Toni Morrison, foxes, and the Appalachian Trail

10 MARVELOUS THINGS: I wish there was a web site or an app or a one million foot tall blackboard on which people could make a list of the 10 things they’re most in love with about life right now ( besides their friends and family, of course).  Maybe this does already exist?  I feel like the things we find totally enchanting are often floating around us in the intangible space of thought, conversation and daydreams, and buying gifts is an attempt to grasp at those intangible ideas. But if I knew how much you secretly love Oprah, I could buy you a subscription to her magazine. If I knew you were obsessed with Fudge Rounds, I could buy you a year supply. We all know they wouldn’t go bad. Make me your list of 10 things. Here are mine right now.

1.  Thinking about hiking on the Appalachian Trail (which I’ve been on) and the Banana Pancake Trail (which I haven’t). And Nora in a baby backpack.
2. Toni Morrison
3. Coffee
4. Foxes; I know, this makes me sound like an 8-year-old
5. The Tallest Man on Earth (again, he’s just so poetic)
6. Personal thank you notes; a really good one is better than a gift
7. “The Fault in Our Stars” — the author of this book is my current YA obsession; he’s especially good on audio
8. Rivers (in books, under roads, along hiking trails)
9. Baking cakes (or the idea of baking cakes,  especially looking at pictures in “The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook”, thanks Ann Marie!)
10. When people I know (or even only sort of know, or strangers, really) are pregnant or have a new baby. I never cared about babies before. Now I love babies. And I especially love hearing new baby names. Congratulations to Lana (who I’m sure doesn’t have time to read this), my most recent friend to have a baby. Elliot is so beautiful!

IF I MADE A REALITY SHOW IT WOULD BE CALLED “WALKING”: It would be on all the time, like “House Hunters” or “Diners” (yes, Erin, it is always on); maybe it would even have its own channel. And it would just be a guy or a girl hiking. They wouldn’t necessarily be experienced, but they’d just walk around and talk about what they were seeing and thinking. I think there would probably be a rotating cast of regulars and some new people every once in a while. Maybe they’d spend like 40 minutes trying to make a fire with a piece of flint and fail. Or they’d make mac and cheese on a camp stove. Maybe they’d sing Christmas songs for three hours straight to scare away bears while … walking. Maybe they’d see a fox. I’d have it on whenever I’m home. Nora, Ryan and I go hiking all the time when it’s nice out, but now that it’s December our outdoor time is mostly at the Rainforst exhibit at the zoo. Can someone make this for me? Check out Ryan chilling out on a trail in North Carolina.

CLEMENTINES: She has a whole blog of her own, but she still gets her own section here because she goes everywhere I go, and she is my favorite little human. She loves eating her socks, looking at fish in aquariums, reading books, saying da-da-da-da-da, when people hide and she finds them, and eating bananas. She does not like peas, putting on her coat, or when the dog walks away.