearly I have a problem.
So there I went and started on No. 23.
What I've found is that I'm not particularly pining for the pop-culture content. Nevertheless, I have to try very hard not to visit my regular sites. My conclusion: There are several times during my day that I am flat-out bored. And what I have done over the past, oh, several years, is visit these sites to fill in the gaps.
These are gaps in my brain! That I'm filling with celebrity trivia!
Now, I truly don't have anything against keeping in touch with pop culture. And when I finish No. 23 (and then No. 24: going a month without the blogs), I'll likely resume visiting them on some kind of regular basis.
The thing is, I need to pay heed to the fact that over and over, I turn my brain to something not very productive at all when I could be using my gaps to do something intellectual/energizing/helpful/enriching. If, at least sometimes, I forgo the blogs for whatever those things end up being, then Nos. 23 and 24 will have served a higher purpose, and my life will be ever so more robust because of it.
I've just finished my first monthly reading. "The Last Editor," by Jim Bellows. It was, to say the least, a pleasure.
He recounted his last fifty years in journalism. He was a pit bull, always the underdog and always fighting the big guy. His papers (and other endeavors -- save for his work with Entertainment Tonight) came to some crashing end, but all he could recount about them was the joy and excitement of being in the midst of the struggle.
And he sounded like one g-ddamned good editor. Someone who inspired the ranks. Who had the energy and passion to know when and how to go get the story.
Now, I don't have a lot of experience chasing stories, or getting anyone else to chase them, but I so identified with Bellows' character that I finished the book convinced I could start my own newspaper and gather just the right people to make is something really special.
That makes the book, and Bellows, more than a pleasure. It makes it an inspiration. It makes me curious why it would take a book to uncover that kind of self-confidence, but maybe that's the kind of thing I'll just let be.
For anyone else who likes newspapers, or just likes reading good yarns (Bellows has plenty -- he was drugged by Ku Klux Klan members early in his career, to name just one), I'd recommend picking up "The Last Editor." You may find Bellows strays a little into some self-adulation, but maybe that's not so bad for a man who often thought of himself as the little guy in the room. It sounds like he earned any praise that's thrown his way, even if it's by him. And anyway, by the end of the book, that fades into the background. It did for me anyway. I was left simply admiring a man who, when he wrote the book at 80, was still looking for the next hurdle to leap over.
I think every 1001 days after this first set could seem just a little less exciting without a list of 101 things to accomplish.
She's apparently got a freezer full of venison, brought home by her husband. And I know nothing about Casper or Wyoming, so this has all the makings of the most adventurous trip yet.
Doesn't that just sound luxurious? Every night, a new vineyard. And maybe a tour by bike, so we can earn all the rich meals we pair with our bottles of wine.
It's another country, so why not?
Melizza and I met in college; we were roommates for a year in Roanoke. Now we see each other about once a year. It's crazy to think we've gotten to that point in life, but we have.
I've visited twice ... once when she moved there (we drove with Ludo; it was an adventure), and once last year. But I haven't gone with Patrick yet, and I haven't visited for long enough to get a really great sense of the town.
We'll try to avoid the hot season ...
Seattle has been my favorite city since I first visited at 12, when I'd earned good enough grades in eighth grade to be sent off for two weeks to visit my uncle and aunt all the way on the West Coast.
The public market, the people, the coffee. For nostalgia, I don't think anything could ever beat it. And being in Portland, we'll be able to visit on a whim if we want.
Ever see "Goonies"? Remember the two rocks the kids match with holes in an old medallion when they first strike out on their adventure? Those rocks are on the shore at Cannon Beach, just an hour or so from Portland. And they are amazing to see up close.
Cannon Beach itself is a quaint vacation town. We had a great lunch at a small fish shop in the main part of town.
I can imagine a long weekend relaxing, walking along the beach, eating from a fresh catch.
I have skills coming out of my ears: page layout, editing, writing, work flow organization.
And I have the entrepreneurial spirit. When I was in high school I wanted to open a bakery. When I discovered coffee shops, I wanted to own one of those. I still wouldn't mind it. And maybe that's the direction I'll eventually go in. But what makes a lot of sense now, and what I know I could enjoy, is working with small businesses as they start putting themselves together.
That's the ultimate goal, anyway. There'll be a lot of things to get done along the way.
