Fine Life On A Budget + + +

I don't know how to cook. I just love to eat. To be honest I prefer to watch people stir and bake than join in on the activity. As a kid I'd dip my finger on my mom's pancake  bowl of mix as if to taste-test. I don't gain weight easily enough to watch what I eat. I'm a bit clumsy when it comes to arts and crafts. Projects in school seem to be more messy than marvelous yet my creations were always provocative. I can't, for the love of God, fix stuff which explains why I prefer canvassing for new optional products to replace broken things. However, I enjoy learning about the process of how tips are applied.

Why then am I even blogging here about everything that I can't do?

More than reasoning that I simply can, I think I have a taste for it on a level that I know about them that others don't and from a perspective that even the experts haven't covered -- that of a fine life folk in progress. I always don't know enough as it is with you who are reading this. Because if you are already an expert in fine living, you must be in the wrong site.

Back in college I would skip a few classes to respond to food review appointments with restaurants like Swiss Inn, Schwarzwalder, and Venezia, among others. The sideline work was for a magazine contribution that I was assigned to do. I was given a list of plush restaurants to schedule taste tests for. The appointment-making was a breeze. The struggle was in pretending to know what I was getting into. I tasted unheard of delicacies, munched on food I had not tasted in my life, and remarked about meals I had no idea about.

Same thing with art. I joined inter-school competitions as a young kid. I was part of our gradeschool's triumvirate of so-called on-the-spot artists. I joined a tour of Laguna's artist community with other kids. I even ended up taking a college course in Fine Arts in regard to my artistic pursuits. At around the same time I was doing pseudo food reviews, I also got to interview artist of various kind -- actors, singers and painters. It was surreal to be writing about what I thought I should be doing instead.

In no time the pursuit drizzled and became stunted when I stressed about other life issues with family, job dissatisfaction, etc. I lost my joie de vivre. I settled for commercial practice that didn't pay well which is ironic. I sort of became content not to learn anything that posed as a challenge. I confined design challenges within the norm of my practice.

Did I love the experience of having to be mediocre? As I mentioned, I struggled but that's because I failed to realize that it was supposed to be about food and design discoveries, art appreciation in general. I was so hung up on what I didn't know when I could have been excited about it, instead.

This time, I'm ready. I'll point my finger aimlessly on the menu. Stroke my brush against design normalcy. I'll open my eyes to sip the unknown. I'll express my untamed notions on sketch paper. Who knows? I may even have to literally keep an unsafe distance from the perimeters of my domicile just to appreciate the fine life out there.

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