10 hours in the car today and I'm back in black! Somehow it's approaching 1am and I still haven't unpacked but nevermind dears. There are leftover mince pies to be nibbled and emails to be checked, everything in its place and the like.
I had told Vaanie I would blog for her, but never quite made it to a computer. That was a pity too, because the day I arrived in Canberra I was feeling so damned poetic. Really! It was unusual, born I think of hours in the car reading Dave Eggers pretty intently, feeling all affected and quasi-inspired by this early-20s mid-1990s hyperbolic tender pomo bildungsroman-y memwah [note 'memoir' is now pronounced in the manner of John Malkovich's character in Burn After Reading, that sexy drawling beast]. Canberra is actually pretty incredbile. Ask me about it some time! I will be defend it staunchly, albeit ignorantly, having spent two pleasant days there in six years.
So then it's that drowsy feeling as though you're about to start sobering up, caused by ideas from books, lethargy, shitty fast food and a weird little inland country town whose sole tourist attraction is a hulking huge submarine hull enshrined in a grassy park. Holgarth! Pit stop of the century! It was strange days.
Saw family in Tocumwal. In summary: Christmas presents = 10 or so books, Van Gogh print, hip journal, two or three sundry items, nice things from Andy inc. customised headphones!. Christmas holiday: very nice, good wine, interesting salads, catching up, cool cousins, card games, entomological and etymological appreciation. Murray River, amateur fireworks. Suchlike.
During the course all this I realised I'm having a feeble sort of epiphany atm also, of the tired old self-improvement-through-literature variety, which is embarrassing. But kinda sweet too right? Reading list since going away last Tues:
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
- Orlando: A Biography - Vag Woolf
- A Room of One's Own - ditto, and consumed pretty much within the same 24 hour period!
- Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger
- The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton
Whatever shall I stumble through next! It's a toss up between The Adrian Mole Diaries and Great Expectations really, haha. Or some more Alain de Botton [Status Anxiety] but goddamn what a dork he art. The first half of Consolations is so banal, and the second is by turns *headdesk*ing and life-changing. Questionable questionable!
Further: my newish cartilage piercings are infected againn, crusting up the metal, can anyone figure out why I keep getting more of the damn things? Nine punctures, at last count. And a curiouser obstacle: I return home to find all my Papermate Gel Roller IIs have stopped working. They still have ink and everything, they've just been lying prone for waay too long! I've stopped writing! I forget to bring my notebook places, my journal has temporal gaps intimidatingly wide so I just feel guilty and forget about it. I fear my own creativity or lack thereof (if you don't try you can't fail, right? WRONG, the two are synonymous, one way only, in that a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not necessarily an equilateral, capiche?
So anyway this blog is just to say I'm going into hibernation until New Year's Eve. I will be doing my darndest not to Tumblr (some posts in the queue for y'all though) - the past 5 days I've only been on the internet once, five minutes on Facebook, and I felt alot more... vital? by the end of that. And this is kind of a blanket ban on all interaction: There's a party tomorrow night. I'm not going. And noone ask me out for coffee or anything until January either please my darlings. There is much to do!
- reading pile exactly 30 books high, if lain cover on cover. some titles are less enticing than others and will probably be relegated to the bottom for another year or so, but nonetheless. much to be carrying on with! see epiphany.
- oodles of TV on DVD to consume over rolling hills of ironing
- I'm going to make something. not sure what yet, but There Will Be Glitter!
- I have to cook and clean while mum's away in Melbourne, work that vagina yeah
- like three potentially life-altering medical appointments to configure
- should really tart up my resume
- should REALLY get my L's
Happy Holidays and all that!
