A Fine Line

As a writer its natural that I should feel inclined to use this blog thing here as a sounding board for whatever issues are dominating my thoughts on a particular day. Blogging is great for the opportunity it gives me to turn ideas over in my mind and share them with my loved ones who regularly read whatever it is I have to say. As evidenced by the material I have posted over the past couple of years, the range of issues I post about varies. What began as an exercise in examining mass media representations of gender identities has clearly morphed into a hodge-podge of intellectual and emotional goods. But saying that Hey Pretty has adopted an "anything goes" approach to reporting would be a clear misrepresentation . I thought it might be useful to explain my process here for a second. Every entry of Hey Pretty is drafted in an empty email in Outlook during spare minutes of my day. A typical post takes several hours to write, as I tend to blurt everything in my head at out once, and then return to it sporadically to refine the message, and more importantly carefully edit certain pieces of information out when I feel that I have gone too far. In the case of posts that describe situations involving other people, I have grown somewhat apprehensive about reporting at all. The possibility of violating anyone's privacy or confidence in in me hurts beyond words, and the posts that do involve others, especially romantic ones, are the most agonizing of all. As regular readers know, I never go so far as to call specific people out on anything and only those who know me well ever really know the specific players referred to in my entries. But for those in the know, it's all there. Writing in all forms is, and has always been, a huge part of my life. When I'm not doing it everything feels off and highly unsatisfying. Because I lack the discipline to start a novel or the great ideas to pen a work of non-fiction, blogging is my attempt to satisfy the immediate, every day urges that drive me to write. I also like to think that in the future, reading old entries will be an interesting glimpse into a younger version of myself, much in the way that reading old junior high diaries are for me today. Its reassuring to have a record of where you've been and how far you've come. It's also a way for me to express thoughts that I might not have the courage to share out loud--as open as I pride myself on being, there's often a line that can be easily tripped over if you're not careful. Certain situations, those defined by emotional intimacy are too sacred to be discussed, so if it seems like I drop the ball on certain topics (as I am about to) its simply out of respect for other individuals.

Having said all that, it's time for a nice innocuous Friday morning post about nothing at all, a list of reasons to be happy today:

-A nice long weekend is on the horizon, and I have fun activities to look forward to
-Men in button down shirts and shorts
-The lunch I am about to have with coworkers because margaritas might be involved
-A certain Italian restaurant with mint green walls
-Bar golf tomorrow and the prospect of buying something hideously preppy to wear. I'm considering the idea of making people call me Muffy all night. If it's not rainy, I'm blowing my hair out straight for the ultimate country club bitch look
-Dr. Dremos tonight!
-I have yet to read the paper today and am blissfully ignorant of current events
-The fact that EJ coined the term "pride and prejudice moments" a while back, and the more I think about it, the more I adore it and seriously hope she someday writes a chick-lit book and includes that phrase.

and many more as I think of them, some of which I will even share with you, others I will oh-so-mysteriously keep to myself.