I’m Amanda. I’ve got wide eyes, a smart mouth, and a MetroCard. And I’m not afraid to use them.
Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?
This isn’t really a problem for me. I’m naturally a curious person who gets excited about one thing and then creates a course of study.
Years ago, I became really interested in midwifery after seeing The Business of Being Born. Yes, I watched Ricki Lake give birth in a bathtub. I even went to the director Q&A.
My Hunch blog post for today is all about Santa.
I think he’s creepy as hell, and I’m not alone.
What do you think? Gimme some comment love at Hunch please.
Oh.
And ho ho ho.
Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
I write on a computer with Internet access. Even Jonathan Franzen struggles with this. He said, “It’s doubtful that anyone with an Internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”
I can eliminate it, but then I might miss out on some breaking tweets and shoes sales.
Seriously, though, the Internet and I need to spend more time apart. Absence makes the art go stronger.
One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
There are many synonyms for the general feeling I’ve had in 2010. But turmoil is a bit strong. Upheaval is putting it lightly. Some choice phrases are too long.
So I choose trial.
Around this time each year, I start getting reflective and trying to put all the pieces together to figure out what the hell just happened. I need some sort of completed puzzle in order to prepare for 2011.
Enter Reverb 10, one of those meme-like blogging ideas that I both adore and abhor. I adore it, because it’s an assignment. Frankly, I need assignments these days to write for free. I also like some of the topics, particularly the ones that ask for responses people wouldn’t naturally share.
I abhor that many responses start sounding the same, making something that should be unique - in voice, if not in content - indistinguishable from what thousands of other people have written. Also: treacle.
The I-don’t-care-about-Christmas advent calendar has been a great success. I’m still making a list and checking it twice. I should make fun stuff a priority more often.
1. Put up tiny Christmas tree in less than 10 minutes - I used a brooch for the star on top.
2. See Tiny Furniture at IFC Center - Warning to Buffy: There’s a brief, awkward sex scene that’ll make your kids cringe!
3. Celebrate Jim’s birthday
4. Groove to Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas,” the one good Christmas song
5. Write my New Year’s resolutions
6. Eat pastrami croissants at Momofuku Milk Bar - Went over there, and they didn’t have any. Ugh.
7. Make sugared cranberries
I’m hard at work on my I-don’t-care-about-Christmas advent calendar. And you know, getting through the month.
Last weekend, I went to a roller disco, saw Tiny Furniture, made sugared cranberries, and accompanied some friends to my favorite ramen place. I slept late Saturday and Sunday, too.
It’s fun crossing anything off a list, but this advent calendar idea is just what I needed.
And here’s some good stuff for you:
I’ve always loved to sing in acoustically-pleasing bathrooms. So much so that I once got busted belting out showtunes at a Taco Bell.
Immediately after, I stopped listening to musical theater and started eschewing Mexican fast food, except when on road trips in suburbia. Cause then it’s an extenuating circumstance, esé.
Ellen Degeneres’ Bathroom Concert Series is brilliant. Awesomely how-did-I-just-discover-this? brilliant. Her performance with Jennifer Hudson has got to be the best.
Now I love me some design blogs. They’re pornographic, except the thread counts are higher and the carpets always complement, if not match, the drapes. They always make me feel like my design life isn’t all that exciting compared to theirs. Design blogs might even be a little more staged than porn. But you get my point.
I also read a few blogs about child rearing. I won’t call these mommy blogs, as I think that term is very limiting. The bloggers I read do write about their children, but they also write about other endeavors that didn’t involve a uterus.
One of the bloggers I read is hands-down one of the most adorable people to ever show the Internet how adorable she is. I actually read many blogs like this, and they make me feel so serious and curt and well, unadorable. I can’t get enough of them.
Anyway, both types of blogs are obsessing over Yuletide decor these days. I may be suckered into making newspaper taxidermy, but I can’t bring myself to care about Christmas table runners.
Except I want to make an advent calendar, too. It’s like a to-do list of festivities.
Mind you, I’m not going to include caroling or anything involved a garland. But I’m trying to come up with 25 things to do to celebrate December. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
