The Time Has Come, The Walrus Said

I have resisted getting on the scale since I returned from Los Angeles, but now it is no longer avoidable: I have gained 3lbs in TWO WEEKS, showing you exactly how being home at my parents’ might have been good for the psyche but terrible on the waistline. This negates the 10lbs I lost last year so now my resolution is to lose 15lbs, not 5. I did it last year. I can do it again. (If you read that last paragraph and tell me my math is screwy, don’t worry, I already know it is. I haven’t gained back all the weight, but I would like to lose more than I lost last year. So nyah.)

Last night the diet went to shit because I had a drink with Sofa. ONE DRINK. I am now hungover. This always seems to happen when I’m out with my darling Sofa; I know I’ve drunk more than this before and have felt fine the morning after, but whenever my blonde friend suggests we go to a bar, I wake up feeling like death. I even made it home before midnight like a good Cinderella, but no. I have a manuscript to write an editorial letter for and my own novel to revise today, as well as my mother to see tonight and I just want to return to bed and curl up with a White-Harp.

Well, the handmade/being crafty resolution is still going strong. Because Bear and I didn’t see each other over Christmas, we decided to exchange gifts this weekend when we get to see each other. The gift I’m giving him isn’t handmade, but how I wrapped it is certainly crafty.

How I wrapped Bear\’s Christmas gift

1. The gift before I wrapped it.
2. The finished product in all its glory!
3. I used a blue plastic bag, a paper bag (both from the grocery store), a Sharpie, and some scissors. Eco-friendly, y’all!
4. I started doodling on the brown paper bag with the Sharpie and made a pom-pom out of the blue plastic bag following this tutorial on Creature Comforts.
5. A little flowery doodle.
6. White-Harp!
7. After I realised that flowers probably weren’t appropriate for winter, I drew a wintry tree.
8. Inscription to Bear!

I’m pretty proud of it, if I do say so myself.

I am now completely out of new material to read and/or re-read (having just finished rereading Flora Segunda. I find this a depressing state to be in, especially as I have a bazillion other books in my apartment. (One of the advantages of living with a fellow booknerd is that we have a lot of books. One of the disadvantages of living with a fellow booknerd is that we rapidly run out of places to store them.) But I’m in a queer mood when it comes to my reading habits and I want something I haven’t read. My reading habits go through as many cycles as my bipolar moods: sometimes I want comfort reading, sometimes I want something thoughtful, sometimes I want something new. I really, really want to read Flora’s Dare, but I am too poor to afford the hardcover and too impatient to go to libraries and search/wait for it. I’m a book-buyer, not a book-borrower, unfortunately for my pocketbook, although probably good for the publishing industry. The only problem with this habit is that there is no infinite space. And no infinite money.

Hmmm. I am suddenly struck with the odd desire to reread Moll Flanders. I have absolutely no idea where that came from. Possibly because I love the piratical aspect of Flora Segunda, and what is the most famous book about pirates? A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson, thought by some scholars to be a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe. What is my favourite book by Daniel Defoe? Why, it’s Moll Flanders!

(…I think I may have to go hang myself for betraying the depth of my geekiness.)

I was never much for 18th century fiction, but now I’m thinking of also rereading Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. I’m in the mood for something comic and something picaresque.