Alliteration Aside

I can't believe it's 2012. The year 2012 always seemed so far away when I was a kid. Like, really far away. Maybe it's because I had so many expectations for my life when I was younger. Maybe it's because the last 10 years have gone by so quickly that it's hard to imagine so much time has passed since I yearned to marry Elijah Wood (like I did in 1992) and drive around in a pink car while listening to Ace of Base (actual fantasy, ladies and gentlemen).

A few weeks ago, I celebrated a birthday. I turned 27.

When I told well-wishers my new age, I was treated to a variety of responses.

I had the pleasure of writing a story for the forthcoming Man Issue. It is about cars.

The story also involves some men...but mostly, cars.

Something has come to my attention: I write about music too much. Too much for a person who is, much to her chagrin, not a music journalist. I'm also not a musician, another career where a propensity for writing about bands, songs, and albums would seem natural. Unless you think playing the clarinet for five years as a teenager qualifies me as a “musician.” And somehow, no one ever does.

Many people have waxed poetically on the art of compiling a mixed tape, CD, whatever. I'm not one of those people, usually.

Sure, there are rules...and there's your audience to consider. But more often than not, I'm making mixes for myself. So I throw those “rules” out the window and just make a mix that fits my mood. This is, undoubtedly, why I have over 70 playlists on my iPod right now.

One would think that, given how much we talk about food in the newest issue (on stands now!), I wouldn't have the slightest inclination to discuss the intricacies of holiday fare. Alas, our Cheap Eats feature, in all its glory, has only furthered my desire for great food. But, this being Christmastime and all, I wanted to really explore one of my most favorite holiday treats: the eggnog milkshake.

One of my Halloween rituals involves talking on the phone to my cousin, syncing up the same scary movie, and simultaneously getting spooked from and mocking said movie. It's something we've been doing for years (not just for Halloween) and few people understand the purpose. It's quite simple. We love watching movies together but live hundreds of miles apart. It's the best solution! We'll do it for hours on end.

Is it better to be cool or hot? Both are words used anymore to describe good things.

Cool used to be the go-to descriptor for anything you wanted to condone; anything you wanted other people to know you supported. You'd say a band is cool. A movie is cool. And people put stock in that word. You'd go to a concert because a friend of yours gave their seal of approval (“the band is so cool”) or you'd pay $10 after a coworker told you the new Tarantino movie is cool. That's the power of the word.

I was having a hard time thinking of a blog topic this month.

Mike suggested that since our Sizzlin' Singles issue is about to hit the stands, I might seek inspiration in that realm. So I kept trying to think of ways to talk about the perks of being single and how fun it was to work on that issue. But that seemed too apropos. After all, all of our issues are (relatively) fun to work on and it is pretty rad to be single. These are not new concepts.

Instead, I relied on one of the most basic writer's tools ever invented: read what someone else wrote and respond. It worked for a bunch of guys in England during the 1700s and it can work for me.

You wouldn't think my blog would be so late this issue. After all, I get to talk about one of my favorite things in the whole world: men.