Guilty Pleasures? Sign me up! by Malena Lott

To celebrate the launch of my humorous women’s fiction novel, Dating da Vinci, about a young widow searching for joy, I’ve been blogging here, there and everywhere about da Vinci, la dolce vita, and savoring the small stuff. On a podcast earlier this week, I was asked what my favorite junk food was, since my protagonist is an emotional eater with a penchant for junk food. (She and da Vinci even inhale a box of Dunkin’ Donut holes.) My answer: chocolate.
But that got me to thinking about the lighter side of “savoring the small stuff.” Guilty pleasures. Things we may only indulge in every so often or as often as we can get away with. Here’s my Top 5 Guilty Pleasures. As of today, anyway.

Lipstick Jungle. I gave Grey’s Anatomy the boot and I’m sticking with those well-dressed, well-heeled working girls. And the guys on the show aren’t too shabby, either.

Hats, shoes and handbags. For me, it’s pretty hard to call these things “indulgences” because we sort of have to wear shoes in public and have something to carry our things in. Thing is, I’ve pared down. I’ve donated and donated and donated and yet I still have an impressive collection of HSH. As for the hats, I’ve always been a hat girl, and not just the cap in ponytail look that I reserve for walking. I love the vintage guy’s hats and all the cute hats you see in Macy’s and GAP. Only they aren’t there anymore because they are here, in my closet.

Starbucks Café Mocha. They scored a few brownie points in my book my giving coffee away on election day, even though it’s probably a regular cup and not the freakin’ $4 cup that has become my once a week treat versus several times a week treat due to the downturn in the economy. Blasted Wall Street!

Home/Interior design magazines. No, I don’t “need” to spend a half hour flipping through Metropolitan Home or House Beautiful or the slew of others that cross my sleek black recliner and make their way into my lap. It’s like glossy crack. My house is already beautiful and it already belongs to a metropolis. I wouldn’t know where to put another vase or lamp or doo-dad if I tried. It’s escape, plain and simple. I think, if I didn’t live here, I’d live there. Right inside that picturesque spread of ridiculous white furnishings where no man, child or dog has ever lived.

Social networking. Sure, I could call it a professional investment of my time to log in multiple times a day to Facebook and Twitter, but let’s be real. For every one “fan” that friends me, I’ve logged status comments a hundred times over. I adore that connection, though. Otherwise my days are mostly super shorty-short convos with my toddler that go something like this: Mommy, I want a peanut butter jelly for lunch. Me: Okay. Him: Come watch me scooter. Me: Okay. So now I get to have super shorty-short convos with Adults in this same fashion on Twitter and Facebook. See how much more enlightened I am? So friend me, add me and let’s have deep existential talks like the importance of guilty pleasures, but keep it to 140 characters or less.

"What are your favorite guilty pleasures?" Leave a comment and an email addy and I will pick one lucky commentor at the end of the day to receive a copy of "Dating DaVinci".
www.malenalott.com