"Modern-Day Hobbit"

I was talking the other day about how one of my mental "escapes" is imagining what it would like to live a different (nicer) life, like, be a Hobbit or something.

And this morning, I was thinking of: well, what if as Tolkien alluded to somewhere, that the Hobbits supposedly intermarried with humans (therefore: they must be humans themselves, to be able to interbreed), and maybe hid their hairy feet and the like, and....over time kind of merged with them, but there are still Hobbit genes snaking around through humanity (kind of like the thing were supposedly - in reality - some folks have some Neanderthal genes).

And you know? If that were a real thing, I could totally be a modern-day hobbit:

curly red-brown hair
tendency to be stout
not unusually tall (for a human)
soles of my feet do tend to be leathery (I have to work them over with a pumice on a regular basis, and I also once stepped on a piece of broken glass and it didn't even break the skin)
I do have a tiny bit of inter-digital hair on my feet. It used to be more prominent on my big toes (but it has both faded, and I think years of going barefoot in sandals wore it off).

and green and yellow are two of my favorite colors, especially for home decoration (Hobbits are described as being particularly fond of green and yellow)

But also, thinking of a lot of my preferences, or the things that make me happy or comfort me, might mark me as a modern-day Hobbit.

Here are things I think someone of the hobbitish persuasion would like in the modern-day:

- all the variety of tea that can be had
- all the different cheeses (My town doesn't have a proper cheese shop though; I wish we did)
- delivery services where you can get food BROUGHT TO YOUR DOOR and you don't have to go out and get it. (Not really in my town yet, at least not for perishables and prepared food fancier than pizza, but...)
- all the books. All the easily-available books.
- actual newspapers rather than reading them online (sadly, that's a thing that's dying out, but I would love to be able to get a proper newspaper, like, with all the day's news, delivered to my house so I could read it.)
- different kinds of chocolate
- nice tea and coffee mugs with pretty designs on them
- mug cakes. Yes, the mix ones are not that great but sometimes you just want something cakelike without a lot of effort.
- cat cafes (I have never been to one but hope to get to one some day. Or any kind of small nice twee restaurant)
- things like Kotatsu which I'm not sure I'd really WANT one but as a concept they are nice.
- small snack-type foods like tapas and the olive bars some groceries have
- the little fairy lights that can be battery operated so you can brighten up dark corners without having to use a candle and having the fire hazard
- music-streaming services where you can have quiet music of your choice at any time
- hot water and being able to take warm baths.
- probably all the microbrewed beers, though I am not a beer-drinker.
- downloadable knitting patterns so you can make all kinds of sweaters and blankets and warm socks and things
- fuzzy blankets. I am so happy I bought that goofy "Kitticorn" blanket a few months ago; it is perfect for when I need a bit more warmth on my shoulders at night.

Now, granted, maybe some of those things are too modern and Tolkien would reject them, I don't know. But thinking of it from my perspective - the sort of things that are comforting and small-scale pleasurable and make life nice.

I can't do Second Breakfast* because of my work schedule (and the fact that my metabolism isn't that fast these days), but in my dream life, it would totally be a thing for me - get up early, eat some little bit of something, go for a nice long walk for exercise, then come back and sit down to a larger, longer breakfast, with a proper cup of tea and everything. And long big lunches (and maybe a smaller supper, more like High Tea where you just have some cheese on bread and maybe some pickled vegetables and another cup of tea and of course a small cake. Like I said: I can't actually eat like a Hobbit even though I might want to; I'd get far too stout)

(*And Second Breakfast is a really real thing in some farming cultures; in rural parts of Germany and Austria it's apparently a thing, and I remember my maternal grandmother setting a big table around 10 am when people would come visiting for their morning visits)