faffing about

I should be finishing the final version of the syllabus for the Mount Holyoke course I am teaching in January. I should be writing my lectures for said course. Or writing a chapter of my dissertation. In fact, there are many things I should be doing on this cold winter's night. It's a long, long list, my friends.

What you will not find on that list are the following: jumping around the bedroom pretending to be a rock star whilst singing Buzzcocks songs, alternately reading my favorite NYT Modern Love articles from the last year or passages from You Shall Know Our Velocity, making and eating what feels like 101 crepes, watching Herzog films, or taking an obscenely long bath (think refilling with hot water twice). No, no, none of these things are on that to-do list of mine. Nope, not one. Which of course, means that these are the very things I have spent my Sunday doing.

Now it hasn't been all irresponsible fun and games. I've also managed some Christmas knitting and two very important transatlatic phone calls. Once I finish this post I am going to pull out the good stationary and write one or two long-overdue honest to goodness letters. (I promise to post them! Really!) At some point tonight-- and it will be a long night since my insomnia is back full force-- I will finish off a proposal.

Maybe it's the faffing about or maybe it's the lovely emails and phone calls some of you have sent, perhaps it's the winter air or the thought of far-away friends soon being near again, but whatever it is, I'm feeling particularly hopeful today. I think some very good things are coming this way... or maybe they've already starting revealing themselves. In any case, I'm excited about the new year. Very, very excited.

And now, back to the Buzzcocks...