constance | Ring in the new

Wow, has it really been two weeks? I keep meaning to sit down and write, but either I am not having the time or the internets are not having me, and so I missed most of the holiday season. I do have things to say, but for now, I will just wish you all the very happiest of all possible 2008s.

Personal: Oy, it's all personal to me! Generally, though, I am in an excellent headspace these days, my friends. I am sitting in my study writing this on the clearest, windiest (the porch chairs are trembling!), most beautiful winter afternoon. It is the first day of 2008, after kind of a hard 2007. It is a good way to start.

Professional: I did have to go in to work this morning for a little while. On New Year's Day! It doesn't seem right that while most people experience a dead halt in all incoming work on the last week of the year, my own workload increases tenfold, and then for the server go down yesterday! Of all times! Working alone in an office, though, it carries its own subtle pleasures. The pleasures of the radio turned up loud, the pleasures of uninterrupted time. The combination of the two means that you finish much more quickly than you would with the phone ringing every ten minutes. And you know, if this is the worst I can say about my job, then I think I'll stick around for a while.

Medical: OMG, it turns out that all those soi-disant "Medical Professionals" who natter on about "eating a balanced diet" and "getting exercise" being "good for you" are right. Now that I am not eating at restaurants for every meal, now that I am working out, not only have I lost weight (which was why I embarked on this health kick in the first place), but also! My blood pressure is down. My cholesterol is down. I have more energy. I sleep better. And for the first time ever in a ten-year history of regular blood and platelet donation, they are not spinning my blood through a hemastat to determine whether my iron levels are high enough to donate. They just are! We all know it! I never thought the sight of a drop of blood sinking steadily in liquid could be so sublimely satisfying, but it is. And I thought I was healthy before, really, but now that I know what good health really tastes like, I'm not missing those cheeseburgers so much.

Dietary: I have preempted this one! Oh well.

Physical: Okay, is it just me, or are the worlds of the Medical/Dietary/Physical so interrelated as to be kind of hard to differentiate? Maybe better planning or more smartnesses would have yielded three separate answers on my part, but. I am not going back; you're just going to have to live with my one answer! Here's another thing, though, that I only now thought of: I must need new glasses, or possibly my middle age is settling more firmly over me, because I am sometimes having trouble reading tiny print. Don't tell anyone, though; it will be our secret.

Domestic: I am still so in love with my house that most of my other passions, and I have many enthusiastic passions, dim by comparison. There are the pets, though, who are at least as beloved, and the ones who survived the year are well, and one of my two New Year's resolutions is to get the dog into school. I think he'd be good at herding. Or agility.

Creative (fannish): Just a few things. None of them particularly wonderful, but I do love thinking about my house for Harry and Ginny, because I love thinking about houses. And Harry. And Ginny. And Harry and Ginny. (Also, I owe a couple of people stories and I haven't forgotten.)

Creative (original): I don't know whether I should be embarrassed or not to admit that most of my creative energies this year have been poured into this bloglike thing. Sure, there's the occasional project, but for the most part, this is what I like best, the internet and you and me. We work well together.

Literary: My favorite book read this year was, I think, The Yiddish Policeman's Union, but I was also most fond of Kafka on the Shore. This year I also read all the Mary Poppins books for the first time (hi,

amelia_eve!), a truckload of comics, most of which were recommended by you, and William T. Vollman's Rising Up and Rising Down, among other things. I recommend all.

Cinematic: I don't go to the movies much any more, which means that there's usually some lag time before I get round to seeing a thing. But I loved Across the Universe and Grindhouse, and that one sequence in Waitress makes me want to be in love, and I thought Paprika was a kick, and I Am Legend hit me so unexpectedly hard, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, that I had to go collect myself in the ladies' room for a few minutes. And I've got several movies all ready to watch (There Will Be Blood, American Gangster, Persepolis, Hot Fuzz, Sicko, Sweeney Todd, and so many more!). I was going to see them over the holidays, but did I mention being busy? It just never happened. It'll happen eventually.

And I'm wishing for a new Miyazaki film in 2008. I'm in the mood for another one.

Theatrical: What is this thing you call the theatre? I would've liked to have seen

octoberstory in Amadeus this summer, but alas, no time to hit the midwestern theater circuit.

Political: I AM READY FOR IT TO BE OVER. ONE MORE YEAR. I know, I know, that not much will change. But I keep hoping, against all odds, against all indications to the contrary, that this time they really, really will. What a sap I am.