Hi there. One of your many readers here just checking in to say this marital bliss you speak of is WHY I read. I love it. I envy it. I think it is fantastic. I look forward to the day I'm inviting my husband's friends over for the Sopranos. (Okay, it very well may be off the air by then, but you get my point.)
Haters, hit the road. No room for you here in Happyville.

Don't change a thing - they only hate happy people because they are jealous. Speaking as a fellow blissfully-married-person of less than a year, life is good and you should celebrate that. I would never go back.

BTW, after reading through your archives a couple of times, I still don't know what "navel-gazing" means... Please explain!

I love your happy life. It gives me so much hope for what is to come! Don't change a single, gushy, "dumpling-stuffing" thing about what you write. It's YOUR blog! And, for that single person out there who has no life but to write about how boring yours is now that YOU'RE happy, PFFFFFFFFFFT!

I apologize for the over use of commas. *blush*

Savor your happiness. You might bore the drama queens, but you're utterly engaging to those of us who look forward to someday having the bliss you describe so beautifully.

*sigh* just another post about dumpling -stuffing.

i could not agree more! carry on...

Exactly. First of all, you haven't been boring in your posts. Secondly, enjoy this - all of this: the simplicity, the certainty, the comfort. These are the things that truly matter. You found somene amazing in Alex and isn't it what we all look for? You're not gloating, nor do you critique singletons, nor do you complain about how you miss those single days... I'm glad you're happy because if anything, it lets the rest of us believe in that good things happen and love it out there somewhere. So any entry about dumpling stuffing is highly appreciated, particularly because dumplings are just so damn good!

Allow me to take over the drama queen aspects of the blog:
http://www.pixxiestails.com/archives/2006/05/why_jill_joce_might_need_intervention.html#comments

and Smitten readers, she may show up to parties with baked goods, she still gets wild, I've seen it and I post about it (with pictures) as often as possible. Cheers

The next thing that will happen is that smitten will have a little smitten. Then there will be a billion baby photos but no time for posts at all. Personally, i'd prefer the dumplings.

I love reading your column. There is hope there, there is humour, there are fantastic pics of places I've lived or seen but can't get to easily anymore (7 hour flights are tough!)...it's all good. Pooh to the person who thinks it's boring. I think happiness is the least boring thing of all!

Drama queen stories do not a successful writer make. It's your writing that makes this site wonderful, and the fact that you are genuinely happy certainly shouldn't take away from it. Plus I covet your bliss, I won't lie :) Keep it up!

An old boyfriend once causticly spat at me that I was "mainstream" and "normal". I laughed and said, "Thank you. I've worked really hard my whole life and 'normal' was pretty much what I was shooting for!" Don't let the haters get you down. If we want drama, we can turn on the TV.

I love your blog! I got married about a month before you, and it's nice to read about someone else going through the same stuff. I found your blog on i-village and had to read your entire blog to catch up on your journey to who you are today. (This didn't please my husband when I sat at the computer for hours and he couldn't understand why i was sooo intrigued with a strangers life) but it's wonderful, you're my Carrie Bradshaw. :) keep on sister!

I've read you from the get go because I've always found your writing to be above all, honest. If dumpling stuffing is where you're at I'll still read.

i love reading about everyday things, they're fascinating in their own way. as you're not bored then your posts will be as lively and as absorbing as they are... i say bring on the dumpling-stuffing!

Very well said. Life can be tough as hell at times, biting us on the a**e when we least expect it. Enjoy the periods of calm for what they are - little pools of stillness amongst the rapids of life.

I agree with the rest of the commenters. It´s a blog about your experiences, you shouldn´t have to apologize for not being miserable. What if some single people find it harder to relate to you? That´s their problem, not yours.
I´m personally a single 24-year-old woman who enjoys your posts and finds hope in them. I´m not quite sure I´ll ever find someone who´s totally right for me, but I know it´s possible and I enjoy reading about your life, cooking (one of my greatest passions), seeing your photos, etc.
I have yet to finish reading the archives, but from what i´ve read you´ve been through all the different stages. Now it´s a happy stage in your life when you are enjoying life and finding your place in life, and myself and many other readers love reading about your experiences, so keep up the good work!

