The Art of the Blog

So, somewhere in here I've managed to miss a day of blogging. Since technically my Sunday blog posted at 12:00am, I guess that made it Monday, but I had every intention of blogging last night and fell asleep before I got the laptop started. In any case, it's Tuesday and I'm short a blog entry. Then I remembered, this is MY blog, and it can be about whatever I want, in whatever form I want. 365 days of smiles doesn't have to be written over 365 days.

Over the last few days I've been working with words a lot. Words themselves make me smile. I like the art of language. Words like quash, scruples, and cacophony are things I just like to say. Words are fun to play with. Crossword puzzles, Word Challenge, word finds, Scrabble, Boggle, bring 'em on! I love word games and the way they challenge your brain.

I write every day for my job, but most of that writing is directed. I have a certain message that I need to get across, a subject I must address, a person that I need to depict with words. Blogging is different. This my stream of consciousness. When I blog, I just put my hands to the keyboard and see what happens. This is just one more way that I get to play with words. Fun, fun, fun!

On Friday night, I spent time with my friend, Judith, and she reminded me of something else that makes me smile: speaking and writing in French. My French skills used to be impeccable and Judith can speak comme une Parisienne. When I studied at L'Institute de Touraine, I was so proud when my linguistics lab professor didn't believe me when I told him I was American. He praised my pronounciation skills and said he never would have thought I was from the U.S., possibly from Montreal or somewhere in Canada, but not the U.S. Ironically, some Canadian tourists who thought I was French asked me for directions and assistance, thinking I was from Tours. Only when I heard them speaking English between themselves about what they wanted to ask me did I realize that they didn't know I spoke English. I figure that's not a bad feat, fooling the French into thinking I was a Canadian and fooling the Canadians into thinking I was French. Unfortunately, without daily use, my skills have grown rusty. Quel dommage! This is something I plan to remedy and practice more often, even if it's just with Judith.

One of the first blogs I ever subscribed to, and to this day one of my favorites, is "French Word-A-Day" by Kristin Espinasse. (http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/motdujour/) Espinasse has published a book from that blog called Words in a French Life. She is my blog hero. She ties French vocabulary and idioms into short stories about her daily life with her children and French husband and family. She also includes beautiful photography. Kristin is witty, the blog is fun to read and educational too. Her "daily" blog has even morphed into a "thrice-weekly" blog. Kristin has found the way to do what I aspire to: combine a love of words (both English and French) with good writing to create something interesting and marketable. That, my friends, is the art of the blog.