Faux-pair dreams

I spent a glorious week in Telluride, playing music for smart people, soaking in new ideas, brainstorming, laughing and meeting so many smart new friends. It was peak week in that part of the mountains, so the aspens were golden sparkles everywhere. Riding above them in a private gondola was pure magic.

I first visited Telluride three weeks after my mom died. This visit was three months after my dad died. More than just escape that drew me to the mountains both times, the trip was family-seeking. Technically there's no family in Telluride, but some of my absolutely favorite people in the world live there: the family I used to nanny for.

"Nanny" is the wrong word because it was less an employee/employer situation (and also, I worked a full-time job at CBS News while I lived there, so I wasn't babysitting 40 hours a week or anything) and more of an au pair -- or faux pair! -- situation.

Twenty years later, I fell right back into my role, not in Brooklyn, but at their mountain home. I walked dogs, lent a hand, hung out with the kids (who are all grown up now and so smart and delightful and fabulous that I want to boast on them as if they were my own sweet ones!) and had coffee and got book recommendations from my ... host mom? Friend? Chosen family?!

Morning walk with sweet pups.

It was really nice. It was nice to remember that there are people in the world you can go years with out seeing, but you can fall back into place as friends or family as if not a day had passed. You can have real talks and share real feelings with people who are just, well, real.

Seeing my fauxpair family made me realize what a special connection I had and how much I wish for my kids to have someone they can visit with as they grow.

I'll be looking for new childcare come March (our wonderful au pair's visa will be up, and she'll be off to new adventures), and I wish I could have a clone of what I was to my Telluride family. Someone to live with us, to co-parent and to love on the kids, but who also has a life of their own. Someone who wants to be part of our family and who will pick pumpkins with us and hang out just because.

I keep thinking that surely there is some Bellarmine student who wants to live close to the university, but can't afford a room. A Lakeside staffer who wants to move our of their parents' home, but can't afford an apartment yet?

The barter system is a beautiful thing! I had a free room in NYC in exchange for babysitting. It was win-win-win: for me, the parents and the kids, too! I'm back to daydreaming of that kind of magic.

Louisville: SHOW ON SUNDAY, October 20. Early show, with Luke Powers. at Odeon. Doors at 5pm
Music 6 to 8pm
Tickets $10 at the Door Food truck will be outside, and you can bring your food in and SIT DOWN in the listening room and eat and enjoy the show.

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Aaron Burr, SIR! I cheesed a little asking for
a selfie with Brandon Victor Dixon. #hamilton

Cast iron and home cookin'

I have gone a little crazy and am throwing away anything resembling non-stick or Teflon or waterproof or basic disgusting carcinogenic chemicals in our house. I know, I know -- we've all known about it for years, but it apparently takes seeing your dad's eye turn inside out and spontaneously bleed before you decide maybe teflon isn't the best idea.

I'm slowly replacing everything with Le Creuset and Staub, but here's my exception:

I can't find the exact online like, but it's similar to this one. Just cook it on LOW HEAT AND IT WON'T STICK!



Have y'all seen the trailer for this movie? Because I suspect it's gonna make ALL of y'all throw out your Teflon:

Wherein I accidentally read 3 pornos this week

Thing I just googled: porn vs erotica vs romance.

My kindle suggested this free novel to me a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, "Sure, that looks cool. I need a nice escapist book. This one is called The Scotch King, and the cover has a crown on it. Must be some historical fiction about whisky and royalty."

I opened it and wow did I get a surprise because the book is total, like, Fifty Shades fan fiction (maybe? I don't really know my fan fiction terminology) and is just a lot of sex scenes with a story woven through. I have nothing against sex scenes, but these were definitely the most saucy and graphic ones I've ever read. I was a little embarrassed, so of course rather than stopping reading it (I mean, I really need fast-reads so I can beat my dad in our GoodReads Challenge this year, and I have a leg up on him now that he's dead), I just decided to tweet to the universe that I was reading porn.

Then I felt kind of guilty because porn has a negative connotation (though I don't think it should -- but I'm also not up on the ideology and academic arguments that support it), so I wondered if it was erotica instead. I'm still really confused, but trying not to think about it.

I never made it through Fifty Shades (i read the first, but not the others), but I did manage to finish all three of the Scotch Series, actually not even realizing it was a trilogy until I got to the third book. My Kindle had sent me the whole series as a group.

Anyway, that was my first experience reading really graphic, um, romance novels? And I had some observations.

1. I am a total sucker for plot. I really somehow needed to know what happened to these characters.
2. I didn't actually enjoy the sex scenes and kinda skimmed them for a while.
3. I went back and re-read them because I wondered if, now that both my parents are dead, maybe I could have a future writing really dirty romance novels? It seems like they are pretty thin on plot and maybe don't take a lot of time to write.
4. I will, in fact, read anything that is set in Scotland. Anything.
5. I have now, for sure, screwed up my targeted Kindle advertising, but ...
6. I am going to DESTROY my GoodReads Challenge this year, even though I started very far behind.

What are you reading this week?