It is so cold and bleak and rainy it’s like someone rewound the year to February. I refuse to turn my heat on in May on principle, instead I am wrapped up in sweaters and thick socks and drinking absurd amounts of mint tea.
Also, kittens are hogging all the blankets.
And Tessa appears to be a pirate, or she’s trying, at least.
Pre-BEA post forthcoming, possibly with packing photos if I can keep kittens out of suitcases.
Little bits of things today, because my brain is all unfocused. I’ve been doing things in fits and starts for days, so the blogging can have a similar, disjointed feel for the start of this week.
I have contact lenses! I had to wear my trial pair all last week and they were proclaimed satisfactory this weekend. I’m still getting used to them but they’re not nearly as strange as I had anticipated, and while I’m sure I’ll still default to my glasses out of convenience, it’s absolutely marvelous to have the option.
I also have new suitcases, since I have traveling to do in the impending future. Tessa likes them, so that’s something.
I spent part of the weekend finishing reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I mentioned on Twitter when I was halfway through that I loved it like candy (dank, possibly haunted candy) and I continued to love it through to the end. Marvelously moody and perfect spring thunderstorm reading, curled up in a corner with a blanket, being stared at by a cat.
Speaking of Waters, I’ve noticed that I get asked about my literary influences and my mind almost always goes completely blank, or there are just so many that I don’t know where to start. I should start compiling a master list. Sarah Waters belongs on it, of course. Fingersmith is still my favorite of hers, though I did love this one a lot in a completely different way.
I just got the new Fleet Foxes album and I’m not sure what I think about it yet, but it’s growing on me.
I have been meaning to post this for ages and kept forgetting, of course: My friend Eleanor was at the London Book Fair and posted an inside look at some of the circusy things on her blog, including a peek at the still-elusive UK cover.
I think that’s it. Kind of can’t believe that BEA is only two weeks away, have to work on the rest of my “to-do before BEA” list.
Other people have likely said more articulate and poignant things than I can manage for today.
It is a sunshine-soaked Monday. It is, somehow, strange time that tumbles ever on, already May.
I bought an orchid this morning that looks as though it has been splattered with paint.
It is a gorgeous day today, springy and warm and bright. Took the long way back and forth from the post office and brought the camera, some additional shots are over on the oft-neglected Flickr photostream.
I am cleaning my studio today, and amongst all the other questionable artifacts tucked into dust-covered corners (spools of fishing line? a Ouija board? a May 1999 NYC subway map?) I found a pile of old photos & I thought I’d scan a couple to share.
So this is me in New Hampshire circa 2004, with an apple and far too much hair:
And this is me in South Boston circa 1980, with a fabulous hat:
There’s a thick layer of foam padding on the bottom of the box. I hope she doesn’t expect that to be a standard cardboard box feature from now on.
