I have resumed my New Year's resolution list (a bit late in the game, and there are, I have to admit, some items on it that will not get attended to this year, but I was heartened by the completion of my master copy of the Van Eyck Arnolfini marriage portrait, so I am feeling more energized about the rest.) I am happy to report that I can check off with varying degrees of good conscience the following items:
- looking into adult literacy programs locally to volunteer for (I looked; there's only one, and they're only open during times when I'm at work)
- making two new friends (both named Michelle - what are the chances?)
- exercising (up until this week I have been a paragon of regimented virtue with regard to my half-marathon training schedule. I did fall off the wagon a few days ago, however, partly out of sheer laziness, partly out of worry for the meeplet, who was measuring small at her last doctor's visit, but who has been confirmed to be exactly the right size on ultrasound as of Thursday, good girl, and thank you to Tara for coming with me for moral support)
- more portraits (we are, we are pleased to report, working on an actual commission at the moment.)
- learning a Schubert sonata (the first one in the book. haven't learnt it all the way yet but I'm getting much better).
So, the remaining items, if memory serves, are 1) another master copy (Sargent or Vermeer, I think I said) 2) a tango workshop or cello lessons and 3) polishing essays to send off to my friend Emily's agent so that I can get rejection letters from publishers. I might transmogrify 1) into painting a mural for meeplet's room, if I get permission from babydaddy (permission more likely if it's painted on removable canvas and is of, say, the Amalfi coastline. I was kind of thinking a view of Lake Ullswater. Meh, it can be another thing to argue over. I need to learn my mother's technique of not asking permission first. Like Emo Phillips says, "When I was a kid, I prayed to God every day for a bicycle, but He never gave me one. Then one day I realized, that's not how God works. So I stole a bike and asked Him to forgive me.") With regard to tango workshops - I have been keeping half an eye on the website for La Rogaia, a villa in Tuscany where they do tango holidays, which looks divine and delicious and decadent and not really feasible due to budgetary and obstetrical limitations. But we will continue to fantasize. and look for options closer to home. It just feels wrong to be learning to tango in a non-Latin country, somehow. oh dear, speaking of Latin countries, I just remembered the resolution re: my Spanish cookbook. That got put on the back burner (nice metaphor for a cookbook...). I will have to revisit that one as well.
The baby is kicking all over the place at the moment; belly-watching has become something of a pastime for me in my current low-ambition state. It's like the puppy channel on public access TV - restful and contemplative with small peaks of excitement. Oh look, that was a big kick on the left side! Wow, that's the first time I've felt a sweep across the belly as opposed to just random thumps! I wonder what body part that was?! It's a good thing there's not actually a clear window through into my uterus, or I would never get off the sofa. I do worry that she listens to all my conversations (I should complain/swear less) and that she might be getting sick of my taste in music/propensity for very loud farts/the graceless joggling around when I run.
