Happy New Year?
Normally the new year brings some sense of renewal or rebirth. I’m not much for either New Year’s Eve partying or for resolutions, but the rest of the world seems to celebrate both, and so the passage of time somehow seems more profound. Except that this new year didn’t feel that new to me. Maybe it was the dreariness of winter clinging to me, or that I was so busy at work, or that I didn’t make a big celebration of it. But the new year doesn’t feel very new this time around.
Fortunately, I’m heading down to Austin in—yikes!—11 days. Not only will the weather be reasonable, but I’ll see friends I haven’t seen in ages, and I’m running a half-marathon. I trained pretty well until the start of the new year, so I’m trying to get back on track with a few more good runs before heading south. I plan to do a split long run over the next two days, running two separate 5-mile runs in less than 24 hours. I’ll follow it up with another 5- or 6-miler this weekend, and then a couple short runs, and then race day! It’s a downhill course, and if the weather’s in the 50s or 60s as expected, I could be able to set a PR if I can overcome the mental rut I’m in right now. Hopefully a big dose of Texas sunshine and a half-gallon of Bluebell Cookies n’ Cream will do it.
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current book: I read a lot over Christmas: The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Ice Storm, An Abundance of Katherines, and Stuart: A Life Backwards. I should blog on the last two books, and all of you should go read An Abundance of Katherines as soon as possible, if only for the fantastic footnotes. I have Annie Dillard’s The Maytrees in my work bag, but I did the crossword puzzle on the bus this morning instead of cracking it open.
current music: Saw Canasta play at Simon’s last night. It ended up being a great show—the space there was really small, and I thought that might adversely affect them, but it was a lot of fun. And they even covered Kraftwerk’s The Model!
current socks: Tall, fuzzy blue argyles.
Posted 14 January 2008
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I meant to comment about this when you mentioned you were reading “The Ice Storm,” but have you seen the movie? Because I think it’s a rare example of a movie that’s better than the book. In the book Moody seems so preoccupied with all of the accoutrements of the time period: every page seems to read “lol ’70s.” The film definitely captures the setting, too, but without all the ironic smirkiness. Also, part of my senior thesis in college was about images and constructs of (racial) “whiteness” in the novel.
I think the majority of the world talks themselves into being excited about New Years because I never talk to anyone who actually looks forward to it. This year, for the first time ever, we deliberately chose to stay in and do what we actually enjoy – cooking with family. We were in bed before midnight.
P.S. I’m jealous that you get to go to Austin. Love that town. Have fun!
I owe you an email regarding some queso! Coming up shortly, dear.
will you loan me that katherines book when next you come?
i’ll treat it right.
i’m suddenly reading again.
books without pictures!
books with many many words!
grown up books!
i’ll trade you the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay,
which i am loving quite a lot, if you’re interested.