Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Behind the Bonnet. No this is not your first glimpse of Anna Bloviations. We would be the one hidden behind the voluminous straw hat. Beneath that hat and Ray Bans is the woman I have known since grammar school. We once lived across the street from one another and were and are today great friends.
Perhaps it was the daily infusion of San Francisco Richmond District fog that made us have such remarkably parallel lives. She and I both grew up to love books and writing. Both of us married Europeans and lived abroad for many years. Both of us have dabbled at careers but for the most part are highly subsidized women with a propensity for travel, beautiful surroundings, good food, and nice clothes. It all sounds glamorous but any ex-pat knows that long-term life abroad and frequent moves can be very disruptive emotionally: kids yanked out of schools, the harrying logistics of moving, the initial loneliness and displacement one feels in a new place, the moody husbands whose job positions are constantly being upended for various reasons. The upside are the many interesting people one meets. One stays in touch with them and as we all get older (and usually more financially successful), a trans-continental network is formed. Case in point is Anna Bloviations' September trip to Mallorca and then to Austria to stay with friends and family. My friend's network extends to London, Warsaw, Paris, and beyond.
Speaking of beyond, in this photo we are looking out to the Ogunquit Harbor in Maine. If I recall correctly we were discussing the delicious-looking chocolate chip cookies we had spotted in a bakery and whether we shouldn't go buy some later. We may or may not have just criticized the poor choice of bathing suits a lot of American women choose. And then there is our idea for a book -- one geared towards a niche market of 40-something women thirsting for high-end erotica to enhance their sex lives. Not that we are speaking from personal experience or anything... we just think there may be a demand given the number of women who are looking terrific well into their fifties.
