In the realm of amusing/not amusing, my NYE outing appeared to have landed me with a cold about a week later, which could have easily been covid, but also could totally not have been covid (I wasn't sick enough to warrant a venturing out to get a test and just thought I'd be better off isolating til it went away either way). Mostly it was just nasal stuffiness and later, a snotty kind of cough, but nothing screamed any dreaded familiar variants. Whatever it was it came on quickly the next weekend but has mostly vanished since. It also followed the usual path of most pre-2020 illnesses I used to land once or twice per year, so probably was just another particularly sticky virus. On one hand, knowing for sure would have made me feel at least like I'd gotten it and not died, but also I worried that it would make me risky and complacent at a time when I am not sure we should be just yet. Also that perhaps my masklessness on NYE that felt moderately safe was obviously not, and even if it wasn't covid, it could have been. So wearing one in larger gatherings still probably necessary (and maybe even smaller gatherings in certain places and certain times of the year.)
I do hate being sick, even if it's minor, so I rested a lot, drank a lot of tea, and worked slower on the whole with later starts, which means I need to kick it into high gear for the rest of January to meet my income goals. I did land a new writing job in the vintage/antiques niche, which should prove interesting and give me something else to work on certain days. Still,, there were lessons on the history of fortune-telling and Arthurian legends, articles on desserts and Victorian conservatories, and a must-have list for decking out your home library.
I hung some new artwork I procured over the holidays (including the beauty above courtesy of Caryn Drexl), made some new promo video content for the new book, and steadily worked on the tiny series of poems and collages that will be coming as a zine around Valentine's Day. I've been making a dent in the chaps that were paused in October and the orders that have come in since then, as well as shipping out the signed copies of my book. January and February always feel lengthier than other months, though ts mostly just the gloom and lack of light. The weather, while occasionally chilly, has been rather mild compared to other, harsher years, hovering in the 40s during the day. Whenever we are milder, it seems the weather is doing strange things in other parts of the country it usually doesn't do, so it likely means the jet stream is out of whack.
Today, I noticed that there was still light in the sky at 5 o'clock, which is something...
