February

living room set by Steve, Dec 2012

Here we are in February and it’s hard to figure out what to blog. We’re digging deep into the Netflix queue for films, discovering after a half hour that we’re watching things we’ve already seen and barely remember.

We’re thinking deep thoughts that are too complicated or too unformed to share.

The food is not even interesting. With the store of garden vegetables gone, except for the last few butternut squashes, we’ve turned to the “exotic” things I don’t buy at other times: broccoli and brussel’s sprouts and bok choi and bean sprouts and avocados and grapefruit. I make the old standbys and have nothing to blog about: venison chili, stir fries, Thai squash soup, salad with avocado and grapefruit, tomato soup… I remember the frozen pesto at the back of the freezer, but I’m too lazy to make fresh pasta for it, so we eat it over a box of rotini. I break down and pay $2.99 for a tiny bunch of kale.

We’re delighted to have snow and more snow, but not as enthusiastic to go out in it as we were in January. Our sinuses hurt. It’s windy. We’ll wait until the sun comes out.

There’s a break in the exercise regimen. The basement “gym” is too cold. The routines are too boring. And anyway, I have a headache and want a nap.

Now we can read. I’ve become one of those people who love their ipad (have I ever held before such a gorgeous object) and succomb to the ease of buying books on Amazon– brand new “hardcover” books that I would never buy and have to keep on a shelf afterwards…

People ask me, “What project are you working on now?” I have to stop and think. I’ve completed the Saint John’s Bible rewrite, but still have occasional tasks on that. I’ve been writing poems, haphazardly, and jotting down some prose.

It’s February, and probably I should be taking advantage by sinking my teeth deep into a new writing project. A novel! A new book of poems! A book of connected short stories!

Instead I settle in on one of the new chairs Steve has made this winter, under a blanket, and read…