I had no idea you were all such party animals and vacation sloths! Look at you, three days after Christmas and you're still not at work! I know, I know, Hanukah is now in gear, but wow...am I the only one here?

I got four emails today. One was my horoscope, one was the NY Times top headlines I regularly receive, another was the buddhist quote I get daily from Tricycle magazine, and one was from a friend with her writing goals. These were all very readable and a pleasure to receive, but now that my spam blocker is ACTUALLy blocking out all my spam, my in-box truly feels lonely.

What is it about this time of year? If we were still close to nature in the way we originally were, would we be doing much of anything? Or would we be lying as close to the fire as humanly possible, stirring only long enough to toilet ourselves and shove morsels of dried animal flesh into our mouths?

It feels impossible to work, shop, drive, interact. I feel like the most that can be expected of me is to sit and read. I've been reading a lot. For pleasure, too, nothing whatsoever to do with the radio show or any kind of work. I read The Magus by Fowles, Truth & Beauty by Anne Patchett, and now I'm reading the first in a trilogy called The GOlden Compass, by Philip Pullman. I love reading! I think I'll pick up Didion's Year of Magical Thinking before I go on to book two of the Pullman series.

It's keeping me afloat in this otherwise dark (and wet) time of year. There are so many opportunities for despair this time of year, and I really feel like we are supposed to do little more than sleep and dream, yet, because we don't, we face off with the world when we are not properly available for it. Does that make sense? Our psyches are trying to shift into reverse but our lifestyles don't allow it.

Oi.

Back to work.
J