I Dedicate This Award To...

I've been incredibly absent because... work has been hectic, my other is back on the scene after being away for a couple of months, I finally made it out of the city to see my best friend and I'm moving more or less on Friday.

I got a blog award?! Well, a somewhat informal one. But nonetheless... have you SEEN this thing I've been calling a blog? Colorless and difficult to navigate and prone to typos and extended diatribes. Motivation to improve it.

Anyways. Here are seven things I like (and what I read, none of which I anticipate will know about or feel the need to meme on)...

(1) Monocle magazine. The podcasts are decent, too, but the print version is an intellectual vacation. The style points of Dwell meets National Geographic and just enough Economist-style coverage for a Saturday perusal. And, oh, the fashion spreads. My goodness. It's also printed on a matte/glossy mix and the perfect size.

(2) The smell of wax in the morning.

(3) Scars. I have a couple of wicked scars from a life well lived and think they're hot (they're not disfiguring, just character marks). I would never get them 'fixed.'

(4) Wool blend suits. It's a hallmark people can't quite place; I like how they hang and how they make me feel when I walk into a room. Down with polyester, I say!

(5) Trains. Train travel is, in my opinion, vastly underrated. And it lets me indulge all relevant Before Sunrise fantasies.

(6) People. I'm really picky about friends but I genuinely enjoy getting to know people, their stories, how they think about things, what they like. I like being in places where there's a constant flow of new people.

(7) Yoga. I've done yoga everywhere I've gone and I'm always amazed at how I can learn something new from every teacher I've met about something that seems so simple. My practice is fairly intermittent so I'm not exactly going to do any asanas that will blow any minds.

And here's what I read on the daily, beyond Brunette on a Budget, which is so well written I sometimes have questions. Can Brunette really exist!? Can there really be a Holly Golightly who doesn't rely on powder room stipends? Do non-Italians really get married in Italy?

Anyways.

(a) The Frugal Bachelor - currently there's some kind of transition going on but some of the archives are brilliant - justifying smaller sizes instead of bulk, for example. His morals may be dubious, at times, but at least they're consistent and honest.

(b) Vagablogging - Rolf Potts is kind of the man.

(c) Krystal At Work - the frequency is the substance and it allows a kind of evaluation most people wouldn't be comfortable with. It's like having a friend who will genuinely disclose all her financial choices. And I like her distinctly WestCoast Canadian lifestyle.

(d) Rainy Saturday - has no particular blog theme but the variety is entertaining and the writing is funny enough to be a good mid day diversion. And her musings about the Mac Snack Wrap actually got me to go eat one, which says something. East Coast!

(e) Not updated in forever, but Daily Routines is super fascinating - how, exactly, do successful people work?

(f) Matador Blogs - although sometimes veering dangerously towards being too conventional, still the best source for the under forty set for travel philosophy and advice.

(g) Third World Cash - one of the most useful things in getting some perspective on personal finance is to step outside the context you operate in, even slightly. TWC is young, female and successful - but living in a place where personal finance is sometimes radically different.