What I meant to say in yesterday's sidebar was that I have been listening to The Pleasure of My Company on my iPod, written and read by Steve Martin. I like it even better than Shopgirl --he has a real gift for simile, that Steve Martin--and it lends itself well to the audiobook format. Except for the irritating little music between the chapters, which features a woman singing, "Da do dit dit da da, da doo dit dah..." When I type it out like that, I can hear it in my head. Annoying!

I am also listening to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which I started on the way to Los Angeles. I wrote down a lot of things that make no sense to me so far in the book. I am like six hours into it and still sort of irritated by it. (When I finish it, maybe my questions will have been answered.) One thing I notice listening to audiobooks in general is that sometimes I have to hear the words, then visualize them on the page, and only then do I comprehend them. I'm so visual that it is a completely different experience for me, reading this way.

I also finished--ba-dummm-Life of Pi for my book club. Apparently not everyone reads it like this, but I thought the ending of the book revealed the tiger story to be an elaborate metaphor, and his other story to be the truth. I thought the fact that he asked the investigators 'which story did you like better?' indicated that he had chosen the story that wasn't true, but was more enjoyable, and maybe less painful to him. I also thought his comment that Richard Parker was "someplace you'll never find him" indicated him to be a creature of Pi's imagination. Other than that, I enjoyed the second part of the book very much. The first part had some persuasive stuff about zoos (it did make me feel very pro-zoo) and some kind of boring stuff about religion. I know some of the book clubbers hated this book, so it should be a fun discussion.

And now on to the "resolutions" part. My resolutions this year (and how they are going so far) are as follows:

1. Remember people's birthdays. I make this resolution every year and fail. I have a birthday calendar hanging up next to my desk at work, but do I ever get off my ass and send so much as an e-card? Well occasionally I do. Occasionally I even remember to send presents! But mostly I forget. (This should not prevent you from knowing that I turn thirty on March 20. Thirty! THIRTY. Ack.)

2. Bike a century (a 100-mile ride) this year. I am going to be writing about that over at Ointy, because of course this goal is comprised of many mini-goals, and I need to get started on this one right away. (As of January 11, this goal has not gotten off the ground. But it will! Oh, it will.)

3. Take vitamins. My new system is to keep my daily vitamin with my daily antibiotic, and therefore I won't forget to take it. We'll see how that goes. (As of January 11, I think I have taken it twice. Not great.)

4. Type and edit my grandmother's life story. I am not entirely sure where this notebook is, since the painting of the house happened. But I need to dig this up and start typing. (Progress report: I did find the notebook! Now I have to try and decipher my father's handwriting. And decide how much of my own spin to put on the translation.)

5. Make a writing date with myself once a week. I have to prioritize writing this year. It occurs to me that I could do this over my lunch break; it doesn't just have to be an evening thing. But anyway, it is important to me to get back to writing extensively this year. (I did do some writing this weekend, but I haven't typed up the poems yet. Maybe Gertrude Stein will help me with this.)

6. Do various proactive things with my writing. For instance, generate a copywriting portfolio. Carry a notebook wherever I go. Apply for a Fulbright grant to do my van Gogh project. Continue submitting my poetry to magazines. Submit my finished lost objects manuscript (once it is finished) to contests. Keep up with all my various online writing. Etcetera. (I found out that one of my poems made it to the last round at Conduit but ultimately was a no go. So disappointing, but I will try again...)

7. Clean out my closet. I need to clear out my closet and get rid of the piles and piles of entirely useless crap that is currently taking up space. This will also involve clearing out the garage. And my desk. Man, I could spend an entire week just purging things. Clear the clutter. Clear the clutter! (Believe it or not, even though this has been on my to-do list for three years, I actually made some serious progress on this one this weekend! I loaded two bags full of "get rid of this" stuff and took notes on and pictures of a whole pile of stuff to sell on eBay.)

8. Answer email as soon as I receive it. I am tired of letting email pile up in my inbox! I need to get in the habit of answering it as soon as I read it instead of sitting it around waiting to craft a thoughtful response, then by the time I answer it, I only have five minutes anyway and my response is like one sentence. (My new strategy is to leave the email, unread, in my inbox, so I don't have to answer it. This is, if anything, a worse strategy.)