Pleasing Me

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased. " — Katharine Hepburn

I have recently come to the understanding that I sometimes forget about me. Not doing my nails or giving myself regular dates to the massage therapist, but remembering the very core essence of me, the thing that makes me tick, makes me smile, makes me laugh. I notice that when I neglect time to paint or to cook or to laze around and create, I forget to be comfortable with me. I am nervous, stressed, bitter or high-strung. Things that take priority in my life now are my two busy roommates that seem to not know that housework can be done by a male (who knew?) nor that at the end of the day, I really would prefer to not do laundry.

I love foodie magazines: Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Saveur, Gastronomica, Food + Wine, Art Culinaire, amongst others... I love the articles, the critiques, the descriptions. I am also a particular fan of those elusive photographers who also do their own food styling and it is in visual evaluation of their work that makes me dig through the bills in my inbox to find my next issue. Something about the transcending value of food is so essentially undervalued in our society. I recently read in my Gourmet magazine a statistic that read: "One in five Americans live on a diet of ten foods or fewer. Among the most common choices? French fries, fried chicken, chocolate chip cookies and Kraft macaroni & cheese" (Gourmet, July 2007). Oh ew, people! When there are caramel peach choux to be eaten or German pannakuchen to be savored or warm potato salad with apple-smoked bacon to be eaten slowly under an Indian summer sky?

I have found a fond appreciation for names. I enjoy reading through the editorial list in magazines or watching the end of the movie to watch the credits roll to watch all the new, deliciously varied and ingenious names that roll of the tongue or stop you short and make you cock your head wondering if you are pronouncing it right. Those names are noted with the hope of being paired with the presence of my future children. As my husband was 'blessed' with the name ranked within the top 5 in popularity for the last 25 years, and I, having never met another with my name, have decided to bless our children, with odd, quirky, unpronounceable and otherwise unique and beautiful names to make our offspring stand apart.

I also like speaking my mind. I'm blunt, straight-forward, unaccommodating and in some cases, rude. I like free-flow brainstorming, random journal entries, and thinking aloud. Now where is that messy roommate? I have a few words for him..