A Year in High Heels

A few weeks ago I went to the library. I had intended only top pick up a copy of The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion (a very good, and large book if you enjoy baking). However, as usual, my persual of the rest of the non fiction section yeilded a good number of other books. Amongst them, A Year in High Heels by Camilla Morton: The Girl’s Guide to Everthing from Jane Austen to the A-list.

The title got me, despite the fact that I’m not a girl anymore (35 going on 36 is definitely woman territory) and I rare wear high heels. Flipping through the book, I realized very quickly that this book is intended to serve as a bit of guidebook through the year, not all that different from some gardening books I’ve bought that recommend what to do with the lawn each month. And like those gardening books, I had picked this one up in the dead of winter – the season where one is supposed to be resting, not digging up dirt. Starting in December hardly seemed like the thing, especially because the book began in January. So I did the only sensible thing – I returned the book to the library, and bought a used copy online to begin fresh with the start of the new year, and the beginning of the book.

And that brings us here. This blog. A thing that I had considered and I remember often dreaming about when I was a teenager. Which incidentally is around when this book was being written and published. It was 2008, my final year of high school, and nearly half my lifetime ago. And I had no idea what I was going to do with myself or what I was going to make of my life. Reviewing, and attempting to keep up with this book certainly wasn’t it. But, here we are. I’ve paid the nearly $30 for the personal WordPress plan and catchy domain name for the year, so we’re in it.

January Postcard

Each month begins with a postcard. January’s is from Paul Smith. I’m not at all surprised that I had no idea who this was. I doubt I’d have known it either when I was all of 18. But, with a quick google search, I learned a few things.

Paul Smith’s fashion house is still in business. Given that it’s a fashion house, the prices are still well out of my price range despite the nearly 20 year gap in time since the book was first written. I like the look of what he’s putting out there, but alas and alack, I’m still much too “American” sized to fit anything he’s selling. Except for maybe a pair of shoes or a handbag.

His postcard is sweet, and definitely lists more than a few places I’d be interested in exploring. The Gate Cinema in particular is striking, and I’m sure I could find easy ways to spend my time (and money) at the Portobello Market. If I did find myself on the other side of the pond, I’m sure that I’d be more than pleased to finish off an evening at The River Cafe in London. Especially, if I ended it as Paul did – eating dinner with my spouse.

Diary Keeping & Blogging

After a brief blurb about Janus, and some superstitions about first visitors and luck for the year, Mz. Morton espouses the benefits of keeping a diary. Not just a record of the big things, but the mundane. Because, as historians will attest, the mundane things are what fill in so many questions we have about the past. Though I highly doubt that anything I write will be as beneficial as Pepsy, Anne Frank, or Virginia Woolf (of those three, I have only read Anne’s diary, and that was required reading in 8th grade).

Despite my doubts, here I am, working on a blog. I’m going to blame the excitement that surrounded blogging back in 2008. As a teenager, I definitely had aspirations of being a writer, and gaining a following. The idea that someone would want to read about my boring life, and hear my opinions was absolutely tantalizing. But I never did follow through on any of that. Which does not bode well for this current venture – except this time I have a credit card, and my own money with which to commit to this attempt…just like the gym.

In 2008 the internet was still pretty new (YouTube was a toddler). The feeling was that the internet was a brave new world, where it was safe to share everything and anything. And that if you put yourself out there, while Camilla does warn about people having opinions, the general results would be good. 18 years later and we see the trend heading the opposite direction. People are backing away from sharing themselves on public forums. Social media is turning into influencers with big budgets creating short form content that we all just consume. Goodness knows that I don’t post as regularly on Instagram the way I used to. Which is why this experience is feeling particularly odd.

How to Diet & Detox

Are we surprised that a book from the 2000’s, aimed at young girls, has a section on dieting and detoxing? I wish I could say that it was balanced, and considering when it was published, it wasn’t as bad as I assumed it would be. Camilla is careful not to encourage any particular diet, or any particular detox. But we do get a giant list of various diets, with descriptions for each and some snappy commentary (I’m looking at you Adkins diet).

Personally, I’m not going in for a big diet change – I’ve been on that rollercoaster before. In the interest of my health, I have been reading up on nutrition, and trying to make some life changes. But I want these changes to be permanent, and steady. A book that’s been helping me with these changes is Passionate Nutrition by Jennifer Adler. I’m not entirely onboard with some of her views regarding hygiene, beauty products, and natural deoderant. But I am enjoying the baseline concepts of whole food, a healthy microbiome, and approaching everything with balance – living in the gray.