Blog Love

So just after Day 26 of my 30 Days of Fun, this appeared in my mailbox.

But I am getting ahead of myself. This is actually what appeared in my mailbox.

The sender is someone I met when I spoke to a marketing class at Columbia International University a couple of years ago. She followed my advice: Don't be afraid to reach out to someone you respect if you are looking for advice. People are generally nice and happy to help. And we've stayed in touch.

Here's what I found inside, along with a note.

Thank you, Sarah Jane Gibson. I love this so much. It's proof that when kindness comes back to you, it is multiplied.

30 Days of Fun was inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Thirty!!!

I have been surprised at the difference it made in my already pretty incredible life to be committed to fun for 30 days. It's like the effect of carrying a camera; suddenly, you look at the world differently. You become aware of what is beautiful at this very moment, in this very place. You look for detail you might have passed by.

My promise to myself at the beginning of this exercise was to actually add fun to my life, rather than looking back over my day and pronouncing something fun. It was remarkably easy. Why not take the blue convertible to lunch, and ride with the top down? Why not stop and swing? Why not dance in the parking lot, just because you have on a skirt that twirls? Why not choose to wear that skirt?

I thank you for taking this journey with me and hope you will be inspired to add a little more fun to your life. If you do and decide to document it with photos or emails or status updates, please let me know! I would love to tag along, if only digitally.

And come on along with me on my next adventure. My daughter is going off to college, and I'm thinking it's a great time to fill my life with interesting.

Won't you join me?

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Nine

It was a regular day at work. Then Kevin said: Let's go out for lunch. So I said: Let's take your car!

Kevin drove 'round to pick me up.

It's fun to ride in a blue convertible—

'specially when you want to take pictures.

See?

We crossed the Congaree River.

We drove past the SC State House,

And the graveyard at Trinity Episcopal.

Kevin stopped me by Kicks, where they are having a sale.

Then on to lunch at Virtu. It was yummy.

We eventually made it back to the WECO, and work.

Happy for a sunny Day 29

in a blue convertible.

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Eight

I am a saver.

I don't say that with pride because I save ridiculous things. Like new clothes, that hang in my closet, tags on, waiting for an occasion worthy of a spectacular new outfit. They reside there so long the season comes and goes, and the joy of wearing the new thing loses all its sparkle before ever making its public debut.

(I have always admired my daughter, who from the age of three would proudly wear any new purchase right on up to the cash register and then out into the world. Snow boots in summer, party dress on a random Tuesday afternoon, Cinderella gown and tiara just for the ride home, if not the entire evening).

I save food. In my pantry, you'll find special spice combinations and chef-inspired appetizer makings and very special Christmas offerings that live there until I throw them out, two years past their eat by dates.

And so tonight, when I retrieved my brand spanking new Martha Stewart Living magazine/September issue from the pile of mail on the counter, I fixed myself a cool beverage (in a crystal highball glass rather than the plastic tumbler I would have used, just because it seemed more fun) and headed to the screen porch for a full, indulgent reading. On the very day it arrived.

Allow me to say this. Magazines are a particular burden, with the penchant for saving that I have. They arrive, all seven I subscribe to, only to get piled on the coffee table for a week or two, then moved under it as newer ones arrive. Weeks pass, and I dig through the pile to find the oldest one (wouldn't want to get out of order!) and start to read. Never mind that I'm learning about new pumpkin carving techniques in May; I will not throw out one I haven't read or go out of order. (They may one day write an obituary about me, "the crazy lady who was smothered under a pile of magazines she hadn't read but couldn't throw out.")

So reading the September issue of Living on August 9th was a bit wild for me. But this is what I learned:

1. I can pot cuttings from my coleus and geraniums to keep as houseplants throughout the winter. Who knew?
2. Now is a good time to edit my summer pictures, printing the ones that are scrapbook-worthy. Good idea, particularly for the very organized among us. (ahem)
3. I think I will actually cut some herbs from my garden and dry them. To accomplish, just wrap kitchen twine around the stems, then hang them upside down in a cool, dry place for four to 10 days.
4. I think this interlocking monogram is swell. 
5. As much as I love mango, and creme brulee, and lime, (albeit individually), this dish is right up my alley. (Dang, I can't share it since there is no digital link. Guess you'll have to read your own September issue.)

Following this reading of the current issue of Living, my September promises to be filled with interesting things to do. Maybe that will be my next 30 Days experiment?

Thanks, Martha!

getting ready for a delightful (and timely!) session with the September issue

lightening actually strikes, and the september issue and i move inside

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Seven

Here's what I did NOT do on this 27th day:

still on the bathroom floor

Unpack from my weekend at the beach.

