Things to do

Not off to a blazing start in 2008, but any year that starts with kissing your awesome girlfriend at midnight, staying in bed till about 11, said girlfriend making delicious waffles and then watching football all day has potential, I think.

But since I still have a full year's worth of days (thanks, leap year!) to get stuff done, I figure a lazy opening can't hurt anything. And there is stuff I plan to do this year (I mean, how can one not be inspired by the likes of the image above? Seriously). Like:


More reading. Made significant progress on one of the great political novels of the 20th century, The Gay Place, over Christmas. On tap: Some Ross MacDonald (why this guy, one of the really great crime novelists, is not easier to find in bookstores baffles me), The Night Gardener (my first foray with George Pelecanos), Charlie Wilson's War (saw the movie, now want to read the full story).

Lisa and I have also talked about starting a two-person book club, where we each introduce the other to books we love. I'm thinking maybe The Drowning Pool (there's that man again), possibly some T.C. Boyle. Not sure yet.

Some travel. Nothing huge, probably, but it's nice to get away every now and then. Maybe somewhere in here, possibly here, very probably here for at least a couple days.

Another marathon. Been stuck on four for a couple years now, and it's time to climb back on that wagon. This one's on my birthday. Do I want to spend four or five hours running the day I turn 37? I dunno. But it's a thought.

And now, it's time to bookend this day by eating some chili cheese dogs and tater tots. Like I said: This year's got potential.

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Here’s looking at you

Instead of being a productive human being during the days between Christmas and New Year’s, I've been hanging out logging much pajama time, taking a break from non-fiction with Julie Powell of the Julie/Julia Project and catching up on the many episodes I've missed of Mad Men. I can’t even say the loafing has been all that creative, but boy has it been fun.



Mostly I've been so preoccupied lately that I've missed a lot of the presidential candidate debates (Can we call them that? Ten people on a stage raising their hands in response to a question is not a debate – it's a dumbed-down version of Miss America. I mean really. Post-9/11, when Pakistan is literally exploding, our image is crap in a huge part of the world and people in New Orleans are still living in freakin' trailers, not to mention having no health insurance and knowing their kids probably aren't learning what they need to know in school, don't we deserve something better that that?

Yes, I'm on my high horse, but sometimes it's just absolutely astonishing what we accept as normal in this country. But who am I to talk? I'm not teaching kids to read in Appalachia or something, and the money I give to UNICEF isn't exactly going to fix Darfur, so I should shut up, for heaven's sakes.). I don't know the specifics of Hillary Clinton's health care plan and I don't know what Barack Obama's response is to Joe Biden's idea that Iraq should be split into thirds.

I am an embarrassment of a former political reporter. For a long time I worried that I'd be climbing the walls if I weren't freezing half to death in Iowa and New Hampshire, or if I'd be worth anything if I couldn't get Mitt Romney's media guy to return my phone calls. Now I know. Admittedly, I miss watching the stump speeches and that cold fresh-air high that's oddly a little like altitude sickness mixed with excitement while watching the process. But I've ended up with something better than I could've hoped for – a life.

Not the one I thought I'd have, and not certainly one that needs some work (Chase, I swear some day that balance will be zero – just not yet.). But it's a step -- and something that other people have always seemed to be able to figure out far better than I. And hackneyed as I am, I'm grateful for every second – not least of which for Rick's giant leap of faith, which totally changed everything this year. And our friends rock.

Now I need to take a walk, catch another episode of Mad Men, and get back to everyone else's 2007 Top Ten lists.

Happy New Year.

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