Wednesday, October 01, 2008

A Broad Abroad

In college I was lucky enough to do a couple of semesters of study abroad. The first was a summer semester traveling in Europe, and the second was a fall semester in Florence, Italy. Those six months and the surrounding two years or so were the best years of my life. I met my best friends, had the most fun, and became the most genuine version of myself I've met yet. I miss living abroad at least once a week, if not more. I miss speaking a foreign language, walking everywhere, the pizza margherita from Yellow Bar, sandwiches from Noe, and endless pints from Kikuya. I even miss the dog shit on the sidewalks and the men in suits pissing on the streets.

It's no wonder, then, that I enjoyed Blue Streak, an expat living in Spain with a foul-mouthed sense of humor and tendency toward snark.

In terms of design, the blue is ok, but the design is bland and generic. There's absolutely no personality, but it's nicely organized. There are a shit ton of posts on each page, though, so get ready to scroll (well, for the months where there are more than three posts). Is there something wrong with her apostrophes, or is it just me? She's got an about page, and it's great and funny and real, but I could use some more vital details like: what you do (generally speaking), why you're in Spain, who your hubs is, why Blue Streak?, etc.

Blue Streak is introspective and rambly and touching and bitchy and angsty bordering on whiny, but I don't mind because I whine about the same things. I have similar feelings about friends who have done well and my own chances of success. I guess we're just overeducated, maladjusted, childless thirty-something women with international tendencies, the grass is always greener mentalities, and a penchant for the word "fuck" who are searching for home.

There's some great stuff here: "In other words, I had the optimism of a village idiot eye-balling the haystack he just tossed his fucking needle in." And there are funny stories and tales of living abroad, which I found interesting and evocative and charming. But the only sex so far includes elderly flashers, which ew.

I can relate, and I don't live abroad anymore:
"Is this normal? Is it part and parcel to being "foreign"? A constant state of re-examination of what-ifs? Or is this what any mildy neurotic thirty something feels that has not had children yet to take away that curse of looking at ones wrinkles in the mirror too much or the sickness of dwelling on paths not taken, (wrong?) turns, U-turns..."
Blue Streak got off to a sputtering start, with just a few posts per month, but she's ramped it up recently and I'm hoping that's a taste of things to come. Her writing is personal and insightful and funny, and the only thing I can really hate on is the fact that there's not more of it. So, keep at it, give us more. And get a new template, one with some tabs and maybe some Spanish flavor and more functionality.

Today you get






because there's just not an awful lot here yet and the design is a bit meh. Otherwise, I really do fucking love you and I'm adding you to my reader.

P.S. Sorry about the hair. My suggestion? Move to Italy. Best haircuts of my life.

47 comments:

  1. I like Bluestreak despite the lack of sex on her blog. I'm only saying this because I think DPH may/may not get a sex tape from her.

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  2. Bluestreak is one of my favorites!

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  3. I've hit her blog a few times intermittently in the past, but in the last few weeks I've gone back regularly.

    I like the ex-pat thing, and I love the attitude.

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  4. Yup, Blue is wonderful. She's one of those writers combines words I wouldn't and shows everyone what's up.

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  5. ...writers WHO combines...

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  6. I love how Rassles illustrated her point with an example.

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  7. That's Rassles' trademark. I think.

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  8. Trademark shmademark, I just like hearing myself talk.

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  9. I love Blue Streak! She has wicked talent with her words, and I never know what I'll find. She's unpredictable in all the best ways.

    Oh, and Calamity?

    "I guess we're just overeducated, maladjusted, childless thirty-something women with international tendencies, the grass is always greener mentalities, and a penchant for the word "fuck" who are searching for home."

    You are the queen, babe. The writer-ly queen of my heart.

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  10. Great blog. As an expat myself, I can relate. So the Mexicans learned to wait in line from the Spaniards?? That does not surprise me. I must say the Mexicans have learned about standing in queues in the past several years...and they play musical chairs at some places...like auto registration department...banks...you literally have to move to the next seat WITH your number in hand every time they help another customer. Armed guards make sure this is orderly.

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  11. Yay, Bluestreak! Her writing drips with attitude, but it's never forced or phony. I just like her.

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  12. Love her, uh, yeah, and her blog too.

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  13. Awwww, geeee, shucks, folks. Thanks for the kind words everyone.

    Molte grazie for the review, Calamity, and for the advice, and for reminding me I need to do a post on dog shit soon.

    I know my template looks like a smurf took a mad dump on it and the design is boring as hell. I'm gonna work on that, and beefing up my About page. When I post from work, my apostrophes make me want to take a sledgehammer to my Spanish keyboard.

    Regarding the lack of sex (on the blog I mean), I made the giant mistake of letting too many people I know read my blog. But I have been known use Key's comments section as my sexual confessional booth.

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  14. great blog, great review

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  15. I don't think every blog needs to be about sex. I really love blue's blog, and the way she puts the angst that I think we all feel at times about wanting to go home--wherever that is--into words.

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  16. I'm reminded of a line from Dazed and Confused regarding the having of pot: "It'd be a whole lot better if you did." That's how I feel about sex in blogs: you don't have to have it, but it'd be a whole lot better if you did.

    That's also how I feel about pot.

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  17. Lb: It'd be a lot cooler if you did.