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Six

I go shopping for back-to-school supplies every year.

For me.

There's something I love about the promise of an empty notebook. Is it the new beginning? The clean slate? Or simply the anticipation of all that will be discovered and recorded there?

Needless to say, I have notebooks and journals stacked on bookshelves throughout my house. They're lined up on shelves and hidden behind cabinet doors; they're piled under tables and stacked, in not-so-tidy rows, on the shelves beside my bed.

little birdies

Tonight I took my college freshman to Target to fill an endless shopping list. It took about 30 seconds for me to get sidetracked among this year's new notebook crop.

Which would come home with me?

journal trio

great things would surely come

black and white and beautiful

classic with a color twist

And just for fun: a pencil box! 

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Five

Today I played in the sand and surf

with my niece, Angela.

We tried to build a sand castle.

But mostly,

we just ran around.

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Four

We left for Sarasota via Charlotte late Thursday night, off to meet my new nephew, Baby John Monetti. 

The promise of a fresh Grouper sandwich for Friday lunch brought us to the old fishing village of Cortez, and the Star Fish Co.

I knew it was going to be good as soon as I saw this in the parking lot.

Since it was technically a work day, we had to toast to our good fortune and location.

And the grouper sandwich, oh, my!

The fish was caught in these waters,

and cleaned here.

I think this is going to be a fun weekend.

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Three

A lovely dinner is what we had in mind, we three friends with so much catching up to do. But since the elegant restaurant we considered could be a little quiet, and since this was Day Twenty-Three, we opted, instead, for Mojitos Tropical Cafe.

Over cuban black beans and rice, we talked of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Mary Oliver and the Poetry Foundation. We considered the works of Hemingway and the personality of Zelda Fitzgerald. We made a commitment to read more, write more, gather more.

This sentence was spoken, I swear:

"I had this friend in college who would drink too much then call me and read Gertrude Stein."

I drove home thinking: It's lovely to be 51, to talk about something other than boyfriends or children, to enjoy classic literature that no one is making you read, to look forward to the poem of the day simply because it brings joy to your life.

In fact, it's not just lovely. It's fun.

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-Two, v.2

I rarely hear from my hometown friend Mike Gilliam, but when I do, it's always something worth it.

Today it was a "short imagined monologue" on Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency. After much consideration, I have decided not to provide the exact link here, because it is just…so…colorful. But oh is it funny. I laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

Of course, I then had to wander around McSweeney's for a while and came upon Answers to All of Life's Questions. Also priceless, and much less likely to offend.

I'm ending Day Twenty-Two with a commitment to write and submit to McSweeney's. I've identified my topic, and I've got a good start on the post. I'll tell you about it here before our 30 Days is done.

Until next time, my friends. Go out and laugh big!

Editor's Note: If you want the exact link to the very funny, very offensive short imagined monologue, shoot me an email to cathy@riggspartners.com. 

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty-One

Been watching The Bachelorette season finale (I hate this show. Seriously.), eating Doritos (from the bag!), and giggling at this photo, which just made me LOL (thank you lillyslife.com).

It's funny what a mother will do to spend time with her daughter :)


30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Twenty

Today, I stopped to smell the daisies.

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl. 

30 Days of Fun: Day Nineteen

1. Laundry, seven loads
2. Tons of my child is heading to college in 20 days paperwork
3. An out of control closet (Why is it that one little indiscretion—leaving a pair of brown pants on the closet floor because they really didn't work with that white eyelit top after all—leads to, one week later—complete closet chaos?)
4. A rose garden that knows you have really just given up
5. Menu planning, grocery shopping and (at a minimum) prep work for Sunday lunch for eight
6. Chapter Six bible study (haven't started chapter one)
7. Three thank-you notes
8. Ironing, endless
9. Stuff growing in the fridge. Seriously.
10. Time to read!

All abandoned, for an afternoon floating in our neighbors' new pool.
All because I thought: Floating carefree in a pool sounds like fun. And my sweet Eliza will be there :)

(And so will Sully!)

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Eighteen

So last night, in the dark, I caught my little toe on the edge of a chair. Yowza, it hurt. And it has continued to hurt. Seems I tore a ligament and that has sidelined me for the night simply because it is too painful to walk.

Always one to make the most of every situation, my husband made me this:

And we settled in to watch a movie. That made for a fun Friday night after all.

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.

30 Days of Fun: Day Seventeen

I built an entire outfit around these shoes, just because I think they're fun!

30 Days of Fun is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Mighty Girl.