notes & things | 12/18/2024

from THE WOODS

This week has found me with a it of tendonitus in my foot and a tendency of hobbling to and fro and alternately trying to stay entirely off it lest I inexplicably injure it again by, ya know, just walking. . But it being December and the holiday, its difficult more often than not and everywhere with stairs or several block walks in the cold, which seam to aggravate it more than just moving about the apartment. It's also been an experimental series of different shoe heel heights and a pair of inserts that seem to be working. It has been a whirl of movies (we saw Wicked (twice) and anniversary Imax presentation of Interstellar, and Batman Begins (a fave from my teen years and technically a X-mas movie.)  While some really bad traffic made us forgo our plans to see A Christmas Carol at the Goodman (high winds had a traffic light out at the top of LSD, which meant we would have been a half hour late for the curtain,so we bailed and saw Juror #2 instead.) We did however, get downtown to see & Juliet last week, a retelling of Shakespeare complete with boy band and Britney Spears songs that I have been happily and obsessively enjoying the soundtrack to over the weekend. 

This week is resting my foot and gearing up for a busy week next week, including tickets to see Les Miz and my next tattoo appt (both endeavors with many, many stairs to get to them)  Over the weekend, the Legally Blonde musical out in Skokie (though thankfully less stairs there.) We'll be spending the holiday in the city proper, but probably heading out to Rockford at the end of the week. We are going to grab Chinese takeout and  watch a movie with J's mom (who is Jewish, so usually does nothing that day) and then hole up and watch Christmas horror movies and eat snacks and chocolate.  Its still a weird mindfuck how holidays change. How routines and traditions fade and rebuild in new configurations.  I have very few  people to buy gifts for anymore and I keep giving J his early (in my defense one was a nice wool coat he badly needed ASAP in the abysmal weather.) I of course, am also going to buy myself some treats in the form of cozy blankets and delicious bath things. J is getting me a new television for the living room to replace the broken on (we watch everything in the bedroom the past couple of years.) This way, I'll be able to put things on while I work where I can see it from my desk. 

We've had a spate of grey and merciless days. the kind that feel like they are only a few hours long before that plunge into darkness this close to the solstice. The weather has been up and down, frigid last week on our way to the theater and then always too hot in the apartment where I open and close windows at least 2-3 times per day.  But this is December just being December. 

I do have a nice and tidy stack of RUINPORN copies I am sending out this week, and more collages to make for the art advent project amid daily writing about everything from budget holiday decor to a roundup of the best books on writing fiction  I am almost finished with my first read through from the summer manuscripts, so will be commencing the second and likely have responses out in January if all goes well. I will only be taking a handful, since the last batch is spilling into this one, but from a first go-through, there are many promising contenders for 2025.