I found your blog last fall when I was in the midst of breaking up with my ex, Alex, and it helped me realize that while you and your Alex work so well together, my relationship didn't work at all. Please don't change one single thing! :)

You totally rock.

Hi! I love your photography! I'm in the market for a digital camera and wondered what kind you use?
Enjoy your everything about your blog!

-Lisa

If anyone wants to read tales from another boring, nearly blissfully married twenty-something, check out my blog @ butchke.blogspot.com. My most recent post's highlight is about the mysterious person who peed (I've never written "pee" in the past tense, is that right?) in the stairwell at my office.

Here here. I so totally feel you on this one.

I just found your blog and have been seriously procrastinating at work, entertained my your amusing posts that I relate to 100%. I am about to get married, but live with my fiance. I have found our life eerily similar to yours (living in NYC and all), and must say that your words are so refreshing and comforting. I guess I'm not the only one on this boat! You are now on my favorite's list....oh, and myspace is evil. A horrible addiction to get rid of!

I'd just like to take this occasion to thank you, on behalf of the whole family, for the word "wackaloon". Raising children in a foreign country is not what I expected. It's words like this that keep my English-missing ears - or shall I say, eyes - coming back for more.

oh, and the recipes, of course.

It's not a democracy, it's a cheerocracy!" OK, how gay am I?

Don't really remember how I stumbled upon your blog I only know that I keep coming back because of your great writing & photos. A big Bronx raspberry to all the haters.

Hmm. If I hadn't had those wacky referrals, then you wouldn't have found those myspace blogs, which means I wouldn't get to read a post about dumpling-stuffing. Keep it coming. :)

I've been married ten years. To this day I'm "smitten" with my beloved. We love our blissfully boring life. Keep the posts comin'

I love your blog pre-marital bliss, and after! I just wish you'd write more. :)

I've just caught up on ~2.5 years of blog entries and woah, you've written a lot. I've found a lot of sentiments which ring true (mainly before you got married I'll admit!) and the fact you seem to have gotten past the doldrums and into the sunlight cheers me up no end. Perhaps you should do what Carrie did and release a book of entries!

I absolutely agree with that MySpace commenter (the fact that this comment comes from MySpace is a strong indicator to me of this person's knowledge and expertise).

If you were a "real" writer, Ms. Smitten, your first priority would be to your audience. But that means some sacrifices on your part. So many famous writers wouldn't be remembered today if they didn't drink themselves to death or hang themselves. You are a wonderful writer. Do you want to throw it all away because of "marital" bliss? Am I off-base to suggest that you divorce Alex immediately?

I mean Das vdanya, baby.

He is obviously making you too happy and turning your once brilliant blog into boring mush.

"We're so happy!" "He bought me this little trinket!" "Alex has the cutest eyes!"

Enough already!

Where's the miserable Smitten we once loved? God help us all when you start having children!

Leave him now -- before it is too late to salvage your reputation!

I started reading your blog quite a while ago, Just pre-engagement or right after I believe.

Maybe you've lost train-wreck aspect, but for those of us having been reading for a while, we've gotten to watch how you've grown and changed.

And gotten some good recepies out of the deal.

I just wrote about a similar sentiment, it seems to be a universal phenomenon that we feel we have "less" to say when we're happy. I started blogging to vent misery and now that I'm constantly content, it's a whole new venture.

You cannot imagine my embarrassment when, upon checking one of my guilty-pleasure blogs, it just so happened to reference my oh-so-very insignificant, experimental Myspace blog. Much to my chagrin, I feel that I have deeply offended and insulted someone who's writing I respect and admire and couldn't compare to if I tried. Smitten-- I wrote the "boring" blog, but only in retaliation to an old Jesus-freak friend who commented that my blogs were frustrating to read and depicted a life of debauchery and sin like no other she had read. This is partly true, but lets face it, I was exhaustingly overdramatic, and she brought up a good point.

