Too Much With Me

Escapism.  Not a new concept for me, as one could argue I've practiced it all my life, being a major bookworm since about age four.  Still, I've never ever felt guilty for reading too much -- maybe a little bit, when I knew I was avoiding homework in high school or college. But lately, I've been spending a lot of time out here on the internet. A. Lot. of. Time. On. The. Internet.  Doing what? 

Looking at pretty pictures, mostly.  I'm pretty addicted to a lot of design and decor blogs, all the famous ones, and some obscure ones, too. Every day, doses and doses of photos of lovely homes and knick-knacks and cute art prints and on and on.  I read "narrative" blogs too, blogs of women, mostly, just struggling with and documenting the everyday, a lot like I do here.  When I can be bothered to actually type up a post for y'all.   Oh, and don't forget Facebook. But good lord, let's not even go there right now. 

Another of my escapist hobbies is watching House Hunters on HGTV. I've been watching it for what feels like forever, and I miss host Suzanne Wong a bunch and wonder where she went, but I still tape it on my DVR.  I skip just about every single reality show out there, and don't feel any loss, but damn I would miss my House Hunters, if it ever went away. .  Last night's episode was a House Hunters International, with a family who lives on tiny Harbour Island in the Bahamas, needing to upgrade to slightly bigger home.  

Their budge was a million dollars, and let me say, a million won't get you much on Harbour Island. Except, of course, a home and life on Harbour Island.  You can picture it right? The palm trees, the sea, the charming pastel cottages in every Easter egg color imaginable.  Anyway, this family had 4 children, 3 at home, and the wife was just so warm and lovely and had such a cool, clipped accent. She reminded me of a curvier Sonia Braga. Remember her? Sort of Latin and warm and effortlessly sensual and sexy. 

And it occured to me, curled up on my sectional: this woman? This woman is not spinning away the hours of her life in front of the internet.   I'm not sure just what one does to fill up the hours and days of life in the Bahamas, but trolling for decor porn is probably not it.  

All of which is to say, I'm hitting a bit of  sensory overload these days.  The world is too much with me, to parapharse old Wordsworth:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not......

So, this long Memorial weekend, I have plans. We have plans, as a family. To visit family, see friends, maybe see the ocean.  In between, I have plans to not be sitting here, before my monitor, looking, looking, looking for some version of the life I want to live.


I want to be out there, living it.  So, enjoy your own weekend. Mine starts tomorrow, because of a teacher furlough day in our district. Me and the 2nd grader have plans to go here.


So peace out and enjoy these lovely Bahamas pics.
And don't forget to stop and smell the hibiscus.