The older I get, the more I look for markers of the passage of time. When you’re in school, the rhythm of the academic calendar provides you with important dates and milestones, but when you’ve finished college and are working, you have to come up with those markers on your own. I think these are very personal for people – birthdays, wedding anniversaries, etc. For me, in July I often think of the summer program I did in high school where I met one of my best friends – we’ve now known each other for nine years. In late August and early September, I think about moving to New York and starting my job. And now, in early September, I think about when I started writing this blog, just about one year (and exactly one hundred posts) ago.
Tag: writing (page 2 of 3)
Sometimes I write these posts in a bit of a hurry. Life is busy, time gets away from me, and it’s the night I’m supposed to post and I have nothing written yet. When I first started the blog (almost a year ago!), I had a few entries in the bank, which was an excellent plan. I also had a list of topics I might someday write about. The bank is now empty, and while there are a few items still on the list, mostly I come up with new topics on the spot. Often, now, they’re timely: I write about something I just did or just heard about.
But when rushing to get something written, sometimes I summarize instead of really taking time to show what an experience was like. So, without further ado, five details that got left out of recent blog posts!
Here in New York we’ve officially taken a left turn from “Is it spring yet?” into “Should I put the air conditioner in the window now?” territory. In just a few weeks we’ve entered the world of not needing to wear a jacket at night and leaving the ceiling fans on at all times. God forbid I fall asleep under my quilt, because I willwake up sweaty and uncomfortable.
This is my problem with springtime: it’s too short. If I’m going to have to deal with seasonal allergies and sporadic rainfall, can’t I at least get a month where the high temperature is seventy-five and the low is sixty? We’ve already left that high temp in the dust, and we’re only halfway into May! And as you might remember, winter dragged things out for an obscenely long time.
I’ve been thinking a lot about travel writing lately. Part of it is figuring out what kind of stuff to write about on this blog, part of it is that I have some travel coming up soon, and most of it is that I just love travel writing. My travel reading falls into four major categories: guide books for trips I’m going to take (mostly skimmed), books by Bill Bryson, books by Frances Mayes, and books about American women (usually in their twenties or thirties) moving to Paris.
Most of the nonfiction I read falls into the memoir category, with an emphasis on travel. But one of my favorites is Anne Fadiman’s Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, a book for book lovers. If you haven’t read it, buy it now. It’s short and you’ll read it so quickly you’ll wish it were longer. I’ve read it a couple times and love all of the essays, but one of my favorites is called “My Odd Shelf”.
This is my fiftieth post on this blog! Since I started it on September 7, it’s been just about exactly six months of blogging regularly. In that time I have written about pretty much every interesting thing I have ever done in New York, so I guess it’s time to move on to something new.
Okay, not really. But I’ve written about a lot of things I’ve done, so clearly I need to go check out more places around the city. There are many, many museums I’ve yet to set foot in, neighborhoods I’ve never explored, and parks I’ve never gotten lost in. Thank goodness it’s almost springtime and I totally will want to spend time outside soon. There’s no way we’ll get more snow this month, right? Right?
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