Monday: resoluting

The task of self-improvement would be significantly helped by less self-implosion. February is a cruel month if Lent didn't start during it, the suffering would seem completely pointless. At least in Lent one attributes some portion of the the misery to the realities of self-reflection and improvement and fasting and guilt. It's sort of like being depressed right before one's period: even if there's not a causal relationship, there MIGHT be and that is enough of a promise of a better tomorrow to pull through.

February really doesn't have much going for it. The snow and cold are no longer novel or charming, nor is the new year. The winter wardrobe is getting boring but even the clearance winter items are thin in the stores. Holidays and vacations are done with. It's too early to be glad for (unseasonably) warm weather and too early to let oneself anticipate spring. The winter body is no longer deniable (a jiggliness that Bill Cosby would be proud of, if not actual weight gain). The mail is all bills and 1099s and other reminders of the existence of money (and therefore evil) in the world. Anyone silly enough to make resolutions in January is feeling the sting of failure. The streets and sidewalks are rutted with ice and puddles, making footwear choices impossible. Our vitamin D levels are low. Our TV shows are getting cancelled. Cabin fever is setting in but there's nowhere we want to go.

Hyperbole? I think not. FEBRUARY is the sting of death. The restless, unmotivated, pouting, tired, trapped and trapping sting of death. It's Douglas Adam's long dark teatime of the soul writ large, magnified from a few hours of Sunday afternoon.

But this post is about today's accomplishments (with the weekend's thrown in for an exaggerated sense of self-worth):

called various places about medication (doctor wrote prescription wrong and I am out of the Thing Which Keeps The Doom At Bay)

made cheddar jalapeno cornbread muffins

emailed client

emailed printer

did large load of dishes

went to grocery store twice

cooked meal

labeled recycling boxes (which I have been promising roommates I would do for, oh, two and a half years now?)

made salad dressing

showered (probably twice, but my memory is as weak as my intellect is strong (weaker, actually; I have a very strong intellect))

sorted through office stuff and office area