Toward the end of December, I wrote a post called "Things to DO in 2013," which was mainly about how I want to do and produce things again. It was basically New Year's resolutions, but less like promises to myself (to be easily broken) and more like an outline of different kinds of work to be done.
I'm writing my summary of January on February 12, so obviously I'm behind on this. Rather than giving up, I just hope to do better each month, so that maybe by December I'll be able to get a whole month's work done.
If you've followed me on Twitter for a while, then you know about the puppies and how much work they've been (I found a stray dog 3 months ago, and eight weeks ago she gave birth to three puppies). I've tried to think of how I could have avoided this situation, but at every stage, I made what I felt to be the "right" choice. So here I've been, doing silly little puppy things rather than the silly little creative things I need to be doing in order to work my way towards some sort of silly little career in the silly little creative arts. Can you tell that I have difficulty allowing myself to feel that anything I do or want to do is important? (Thanks so much, Dad.)
I did get a few things done in January. I'll just go through the whole outline of what I wanted to do and fill in what I've actually got:
Daily Translations: None. I found out that the Italian book I wanted to translate into English had already been translated (under the title Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto), and that felt a bit too copyright infringy for me. I haven't gotten around to finding public domain materials to translate.
Daily Short Stories: None. I'd imagined these as blog entries, but maybe if I just did 140-character ones on Twitter I'd be more likely to actually write them. I still have difficulty putting pen to paper on fiction anymore, much less sharing it. My brain's a mess of insecurities.
Weekly "Quality," Non-puppy-related YouTube Videos: One. Sort of. I still haven't bought a decent video camera, but I did drag a lamp and some chairs around and slather concealer all over my nose and put some thought into what I talked about. But it's just another rehash of things I've done in the past, which is sort of against the rules of this project. Anyway, here it is (I posted it once to twitter already):
Weekly "Quality" Photographs: I (re)learned how to use the timer on my dinosauric digital camera (which doesn't do as much as I thought it did), and took this picture of my hands. I haven't been able to get back into Flickr yet, so for now I'll just put the picture here:
(I stood between my "office" window and the open closet door to get this light effect. I've had this brown plaid shirt/jacket for over ten years. For a couple of years in college, I wore it on Habitat for Humanity work sites where it became worn and covered in paint flecks. Since then, all the old paint has gradually flaked off and been replaced by new paint. The sleeves are practically shredded, but I love this old thing and can't seem to get rid of it or even stop wearing it now and then.)
Weekly "Artwork": None.
Weekly Essays: None.
Weekly Exercise Goals: One week, I did squats, lunges and jumping jacks on three out of the seven days, so there's that, I guess? When I'm planning to do this kind of stuff, it seems like it should be worthwhile, but whenever I'm actually doing it, it feels like a vain waste of time. I did run with the dog almost every day. And I accidentally starved/dehydrated myself down to 118.5 pounds around the middle of the month, but I'm already back to 130. Now February's half gone. How about I do crunches every day? Whatever style and however many, as long as I get on the floor and do at least one. That's half the battle anyway, isn't it... just getting on the floor and getting started?
Monthly Performance of an Original Song: None. I started thinking of one one evening, but I must have decided there was something more pressing to be done than picking up an instrument and working out a melody. Now I can't remember what it was. I probably had to take out a bag of puppy poo or something.
Monthly Design and Creation of a Shirt or Dress: None. I still don't have a sewing machine or fabric. I have ideas but haven't even sketched them. I used to want to make costumes for a living! I feel like I'm betraying my young self here.
Monthly Book Review: None. For some reason *coughTwitter!* I haven't been reading nearly as much as I usually do lately. I read a few chapters of a book called "How Music Works," but it tries so hard to be entertaining that it bores me. I may have to get something more technical and textbooky if I actually want to learn about music.
Goal of Trying 100 New Recipes in 2013: RIGHT ON TRACK!! I tried eight new recipes in January and wrote them all up:
#1. French Toast with Sauteed Ripe and Green Tomatoes
#2. Onion, Thyme and Goat Cheese Tarts
#3. Vegan Chiles Rellenos-Type Things
#4. Puff Pastry Cinnamon Twists
#5. White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies, with and without macadamia nuts
#6. Pasta e Fagioli
#7. Avocado and Chickpea Salad
#8. Curried Lentils and Spinach
I was going to make these into links, but the puppies are scream-crying for their lunch. You can find them all written up in my blog, although #'s 5-8 were written up in FEBRUARY even though I cooked them in January. I will go ahead and tell you the best ones were: the french toast, the onion tarts, the pasta e fagioli, the avocado and chickpea salad, and the curried lentils. The others were good, but maybe not worth the trouble.
Okay, got to go. Bye!
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