The Food Passport

So there’s this girl I’ve been in mutual ‘like’ with for over nine years now. We’re coming up on a decade of best friendship at the end of the summer. Her name is Renee and this past weekend she showered me with a delightful array of gifts. Among the compilation of graduation/birthday/Christmas treats was a little treasure she calls a Food Passport. This is one of the most thoughtful little gifts a friend has ever given me!

Renee and myself, (as well as our third musketeer- Claire), are foodies. That means we like food. And eating. And trying crazy things that are recommended for consumption. In fact, after receiving a degree in English, Renee went on to study at a culinary institute for a year to pursue her passion of pastries and baked goods. She just finished up an internship and we are so happy to have her back in Arkansas. The fact that she’s making us fat is a cross we’re willing to carry. Check out her Instagram: munchingonmangoes.

How can you say ‘no’ to food that smiles?

So, back to this Food Passport and why such a simple thing is so charming. It’s basically just a little cardboard book that’s set up with pages to write comments about restaurants we try. Renee hand-wrote, (a rarity in this day and age), names of trendy food places and drew boxes for me to rate them. There’s even stickers, guys!

If you know me, you know I post a lot of pictures of food on my Instagram: brilliantruth. So that’s the photography side of these food adventures. This little food diary will allow me to keep an intimate record of notes. I’ll be whipping it out Lieutenant Disher-style. So stoked!

I missed you, Harry

Over the past eight years (highschool/college), I’ve drifted away from reading for pleasure. It was a combination of having to study for school and the explosion of technology that veered me away from reading books in my free time. On holiday breaks, I sometimes tried. But more often than not I’d get about three chapters into a book and cast it aside to hang out with friends or to watch television. So many brain cells have sacrificed themselves for lazy afternoons of Grey’s Anatomy and HIMYM.

This past summer I decided to try again. For real, guys. No more school to “get in the way” and no social obligations. To put it short, I read a shuffle of: YAs (Young Adult), teen novels, and classic literature. But with the conclusion of each story, I felt the same. I felt empty. It’s not that I didn’t get anything out of them- but that I wasn’t deeply connected to the characters.

And then I realized, I’m not investing myself. And I wasn’t. I made a list of books to read and sped through them. As I was reading one of them, I was wondering what the next one would be about. I wasn’t taking time to get to know the characters. And if I was, I wasn’t bothering to remember details about the setting or plot. Realizing this, I ran back to square one: Harry Potter.

Harry Potter is my favorite series and it’s been years since I’ve read any of the books. I guess my passion for Harry Potter kind of faded away over the years too. I’m currently on The Goblet of Fire (book 4), and let me tell you- it’s been quite a refreshing adventure. Sure, I know what’s going to happen in the end. But this time I get to invest in the small details. I can observe all the underlying personality Harry has. And it’s been fun looking at Ron and Hermione’s relationship, knowing how perfect they are for each other!

And the best part? I am a writer now- learning to appreciate the beautiful symmetry of the series and how wonderful a writer J.K. Rowling is. I’m a little kid dreaming along with old friends I’ve known for years. But I’m taking the time to get to know them this time around. It’s a whole new direction and perspective. It’s living in the moment.

that first post

Whenever I decide to start a blog, I make the mistake of planning it out and giving it a theme right at the beginning. I choose what it will be about- usually a specific area of my life, a topic of interest, or something I think my audience will enjoy. I’ve tried to keep up a variety of blogs- from one on artistic pictures, to poetry, to finances and eating healthy. And then there’s all those blogs that are basically just rants about life. Remember the early 2000’s? You know, when we thought it was so cool to post online journals? Yeah, there was no revision. Enough said.

Now it’s time for the cliché sentence-
I’m going to make this blog different.

What you read here will be edited-to an extent. Now I don’t like to think of the word ‘edited’ as a synonym for ‘censored.’ In today’s world, I think of it as “I care about what I’m writing and actually want to make my work presentable, in a manner that I am proud to claim.”

The internet has become an open place where we can express ourselves and share our lives with one another. What’s funny is that we can show what we want more, yet we tend to filter ourselves with this new gift of technology. We tend to only present what we like about ourselves (with some exceptions). We post about what we’re passionate about. Some of us try to get a message across to others and some people just don’t care about how they carry themselves.

I could go on and on with this post. I am a writer, afterall. That means I like to write a lot. About everything. Everything that comes into my mind. I could write about it. No lie. Not saying it’d be anything brilliant, but it can be done!

So this blog is going to be just that. No predictions. You’ll get a better feel for my writing style and personality as life goes on. I hope you’re a reader.

Readers and writers make beautiful friends.