BLOG FOR RADICAL FUN DAY
Published by deviousdiva May 4th, 2006 in Personal.
It's a day of fun, thanks to brownfemipower. Go and read everything. Links later. This is my contribution…
10 things I'd rather be doing instead of whacking trolls (not in order of preference)
Cooking a fabulous dinner and sharing it with my "real life" friends
Two tables pushed together in my living room and decorated with my favorite material. The room filled with candles and my favorite lamps. (I admit it. I'm a lighting fascist. Fluorescent strips and bare bulbs make me insane) Dinner is always informal. No dressing up of any kind unless you feel like it. Gallons of wine, mountains of food, music of all varieties and moods, and most important : my fabulous friends. Conversation flows, the joking continuous, the fast banter, kidding around, putting the world to rights, the silliness, the seriousness, the reckless wildness of the small hours creeping up on us all too fast. The impromptu music sessions guitars and voices singing made up songs or favorites. The hugs and kisses at the end of a wonderful evening and talk of our next meetings which are never far away. Even the clearing up is made sweet by the joy of having shared my house, my life, my family and myself with friends. I love you all. My life is richer and better for knowing you.
Being in my garden
I don't have particularly green fingers but I do love my garden. I love that I can grow things. Beautiful begonias that flower all year round. My handsome jade tree that finally recovered from snow damage and shows no signs of slowing down. I grew it from a two leafed shoot that I found in the street when I first moved to Greece. It has been a symbol of my life here with the love of my life and my "perfect child" (those that know us really well know what that means) My herbs that I use in our food. There really is nothing like fresh herbs. I have always dreamed of growing my own vegetables too (I am very jealous of you S, that you cut a lettuce from your garden for the salad the other day and it was like a taste explosion)
I even love my hardy little weeds which grow wherever they wish. I have to explain a very boring horticultural story here. I have wanted to grow grass in my garden since I moved here but we have seven lemon trees in a fairly small place but…
Quiet afraid can I start again too late grass i want grass in my garden like when i was young lemon trees spoil the grass this is not my country and you don't understand me you wont see me, I am invisible this is not my country my country is cold and green and unfriendly and funny and dark and deep .
Reading a book, any book
I am a ferocious reader, always have been. I'll read practically anything and I always have a book on the go. Sadly, I can no longer afford to feed my habit. There are few places here in Athens that sell second hand books so I often have to resort to re-reading the ones I have. If there's one thing I've done right in raising my son it's passing on a love of books. I cannot understand how people do not like reading. To me that's like saying I don't like music.
Favorite books of all time? There are so many but here are ten that I have on my shelf now. (Having had many other collections that I have had to sell because of moving houses or countries or because of the vile boyfriend but that's another story)
"The Child in Time" Ian McEwan "Dispatches" Michael Herr "Billy" Albert French
"Nobody Knows my Name" James Baldwin
"The Bluest Eye" Toni Morrison
"Mama" Terry McMillan
"The Wasp Factory" Iain Banks
"King Lear" William Shakespeare
"Invisible Man" Ralph Ellison
"The Lorax" Dr.Suess
Out dancing with the love of my life
Over the years we have done a lot of dancing together. We both love it and, though I say it myself, we do whip up a storm on the dancefloor. Sexy, flirty, dirty dancing until dawn. That's the best. And we're not really fussy about what kind of music we get it together to. We've been known to strut our stuff to pop, disco, rock, latin, african, hiphop, ska, reggae, whatever. If it's got rhythm we'll dance to it. Disclaimer: We both hate heavy metal.
Wasting vast amounts of time playing games
I'm a great fan of computer games. I prefer the strategy ones over the first person shooters and I never play flight or driving simulation or sports games. My favorites:
Age of Empires
Civilization
Caesar
SimCity (sometimes)
Ghost Recon
I play online sometimes but I get pissed off that the boys won't play with you if you give yourself a girl name. I always play female if there is a choice. I can't stand it when games have no decent female characters or proper costumes/armor so that you have to run about in a leather bikini and squeak a lot. Yuck.
Swimming is my sport
I used to be a pretty nifty swimmer. I've got swimmers shoulders. I am one of those boring people who would rather go to a pool and swim lengths than go to the beach and splash about. I don't swim out far in the sea because I can't stand sea-creatures or fish swimming near me. Well, you don't get slimy seaweed around your legs at the pool. I love the smell of chlorine on me after swimming. If there is one sport that I would love to have done professionally it would have been swimming. (I was nowhere near that good but I made the school teams etc.)
Music is central to my life
I cannot really write about my true involvement with music here. All of you who know me through this blog know why I cannot write personal details here but you also know where you can go to find out what I'm up to. I love music. My whole life has a soundtrack. And I wouldn't change a single note.
Walking and talking
I am a cruel mum. When my son was two his pushchair broke and we threw it in the bin near where it had collapsed. From that day on he has been dragged on walks much too long and fast for his little legs. We walk everyday together to and from school ( a good 30 minutes a day for him, an hour for me) On our trips we talk. It's when we do our best talking. It's the time when there are no domestic things calling out to be done, to distract us. Just us and our fine walking legs and our stories. I like that, even when it's too early. My best walks, though, are with all three of us. We set out with no particular place to go and just walk. And talk. Catching up because sometimes there isn't space to do it. And when we've done with walking, we find a cafe to sit down at and talk some more. By the time we get home we have usually made the world a better place, in our minds at least.
