Obsessions

Things I'm mild-to-excessively obsessed with currently:

• The color orange.  Specifically, International Orange, or the color of the Golden Gate Bridge.  

Flags on display at the International Orange exhibit last month at Fort Mason

A faux-store of all International Orange things, from the same exhibit.  Me want!!

Some StickyWords from under the bridge

And the newly repainted writing desk!  Now in Daredevil Orange (thanks to three coats of Sherwin Williams this weekend).  Much less clashy with the rest of the house now.  Next project: corral those ugly looking cords on the side.

For about a year now, orange has been my new favorite color.  It's just so dang happy looking.  

• Sutro Tower

It's a very local icon.  You can spot it almost anywhere in the city, if it's not ensconced in fog, but it is so beautiful when it is ensconced.  (Sorry, I also watched a bunch of Anne of Green Gables lately, so I'm all Lake of Shining Waters-y in my speech)  I can see it from my front window and am trying to muster up enough courage to tackle this gigantic blank canvas that I got recently with a rendition of it.

My scale model

The view from Golden Gate Park

The view from the Mission, with awesome crazy fog rolling by

• Iceland

Ever since I read the book The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner a few years ago, I've been intent on getting to Iceland someday.   So recently, I've started writing a story about it in order to create the perfect excuse to make sure I do get there someday.  I've also been checking out all the non-travel books on Iceland I can find at the local library.  There aren't many, so it's not a daunting list.  Right now I'm really enjoying Meltdown Iceland by Roger Boyes.  It's about the economic disaster of late, but Boyes has such a love and knowledge of Iceland, it overflows with excellent details and stories of the place (for instance: because of the way last names are passed down through the father's first names, the phone book is alphabetized by first names.  In the words of Holden Caulfield--I'm also currently reading Catcher in the Rye--that stuff kills me).  

I'm actually planning a trip there, hopefully this winter.  As much as I'd love to enjoy it's endless Summer hours someday, I'm equally fascinated with all the darkness there in the winter, as well as I'm hoping for a chance at seeing the Northern Lights (check out this image on Iceland Express http://blog.icelandexpress.com/iceland/2007/12/08/chasing-aurora/ ).  If you happen to know anyone in Iceland who would be interested in housing a writer for a week or so this winter, drop me a line!  Or, if you've been and want to give me tips, I'd gladly collect those too.

• And, well, the Kittens

We've had the kittens for one month now.  They've each gained over a pound, and I've spent more time this month in various pet stores than I thought humanly possible.  Someone asked me recently what I've been up to and I had to answer honestly: "I do have a life, really.  It's just that right now all I really have are kittens."       

Clue, posing with the cat tree.  Yes, I've become one of those people who has a cat tree.

Can I help you with that email?  The kittens routinely find buttons on my laptop that do things I didn't know my laptop could do.

Bellies begging to be petted.  

When they aren't teaching each other how to be lionesses, they are snuggling.  

That's a roundup of my current obsessions.  What are you obsessing about these days?