Better late than never, right?

I said the other day I’d lost interest in writing a new years’ resolution post while I was trying to write it, but apparently that was a lie, because I still want to write it. It’s been on my mind a lot.

I think it’s because I have real ones, I think for the first time ever. I had a big plan for 2013. The college where I work was going to add a Masters program that I was very, very interested in, and I was really excited and gearing up to dedicate basically the next two years of my life to it. However, that’s not happening. The program is not going to go (yet. They’re still hoping to get it off the ground in the near future, and if they do, I’ll probably be first in line because it will be great), so now I feel like I have this big gap to fill.

It’s made me think a lot about all those big grown-up things. What I want to be doing, how I feel about my job and where I’m going with it, how I feel about where I live and whether or not I want to stay here for at least two more years. Jesus, all this sounds so adult even as I’m writing it and it’s weird. As soon as I’m done here I’m going to go eat a bunch of sugary things and jump on my bed to try to feel like a kid again.

But suddenly I find myself making all these big plans and changes, even if they actually seem like small ones. So with that in mind: resolutions. Which actually seem to be sticking so far, amazingly enough.

First, I want to finally start sending out some writing for publication. I’m nearly five years out of college with a writing degree. I should be writing, and working towards being a writer, since that’s what I actually want to do. So it’s time to start polishing the stories I have, and keep working on writing more.

I want to use my time better. By which I basically mean less Netflix, more reading, writing, and even knitting. I waste too much time doing absolutely nothing productive, and I could get way, way better at that.

I want to finally go on a real trip this year. I have a friend that does guided hikes through the Swiss Alps, and he’s been trying to get me to go since I was still a student. And I have no big plans for this year (not anymore, anyway!), so I’m going to finally get a passport and finally go see somewhere new.

In the same vein of wasting less time and doing more, I’ve been thinking for awhile about starting a zine. I’ve been planning and messing around with ideas, and getting more and more excited about doing it. So I’m starting a zine! I even wrote some stuff for it already, and I got a name all picked out. More on that later, that’s for sure. I talked awhile ago about how I was on the lookout for a project, and I think this is my project.

Finally, I want to make my apartment look good. It’s the first apartment I’ve ever moved in without already having some idea of when I’d move out again. It’s also the first apartment where that one-year lease benchmark passed without me even thinking about whether I wanted to move somewhere else. I love my apartment. It’s nice, and old, and it suits me and it has a great kitchen, and my friends and I are finding that it’s pretty great for throwing parties. But I still have things that are in boxes, and books that don’t have shelves, and my desk is sort of a repository for all the old mail and odds and ends and junk that I hide when I throw a party. So I want to make my apartment look as great as it could be.

So that’s my plan for 2013. Growing up, basically. More on all of that later. Because like I said last time, I do plan to blog more. So you’ll get to hear about all of this stuff.

Here we go

I was gonna do a post about new year's resolutions, even though it's already a week into the year. But then I realized I haven't posted in two months (again). Maybe that should be one of my resolutions.

Quit ignoring your blog, Kat!

Either way, I'm pretty excited for this year. I feel like it's going to be a good one. More on all of that later. I swear. I think. If I don't keep forgetting to blog again.

Sorry I'm so lazy at this.

Fun fact part deux:

Every time I see a spider in my shower, which is fairly often, I immediately name it Steve. I don't remember deciding this. I just see them, and go, "Morning, Steve. Do me a favor and stay up in your corner, ok? Enjoy the steam, and try not to fall down into my shampoo or anything. Thanks, buddy."

It reminds me of in the Betsy-Tacy books, how Betsy's family always named their horses Old Mag. I think this is my justification for not stopping myself from that particular bit of innocuous insanity.

A bookish weekend

I feel like it has to be a very good sign when you walk up to the register with a book, and the guy behind the counter says, "No! I wanted to read that! Now I'll have to order it again!"

To which I replied, "Tough! I'm buying it!"

Yesterday I went up to Taos for the wool festival. I managed to restrain myself to just one skein of very pretty sock yarn. But I also bought a book at Moby Dickens, the little indie bookshop there. I've bought a book there almost every time I've gone to Taos, because I like supporting indie bookshops. Also I like new books.

This one was one of five new books I got this week. I got The Casual Vacancy and John Hodgman's boxed set (both from Amazon. I like supporting indie bookshops, but I also like free shipping, and that I can buy books and odd-sized knitting needles at the same time). And the one from Moby Dickens is called My Mother She Killed Me and my Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales. Which I couldn't resist buying, because it's exactly the sort of things I keep writing. Plus, it includes about a dozen authors I adore.

So I look forward to hopefully reading those sometime in the near future, after I finish the big, fat book I'm already reading, and the other ones in my pile to read as well.

The pile has gotten very large lately. I'm reading just as fast as I can. With breaks for knitting and Doctor Who.

Oh, and movies. I'm going to go see The Perks of Being a Wallflower later, based on yet another book I re-read recently. It's been a good couple of weeks for books, is what I'm saying.

Fun fact:

Whenever I'm walking down a long, empty hallway, I almost always get an urge to do a cartwheel.

My office is at the end of a longish hallway, and most of the offices are empty, since a bunch of people got moved to a different building, and the rest are in meetings all the time.

I can't tell you how many days I've had to consciously suppress the urge to do a cartwheel at work.

So far I've only done it once.

Excuses and whatnot

Ok, I know once again I haven't blogged in a long time. But in my defense, I've been thinking about blogging a lot. That counts, right? Don't you all feel better knowing that?

I'm actually only partly joking. I have been thinking about it a lot, because for awhile there, I was on the hunt for a big, bloggable project I could do. I really like things like the Julie/Julia project, or any of the hundreds of similar blogs, that pick one thing they're passionate about and dive in. And lately I'm in love with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (It's brilliant, please go watch all of it right now). I like the idea of focusing closely on one piece of literature and either analyzing or interpreting it, especially in a way that's as fun as this.

But every project I think of has either been done, or I'm not passionate enough about it to feel like I could do it justice. Also, I'm barely techno-literate, and I don't feel like learning enough about it to figure out things like photoshop and vlogging. I'm good with just babbling here.

Also, it occurs to me that all the things I truly love to do are very slow, quiet activities that would most likely be boring to either watch or read about. Knitting. Reading. Writing. These are things I do while sitting by myself, and while I'm happy to give the occasional update, there's not a ton else I want to say about them to you all. I do those mostly for me, and I'm very happy with that so far.

So I think I shall just carry on as I have been. I mean, hopefully with more actual blogging than has gone on of late, but still. I'll still keep an eye out for a project that grabs me, because I like having projects, but for now it'll just be the usual ridiculous stuff. Luckily, there's no shortage of it all. Not only that, but there are things on the horizon that feel like things will be picking up for me a bit. Most likely I'll have some slightly more exciting things to report in the next year or two (Yes, I am starting to make plans that will last a couple of years!). More on those later. So I'll be here. As always.

Back with a... something

There is a pigeon that lives on my upstairs' neighbors' deck. It mostly perches directly above the skylight above my kitchen. This pigeon seems to spend all of its waking hours either:

A- pooping directly on the skylight above my kitchen

or

B- making noises that are just quiet and rhythmic enough to sound like people having sex in another room.

Thanks, pigeon. You're the best.

(I know it's been months since I posted. I kept thinking about what I should say about this, or what kind of post I should write to get myself back into it. Then I decided I was overthinking it, so you get this instead.

Did you miss me?)