Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Strides
Regarding painting: mission accomplished. Well, basically. Just have a few spots in the kitch to touch up. (Red is hard! So many coats! You were right, B...) Oh, and then a final coat of blue on a thin strip of one wall, where a severe case of the splotchies has emerged.
Ah, but then I'll be done, and then I'll have to find something else to distract myself w/. I've been feeling generally anxious--and of course, sad. This makes it sorta hard to concentrate on books, and not even a breezy magazine can hold my attention for very long. Music's been a constant, and I mentioned the writing, and (no surprise) friends and family have been awesome, but it's still hard to return home to a big empty apartment at the end of the day. I do have the running, which, while I haven't written much about it, I've been back into for about a month now, and it's going well. Every week I up my every-other-day sessions by a half mile, and this week has me running two (mi)/walking a half/running two. I haven't really been paying much attention to time, but I know I'm doing faster than the prescribed 10:00s. Still, I'm not hurting, and I'm no doubt going way slower than pre-injury, so I feel okay about it.
This a.m. I huffed it up to the beauteous Prospect Park, which was satisfying because up until this week's two-mile increments, it was hard to justify the 3/4-mile run just to get to the park's edge, when I knew I'd have to turn around so soon after. Anyway, it wasn't all that early, but the rolling green lawn was already speckled w/ people, kids, dogs... I kept to the road rather than veering off along one of the many trails that spoke out from it, and while the (slight) uphills had me breathing a little heavier than I would've liked, it felt good to be out there beneath the trees.
Thing is, running doesn't always, in my experience, live up to its reputation as a mood-stabilizing, mental health-promoting activity. Well, I believe that it does in the long-term, but on a per-run basis, it doesn't necessarily apply. This is because running, for me, tends to magnify my thoughts--so like, whatever it is I'm thinking about during a given round is given added scrutiny. When I'm in an upbeat headspace, or, say, reflecting on some new writing project, this is very much a positive. But then when I'm struggling w/ or mourning something (ahem), it's not so welcome. Still, I like that I seem to be, finally, taking myself seriously as a runner again, because for awhile there, back when my run-walk-runs cleared all of two miles, it wasn't easy to treat my running as anything more than, well, kind of a joke. It's still far short of where it once was, but it's nice to be climbing.
It's like my life in general, really: climbing, just not at my desired pace. ;)
Sunday, April 22, 2007
A little late, but...
If you didn’t understand why choice is about women’s rights, there is no clearer example.
Jennifer Rolnick
New York, April 19, 2007
Yes.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Can you veto a person?
Urg, I cannot get myself to work. And the pile's only gonna grow, considering that as of May 15 I will indeed begin servings as assistant to a second person-who-matters. Bluh. I don't care--I'll just work twice as fast in order that I may continue to accommodate my job-w/in-a-job here at Big Movies Int'l. You know, the one that I intended to take on full-time in moving here. Yet self-loathing and all, I'm still pleased w/ how my freelance writing life is shaping up: I take on what I can/want to, thus avoid (most of) the stress of having to pull a working income out of it. At the moment I've got another RW pitch in the works, and then there are two CT stories begging to be written... One thing I'm frustrated w/ is the fact that large-circ magazines can sometimes take FOREVER to move a story through the publication process (initial acceptance, contractual stuff, decision as to which upcoming issue will house the story, editing, rewriting, fact-checking, illustration, blah blah, on and on). This means that one of my essays won't see print for a good year after it was accepted. If I were more virtuous in the patience department, maybe I wouldn't whine, but garsh, I need my fix.
I cannot stop listening to these guys. Can Not. In fact, I've been listening to music nonstop these last couple of weeks, and I'm enjoying it like never before. I hardly even miss cable/Internet at home. Still, I'll be all wired and good to go by next week, which will again make possible some of my more troubling habits. Oh, Al.
Saw Spidey 3 last night--my company's premiere of it. My review: Yes! Better than 1 and 2. Toby Maguire typically does little for me, but there's one scene in which he, as bad-ass, black-suited Spiderman, busts out the dance moves, and I tell ya, it'll split your side. Funny! No kidding. Oh, and the part where Sandman emerges for the first time--rising and falling, rising and falling, until he finally manages to hold himself together--is pretty marvelous, as are really all of the special effects, even if the fight scenes went on a bit longer than my delicate self needed them to.
And hey, look what I found! It's like, real life!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Duel
Friday, April 13, 2007
"Prejudice tolerated is intolerance encouraged"
Today's Opinion section of the Times.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut: 1922-2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Scoop
Wha-, huh? We still hang out? Still pose for pictures together? You don't say! Hee--I love this man forevs. In this instance, it's right after a thanks-to-Susan showing of Grey Gardens, which was most excellent. This woman is true-to-reviews incredible, and the whole of the evening, night before move-day, was exactly perfect.
Here's the desk: all sorts of potential. At the suggestion of a friend, I've decided to make it into a writer's nook, much as I hate the word "nook." Following a needed painting of the entire apartment, I'll add a chalkboard above (in the form of a stripe that'll run around the corner and up to the front door--hard to see, but trust it works), along w/ a stack of relevant books, an assortment of (framed, cheaply) literary mugs (when in Dublin, I bought a calendar, now all cut up, w/ these exact images inside), a bulletin board to end all bulletin boards [correction: no, no, no! this was at $2 two hours ago! time for plan b], and of course, my laptop--which, true true, will likely rest desktop for photo opps and photo opps alone, preferring as it does the bed/floor/tub-I-don't-have over a proper work surface.
Kitchen, one day from RED.
Uh, hallway?
Scarfholder.