I have referenced your blog before and I wish you were one of my "preferred readers" so that you could see that I have sung your praises in a few posts (especially hang up and run to me). And I'm sure you could hear the slightly bitter jealous tone in my voice as I criticized your dumplin' stuffing. I only wish that I had what you and Alex have. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

Hey Ashley - Actually, I wasn't offended (and believe me, people have said it far less apologetically than you).

It gave me an oppotunity to write about a topic I'd been mulling for awhile - that weblogs are deemed better reads when the individual has some big drama or event in their lives (like my traffic spike in wedding season). One could argue it's a downside of using one's own life as a writing topic. But, there's a lot more to it: there's an honesty in writing from where you are at in your life (judging from the supportive comments above, a good thing), sparing any cheap tactics to spice it up.

So, like I said, don't feel bad - it's a good topic, no matter how it was broached.

So true...been catching up on the blog from the beginning and while the drama can be entertaining, it is soooo much better on the flip side. I can honestly say that, since I tried to start my own blog, and quickly found myself "out of material" so to speak because all I was doing was raving about my sweetheart. OH bliss...

P.S. I tried to bake the oreos...didn't go so well, mainly because I set the smoke alarm off at least 15 times HA

Neil.
that
was
HAWESOME

No one that's married actually misses all the crap your friends are still going through- drama is rarely a good thing! I'm glad you're as boring and happy as I am!

Oh please don't change--what you have is beautiful and frankly, I'd rather read you than the news most days--you give me hope---that Brad'll get on with it already, and we'll live in blissful boringness... And besides, without you I would not be nearly as obsessed with food and the creation of beautiful things with it :)

Deb, Deb....

I, too, have loved your blog from the moment I first slapped eyes on it. Now that I am in the midst of planning my own wedding, reading about your marital bliss has become a daily treat....and it gives me grand hopes that my marriage will be as chock-full of loveliness (and ridiculousness) as yours is, dumplings and all.

As a fellow lover of all things doughy and dumpling-y, I salute you!

I am 23, in a 6+ year relationship, still very much in love! I am most certainly not jealous of Deb's happiness, because I've got my very own version of it (he does grand gestures like flying my best friend from TX to MO when he went on vacation, and he does the little things like hiding a note in my wallet that says, “I am thankful for you every day.”). I am, however, disappointed in the post-wedding blogs. I began reading the archives religiously a few months ago, laughing hours at a time. I don't think that you have to be a trainwreck in order to be amusing, especially if you have the talent that Deb does. The act of trying to retrieve an iPod is generally NOT funny, but the way that she described the ordeal gave me sidestitches. Stories about moderation are also NOT amusing, but I also feel that there was 0 effort to make entries like “the unfortunate extension of persnicketiness” entertaining. There should be less dumpling-stuffing (no matter how fun it is to say) and more “isn’t this what's called romance"

Deb:

Let me join the chorus of people thumbing a nose at that MySpace dinglaling.

I love your writing, it's elegant, it's honest, it's in the active voice. (Copy editors, rejoice!)

The wonderful thing about what you do here is you let us come to know you. And you're happy, which is great. You smile, we smile with you. Thank you.

The idea that anyone has to be suffering to make great art, or writing, is crap. I think of Reubens, the 19th century painter, not the guy who played Pee-Wee Herman. He was happy, and it shows in his paintings. He's loved.

Keep up the great work.

I truly hate the fact that people think that in order to be interesting, one must be in a constant state of crisis (regardless if it is real or imagined). Eternal soap-opera- like melodrama does, indeed, get tiresome too, but we live in a society where if you aren't b*tching about something, people think your life is not worth hearing (or reading) about.
Deb brings beauty to the mundane and interest to the everyday. Not every story has to be an earth-shattering event in order for it to matter.

Life, after all, is in the miscellaneous details.

Well said! And absolutely true. Well done, my dear.