Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter. I am a married woman! Plus, my mom and my sister-in-law (not to mention my sexiest-man-alive husband *sheepish grin*) read this blog so…as IF. Anyway on to the real post…
I can’t explain it but there is something about certain writers that resonates deep down in my soul. Sometimes I feel so connected to what they are saying that I think we must have known each other somehow, somewhere.
I have always loved to read. There were times in what would in today’s day be called my "tween" years that I struggled to find an author I connected with. I had moved beyond Anne of Green Gables and Nancy Drew and felt a bit foolish reading Are You There God It’s Me Margaret. However, when I was 11 and I picked up Wifey even I knew (although I would never have admitted it) that I wasn’t ready for this grown-up stuff. But, for the most part, I always had at least one book on the go. And now, for the most part, I still do.
When I was in University getting my degree in English I was a total book snob. I read Shakespeare (wait a minute! Twelfth Night is only rated 3 leaves on Indigo.ca?? what fools are reviewing these things?!) and Chaucer but my love was for Canadian women’s literature. My Auntie Helen (also known as Margaret Clarke) was an author and I read her books with great pride and curiosity. I read EVERYTHING by Margaret Atwood who wrote my favourite book of all time, The Handmaid’s Tale (and don’t say "oh, I saw the movie and it sucked" because you are right…it did…but read that book and try and tell me that woman was not a genius or a soothsayer or something).
But now I am not so picky. Or maybe I am just more open to the wonderful things reading can bring. Sometimes I just need to escape. I need something smooth and character driven like Maeve Binchy or Diana Gabaldon (and a little bit o’ nooky don’t hurt neither). Or something thought provoking like Contact (LOVED THIS BOOK. Again, the movie does not come close), Andromeda Strain, or The Red Tent. Or something emotional…let’s face it, sometimes I just need a good cry. Recently I have read The Glass Castle and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Both intensely emotional.
But on the day to day what really keeps me reading are my favourite blogs. Yes, I think of them as mine. I am very protective of the blogs I love and I love them for very different reasons. First of all, of course, are my urbanmoms.ca blogs. But also there is this: Sweet and Salty is written by an east coast blogger whose life is both tragic and uplifting. Her writing touches my soul and keeps me coming back to lurk on a regular basis. I never feel quite smart or cool enough to comment…being just lil ol’ me after all., but I read faithfully. I love to read and there is something that simply feeds my soul when I find a writer I connect with. Here is an excerpt from a post at Sweet and Salty that really hit home. With humour and insight she communicates what all of us must feel from time to time and I feel that we are in this together:
ten months to the day
For sale, cheap: One 3 year-old boy, not housebroken. Special this week only: 25% off due to argumentative defects. Does not come when called. Talks back. Does not eat. Refuses to blow nose, preferring instead to snort snot into the back of his throat at least fifteen times per minute. Smells like crotch. Whines incessantly. Ability to vomit at will.
Also this week: 75% off one worn out, ineffective, unwashed, self-loathing, androgynous half-woman, half-rottweiler blend. Comes with door-slamming prowess, relentless abdominal pooch and complimentary nightmares.
+++++++
PLEASE BE NOTIFIED the fire sale of aformentioned small boy and growling she-dog has been retracted due to temporary relief as provided by: 1) one medicinal ‘It-Was-Staring-At-Me-Longingly-When-I-Opened-The-Fridge- Seeking-Carrot-Sticks’ Sleeman’s Honey Lager; 2) two hours of comfortably toddler-numbing SellMySoul-o-vision; and 3) one hour-long “family adventure” on sheets of near-rink ice in a torrential freezing rain downpour.
Duly noted: therapeutic alcohol WORKS.
Ingenious.
It’s very good, I like it. Thanks very much.
The women cultivate a taste for the best in the world of fashion, try several brands and then decide their favorites. Have the majority of women in the Gucci Replica Knockoffs Fake Handbags as a must in your closet. Gucci is a brand that is loved there actually an elegant and fascinating world of being famous and. Women love the feeling in a position to live like a rock star, even if the reality be something else. Surely it can not be a ball in the dreams of security. What is the lesion of the nerve to want to be part of a small group. You know, you have become. You have the education, intelligence, air and social winds. What’s not green men exercised, and you have to fall within the lines. You are strong and can not take the way of your success. Today’s women had to work very hard to be where they are and not leave anything to pull them down.
Reading, I love reading. Nothing beats 15 minutes (or more if you can find it!) of your own time to read a good book, blog or magazine article. When my son was a baby I read him whatever I was reading before bed because it was the only time I got to read and he just seemed to like to hear my voice! Now of course we read storybooks – and he is book-lover too!
Sweet and Salty is worth every minute. The first time I read her blog, I went back and read two or three months worth.
Hey Jen,
thank you for bringing Sweet:Salt to my attention. What a gift.
Amazing writing style, profound meaninful experiences, funny, and touches me in a way that is so visceral, I feel like she is a long lost friend from a past life.
I too am an Atwood fan, I love The Robber Bride. It killed my soul when they turned it into a TV movie. (Only barely exaggerating).
She was at my convocation ceremony unless I dreamed it back in 1995.
grateful for learning about another great Canadian female writer, Kate of Sweet:Salty.
Awesome.
Idas
she’s amazing. really. her posts are so well-written and she’s FUNNY. so FUNNY.
I have read Handmaid’s Tale a few times since HS, I love that book! I went to Sweet/Salty’s site – thanks, another mother’s blog to I am now addicted to. All you blogging moms – thanks…for letting me know I’m not alone but even more, for making me a better mom. The only problem is I do less work & less work now because I’m too busy reading.
Hilarious! Brilliant! I loved that excerpt (AND The Handmaid’s Tale, too, incidentally). Have you read Oryx and Crake yet? Also a frighteningly possible post-apocalyptic tale. More genetic engineering/global warming disaster than right-wing religious fanatics/global infertility disaster though. Still, I give Atwood credit for predicting the debit card way back in ’85.
Anyway, thanks for the peek at Sweet:Salty. There are so many great blogs out there; I love to find new ones. Just one question…does your tip come with an extra hour in the day for reading them? 😉
AMEN to the MANY thereputic benefits of alcohol when consumed by a responsible but yet slightly delerious woman who feels twice her age…
We should all be so lucky to have the gift this author does. To be able to step back, look at what can be a frustrating and overwhelming life, and find humor in it is wonderful; even more so if she can share it with the rest of us poor shlubs!
Thank you for including this excerpt in your post this week!