    I think a lot of people use my comments section for sexual therapy. I feel bad for the person I hired to clean the couch.

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  18. thanks, LB. I feel like that´s what propels me to write the most: The things that I´m torn about or pissed about or just want to vent about and find some humor in. I don´t feel torn or pissed or wanting to vent about sex.

    Calamity - I agree on both accounts, although my pot-smoking days are behind me (it´s not easy to find ´round these parts) except when I go home to the Land of Pot Ubiquity.

    I enjoy blogs that sex it up a notch, esp Key and DPH. But I also enjoy tons of blogs that don´t. Aside from not wanting to share my sex life with all the people in my real life, I don´t find it all that easy to write well about sex.

    Shit, I hope that the fact that I´m uninspired to write about sex isn´t any indication of my sex life. Cause I think its pretty damn good.

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  19. Frankly, all this talk about shagging on blogs is vulgar...

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  20. Oops. I misquoted. Thanks Key.

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  21. Xbox - speaking of people that can write well about sex. I think your blog may be the mother of all shagging-themed blogs.

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  22. I love how Key has all the lines to Dazed and Confused memorized. Awesome.

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  23. Well, he is a Texan, afterall.

    I need to go take a cold shower. Thinking about Wooderson's tight pants and Burt Reynolds mustache has me all a-twitter.

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  24. I wouldn't be much of one if I didn't.

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  25. thanks for pointing out my hypocrisy bluestreak

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  26. Blue,

    On my private blog, I almost never write about sex. Sex matters to me, it's deeply personal, and almost spiritual. It would be lessened somehow if I put everyone in the world in between me and my guy.

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  27. LB - yeah, good point. That´s another reason why I don´t. Even though my husband doesn´t really read my blog, I feel like it would violate his privacy to write about our sex life. I spew out all other kinds of intimate details about my feelings n shit, that are reflective of my relationship, hard to avoid if I want to write about anything real. But that part of our lives is off limits to me to write about in any kind of detail. I´m not THAT much of an exhibitionist.

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  28. Ok, "slutty drunken girl." ;)

    I still maintain sex makes for interesting blog reading. You don't have to divulge your naughty bits or let us be flies on your bedroom wall. But a little glimpse into your sexual world is, well, revealing. And I like it. It doesn't work for all blogs, no doubt, and it's not a requirement or anything, but it's a plus for me.

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  29. I'm a mildly sexual creature, so I try to keep the details to a minimum.

    Because I'm a gentleman.

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  30. careful, Key, DPH might bludgeon you with her pirate leg if you don´t knock it off.

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  31. This is why god invented the past: so you can write about sex without divulging the sacred minglings of your naughty bits with your current loved one.

    Or you could write about sex as it relates to you, sans partner. And I don't mean masturbation, although that's fair game, too. Bottom line (I said "bottom") is sex is a part of life and when it's absent from a blog in any form, I notice the lack.

    That could be because I'm dirty and nosy and expose too much. Either way.

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  32. Even just, "Viggo Mortenson has a sweet, sweet ass" or "Yesterday I had a sex dream about Father Mulcahey." Something, people!

    And I'm beating a dead horse.

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  33. I will be clear, as Cal has outed me. I do occasionally write about sex, but generally, I don't reveal intimate details about sex between me and my boyfriend.

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  34. I'm good for outings, bar mitzvahs, ruby weddings.

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  35. Calamity - yeah, you´re right, could always talk about past sex. But I´ve been with my husband for 11 years now and before that I was like, fucking 20, and sex was, well, 20-year-old sex. 32 year old sex is a lot more blog-worthy.

    LB: Yeah, I´m much better about discussing sex in a general way. I grew up in an evangelical home, for crying out loud. Who knows, maybe I´m repressed as fuck.

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  36. General sex is good! General sex I like. I just checked out the 67 posts that I've labeled "sex" on my own blog (is that excessive?), and most of them are entirely general. Ish.

    And trust me, I know what you mean, Blue, about being with the same person. I've been with my fiance for 11 years and everything before him was early 20s sex.

    But, you write what you want to write. What you're doing already is working for me, even with only wrinkly old man sex being discussed.

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  37. DPH - 20 as in 20 years old, not twenties sex. Late twenties sex was pretty rockin.

    Calamity - the wrinkly old men whipping their dicks out I guess could be classified as sex for them. For me it wouldn´t be classified as sex, it would be classified as episodes of screaming "Socorro!!!!"and running away and then trying to avoid vomiting.

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  38. I remember when I was in Italy, we were trudging up this hill to an overlook of the city. So there I am, hiking away, minding my own business, when what I think is a statue (because, you know, Italy) starts to move. Turned out to be a transvestite shoving a dildo up his ass.

    Classic.

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  39. niiiice. I´ve seen people fucking on park benches here. Young people don´t emancipate from their parents homes until much later in life here, and most of them can´t afford cars, so it´s a logical solution.

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  40. I thought we were talking rates for a minute, DPH.

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  41. bringing monetary value into it should negate the need for claiming 'easy', surely...

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  42. All the most sexually fucked up people on teh interwebs grew up in evangelical homes....Blue, me, Key...

    I can probably stop right there.

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  43. respect where respect is due, BStreak, u deserve a good review

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Grow a pair.