Interview with Eden Marriott Kennedy / Fussy.org
Mrs. Kennedy, also known as Fussy.org, has captured voracious readers one by one over the past 4+ years with her open, endearing and sometimes-almost-too-real-to-read-but-I-can’t-
stop-reading writing style. She talks about being a mom, went public with her hair growth and has people wearing her shirts all over the place. Enjoy her photos here.
Blog Birthday:
10/16/01
Why do you blog?
Things just occur to me or little facts find their way to me and I think, does everyone know this? Everyone should know this!
The deeper answer would be that I grew up in a family where I didn’t feel comfortable talking about personal issues, and so to blatantly overcompensate for that constraint I went and found a public place to spill. Making the private public is enormously liberating. But then I also feel I have to make a joke out of it all. It’s stupid. But it’s a formula that seems to work.
What do you talk about?
Stuff that surprises or interests me, or funny or disgusting things that have happened to me.
What don’t you talk about? Why?
I don’t like to talk about my parents. I wrote a few posts after visiting them a few years back but it didn’t feel right. I love them to death but the way I see my family isn’t necessarily the way they should be represented on the Internet. Also, as my son grows older his privacy becomes more important; I suppose eventually I’ll have to clear my posts with him. My husband, fortunately, doesn’t seem to mind what I write about him.
Best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?
Getting to meet some of the best blog writers on the Web at the BlogHer conference last summer. I met women I’d been reading for years and who knew me through my site and we all sat around and laughed until we cried. It was terrifying. I can’t wait for the next one.
Worst thing about living where you live?
The sushi’s not so great.
If you were president of the US:
Mandatory yoga.
What actor would play you in the movie of your life?
I’ll flatter myself and say Rachel Griffiths. I don’t look like her, but on Six Feet Under she does a quietly disturbed and slightly guilty-feeling thing that I really identify with.
Favorite color:
Red
Favorite food:
Champagne
When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?
Truck driver or cartoonist.
What do you hate?
The crushing poverty and disease suffered by the fragile developing world; olive loaf.
What do you love?
When people in power use their goddamn brains and do good; finding awesome stuff on the sale rack.
What do you want to tell other bloggers?
If you feel the need to post something malicious about a person, think about whether you’d be brave enough to buy them a drink and tell them to their face.
Astounding facts about you:
I have tinnitus. My ears are constantly ringing.
Are you Windows or Mac? Why?
Mac. Windows are like the computer equivalent of a straight guy who’s afraid that spending any time on his appearance will make people think he’s gay.
Who are your heroes?
Anyone who made it through adulthood with a full set of teeth before the advent of modern dentistry and penicillin.
How would your husband describe you? How about your parents?
I’m lucky they all haven’t taken a shot at me by now.
How did the fortunes start? Where do you get them?
I make them in Photoshop, I get the quotes from Bartlett’s or different places on the Web. I always save my fortune-cookie fortunes, I have a whole envelope full of them in my desk, and I always like it when I get fortunes that seem to apply to me specifically. So I thought I’d create something random, using the same cookie aesthetic, but have the fortune be just a little bit off. I need to update them more, though, I’ve had the same one up for months now.
What are you working on right now?
A novel! I’m not even embarrassed to say that anymore because it has a plot and everything.
What do you do to stay sane?
As much alone time as I can squeeze out of every day without lapsing into total neglect of my husband and child.
Do you recommend birthing in your home? Well, not yours in particular, but you know what I mean.
If you’re healthy and find that the prospect of turning your child’s birth into an invasive major medical procedure makes you feel sick down to the very pit of your soul, then yes, by all means, look into it.
What will you being doing next year?
Top of the world, Ma!
Do the T-shirts sell well?
They sell pretty well. I’ve been surprised. They’ve paid for Jackson’s preschool tuition the last four months in a row.
Tell me a secret?
I had a psychic tell me that in a past life I was Austrian. I think it might explain my love of black leather trench coats.
Do you still own Eric’s shoes? How did going through that experience change your life?
I do have Eric’s shoes, they’re so ridiculously comfortable, although they weird people out who know the story. They make my boss shudder. They’re pretty beat up at this point, but I can’t imagine getting rid of them.
What do you wish I would have asked you that I didn’t?
What are you reading right now?
Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset. Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919. One thousand pages! It’s terrific.
Thank you, Eden!