ma2

Nice imagery.

I feel like time is racing past as well... I've been feeling that way for years. I guess it's part of getting older.

"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."
-- Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

Good for you. There's nothing harder than changing your routine, especially if it's one you generally enjoy. I have been trying to train myself to eat less but at the end of the day, I don't see that much in the way of results. Man, it's hard to diet in this country. Sure there's lots of diet propaganda aruond, and sure there are lots of good choices in the grocery store of things you should eat... but then there's the other stuff: everywhere you look there are restaurants hawking their densely caloric products, and commercials, bilboards, and worse than any of that, social pressure to conform. What's wrong with you? Why are you spoiling our fun by reminding us that we're eating crap?

Whatever your resolutions may be, I am impressed that a month after New Years Eve, it's even a subject for conversation with you! Cheers.

Man I envy your plans. I could really use a departure from this town right quick. If you can, do a tour diary for us folks that need vicarious freedom.

When I was a teenager in NYC I used to love going to The Strand - a gigantic shrine to rare and interesting as well as ordinary used books in lower Manhattan. NYC is a great place for books in general, being a publishing center. Now I find my best books in Goodwill shops here in the DC area. In fact, that's likely what everyone in my family is getting this year.

Christmas is only good in the ways that it is good. Of course the rampant commercialism is awful. I veer away from that. I try to make gifts for people and focus on Christmas being an excuse to reunite with loved ones and friends. And to have the lovely tree and the joyous feast. If I can manage to be joyous... sometimes it ain't easy.

I'm in DC in January. Let me know if you make it here!

I've been listening to Phil Ochs a fair bit lately. Given our current foreign adventures I'm surprised there hasn't been a renewed interest in his work. I've also been wondering more and more about whether or not I'm actually accomplishing anything or just taking up space and being a good consumer.