Mellifluous Miscellany

Haven't done a "miscellaneous stuff" post in a very long time. Maybe it feels unprofessional? Well, I don't have any other ideas today.

1. Relieved of the (delightful! but very real) burden of Remembrance of Things Past, the first volume of which I finally finished over the weekend, I read two books cover to cover yesterday: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and Glitz by Elmore Leonard. It was a great, great, great Labor Day. Any occasion where I get to read all day is a great, great, great day.

2. There were some obnoxious dudes in the gym this morning who I'm fairly sure don't even live in the complex. I slammed the gym door when I was leaving, to passive-aggressively communicate that they were obnoxious, but all morning I've been imagining future conversations with them wherein I have them right where I want them, Goldfinger-style. I think I need to get out more.

3. The roofers are still raising my blood pressure. (Could I make that into wordplay?) I caved and bought earplugs. I hate earplugs, but they brought the noise down to a point where I could relax in the apartment and, although I could still feel the furniture shaking under me, I was no longer fearing for the integrity of my ceiling (or of the blood vessels in my brain).

4. Mederma works at reducing scars' visibility. I have a burn on my arm (from a totally mundane kitchen incident) that's many months old and still discolored. I asked my dermatologist for recommendations, and she said there wasn't much I could do, so I bought some Mederma at Rite-Aid (through some kind of illogical spending-vengeance, I guess), and I've only been using it for a week and I already see a difference. I'm surprised. And kind of mad at my dermatologist.

5. It'll be time to revise the dreadful story on Friday, but it's still so much on my mind that I might put it off another week. In the meantime I wish I could get back to the notebook, but...

6. ...all my best resolutions about reducing screen time here at home, after the near-total lack of it on my vacation, have come pretty much to naught. I am frustrated that I can't seem to step away from the screens the way I did so easily when I was out of town. Facebook time is climbing back up there, too.

7. Lucky seven. I'm trying to have an opinion about this J.Law-nude-photo-leaking-thing, since internet writers (some of them writers I admire greatly) have been weighing in on it like crazy, but I just don't. I mean, it sucks; privacy is hard to come by; this shit is unfair - even if this shit often comes with the territory of being famous, it's still unfair. But whatever it says about women and bodies and consumption is stuff that's been around for a long time and I don't have a significant point of view about it on this round.

There you go. Miscellany. And here's an image for good measure.

8. School will really get going in the next week or so, I think,
and at the moment I'm looking forward to it.