VACUOUS VACATION

I’ve been absolutely absent as of late. A couple of you have written to let me know you miss my posts. That makes me feel good, and I’m grateful for your encouraging words. I guess I've been on a syllable sabbatical: flitting and floating; packing and going; drinking and dining. But mostly — just sort of on an ongoing vacuous vacation (apparently one of the side effects is shameless alliteration).

If not gone physically, then I've definitely been away mentally. You see, I’ve taken up a whole new past time. I read trashy vampire serial novels by J.R. Ward. (Admission/confession is the first step to recovery, right?) They don’t even rank in the “summer read” category. Or at least they didn’t in my mind, but my standards recently changed.

In June my sister schlepped the mother load to me on a visit from Chicago, and while I at first pushed the books to the side of my nightstand with a whiff of high disregard, I eventually acquiesced, and they’ve been my constant companions of late. I think I’m on my fifth or sixth one, now. They’re soft porn for the sexually less deviant. The main characters have names like Wrath, Revhenge and Phury.

I know, right? I confessed to my sister mid-way through the first read that I was utterly unimpressed and a little more than judgmental until I got to the sex parts. My “core” (to which a woman’s sexual center for business is often referred) responded. I got hooked on all that manhood.

So yeah. I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch. I’ve been busy in between the sheets ... there’s a lot of paper to flip through in these chapters. When people ask me what I've been up to this summer, I mostly respond with the standard stuff; recounting our family car trip extravaganza, or maybe I'll throw in some good recounts of our sensational swim team season. But in the back of my mind, I'm just giddy about my latest reading frenzy. I wish it was of a more impressive bent, I do.

My husband is more than slightly bemused. I'm on the receiving side of endless gibing from him; especially from cover art and titles like, "LOVER ENSHRINED." He's right! I mean, really, how does one defend the principle of great prose behind these particular paperbacks?

I thought I was over the whole vampire thing. I didn't even go to the second Twilight cinema installment, even though I read all the books; one after the other. I turned away from my trip to teenland without much introspection. Hmmm .... that was two or three summers ago ... slippery slope ... glass houses. Yep. I've shattered any and all self-image constructs of purposeful pursuit of higher culture.

Happy Labor Day. I guess this is the book end to my last post.