When I grow up I'm going to write a book
I have had an amazing life so far and one day I am going to write it. I know it's in me, somewhere. It's daunting and I get insecure and I procrastinate and put it off and make excuses and all the other things that people do to avoid doing something really big and scary. But I believe it's there…when I grow up.
And last, but definitely not least
I'd rather be having sex but that's between me and the love of my life.
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ok, i followed your walking ass up here, now you gotta give me a minute to get these shoes off and fix my dress (bfp preening)
ok, I should’ve KNOWN that i didn’t have to wear this damn thing!!!!!
I just knew that you’d be the type of person to insist we wear whatever we want!!!!
What an amazing list of stuff!!!!!!!!! First and foremost for me, even over SEX, I’d have to pick the amazing dinner with friends. god, talking and talking and talking and eating and dancing and singing….that’s everything my wet dreams are made of. I so get off on intellectual stimulation…I swear coming up against somebody who can push me intellectually through conversation is seriously like engaging in sex for me.
Sigh, i so wish that we could meet. maybe some day i’ll make it out there. Is greece near russia?? (haha, j/k). i’m gonna get to russia either this year or next, and it would be so cool to stop off and meet you!!!!!!!!!! (if russia wasn’t fourty million miles away from greece :>)
oh and girl, did you totally see gweneth’s outfit???(http://www.londonist.com/attachments/Jo/paltrow1.jpg) who does she think *she* is trying to go all goth and shit. um, wake up sweet heart, you’re, like, totally ms. martha stewart reborn!!!
Other than the gardening part (flowers wilt when they see me coming), the rest of your list is great. Your friends, husband and son are very lucky to have you in their lives. I really liked the walking and talking paragraph. I used to do that with my son when he was still unembarrassed enough to let his mom walk with him to school and now that he’s older, I really miss our little conversations we had to and from school. Your list was a great way to start my day. Thanks for sharing it with us.
oh, yes, i feel you girl (i’d rather do your 10 things than a lot of other things that i have to do in my routine).
but especially this one: “I’d rather be having sex”! hell yeah, any day or night.
I’m with BFP. It’s all about eating, talking and dancing. I have to say that I’m a damn good cook too. And believe it or not, I dance while I’m cooking! Yep, I turn the music up real loud and get my groove on while slicing vegetables. Talk about bliss!
Lots of good things to get into here - love the one about your kid being dragged around - sounds like my bunch, poor things. also the garden - never thought I would until I came to Spain and started growing my own veggies - love it though not really into growing flowers. music - absolutely numero uno - could not live wihtout it, the global language I love practically everything but heavy metal and pop - I limit on those two. playaing games was part of my childhood unfortunatley now can never get anyone to play with - ahhhhh my partner hates games, kids not interested, parents too old and anyway we all live all over the place. occationally friends come and i get to play some backgammon which is my faviourte other than quizzes - bloody hell this is turning into an epistle -sorry love your post - hope you keep being in love forever
I love walking and reading and eating too. Is the progressive revolution going to be seriously well-fed, well-read and walked all over the place? I’m good with that!
I have an indoor garden, but all my herbs go to my rabbit. Civilization has stolen too many hours of my life. It should come with a warning: addictive sticker.
And you’re so right about books-they aren’t just entertainment, they’re a lifeline.
Yeah, I’ll join any revolution based on walking, reading, and eating.
I loved your list and went, “Right on” with each and every one of them.
The first one made me think, “I really need to get a picnic on, now that the weather accomodates!”
I just wanted to say that you should really get a library card - after all, you can’t limit yourself to one James Baldwin novel just because you’re low on cash!!!!
You definitely can’t dance to heavy metal, unless you want some kind of neck condition.
Great list. And I am totally ready to read your book!
this is great, diva! and as much as i talk about sex, i have to agree with bfp that great conversation and dinner with friends is far more erotic. and just to let you know that you aren’t alone in dorkdom, i also love civ and age of empires (i’d also add rise of nations;). tho these days i never have time to play, cuz you know once you start then you can kiss the rest of the day goodbye.
MIGHT I SUGGEST A LIVE BLOG DINNER,
AT A CERTAIN TIME AND DATE,,
EVERYONE PARTRICIPATES FROM HIS P.C.
HAVING COOKED
AND DRINKING THEIR FAVORITE WINE OR OTHER
AND CONVERSING IN WRITTEN WORD ,,,,
PERHAPS ONE OF THE TOPICS
OF COMMON INTEREST WOULD BE THE EYROPEAN FORUM IN ATHENS..?
OR RECIPES WITH OREGANO AND LAMB..?
JUST AN IDEA………
== Z ==
About the reading. I can’t afford new books here in Italy either. So I take a bag of books I’ve read to various hotels and swap them for the books that clients leave behind. If you’re in Athens you could easily do it too!
A wonderful blog, Diva. You amuse, inspire, provoke thought….. what more could a girl ask for? More strength to your arm!
Thank you to everyone who has commented here. It really feels good to have shared this with you all and to have some wonderful words come back to me.
A live blog dinner, Zardoz! Great idea. I’ll see what I can come up with.