Hello! Happy Friday! I hope you have had a great week. My week has felt LONG, but in a good way, like I am using every available moment of my days to Do Something. I roller skated three times this week (and will likely go skate more later!), went to a concert, and hung wallpaper. And it’s not even the weekend yet!
Iron anniversary
On Monday, August 21, 2017, there was a solar eclipse. I remember because the pilot of my flight did NOT want us clambering over each other to try and see it out the plane windows. There was an announcement about it over the intercom – visibility will be limited due to altitude, if you’re on the left side of the plane you’re facing north, yadda yadda yadda – but I didn’t try looking at the eclipse because I am scared of looking out the windows when I fly, and besides, I was busy moving to New York.
Apparently six years is the traditional “iron anniversary.” Every year is an iron anniversary when you are married to skyscrapers. I have nothing to say about the city that hasn’t been said a million times, but it’s all still worth saying. I love New York City more every day. Sometimes, it feels like it was built just for me; the fact that 100,000 other people probably have that same delusion does not bother me a bit.
Summer in the city means cleavage, cleavage, cleavage
Hey, speaking of old reliable New York standards! Last night I went to a Central Park SummerStage concert (my third time) to see Regina Spektor play (my seventh time). Excepting 2020, I’ve seen Regina Spektor play a concert every year I’ve lived in New York, though it calculates out to more than one show/year. It was raining before last night’s concert, and intermittently sprinkling through the first parts of her set. Great for me because, like always, I cried a bunch, out of sheer happiness and a little wistfulness, and it’s not like I need to hide that but the rain was welcome.
It also added an ambiance to my first-ever outdoor Regina Spektor show. The rain trickling down from the bright, late-summer trees. The mist rising off an enormous Steinway & Sons piano. The wind whipping into Regina’s hair as she sang all my favorite songs. I got to hear some songs I haven’t heard live in, well, six years. I got to har some songs I hear every show, and still love just as much. I went home with new interpretations of lyrics that quirky girls with bangs have been covering on ukulele for nearly 20 years. I felt more like myself after. These concerts are always worth it.
Brought to you by the letter P
If you remember, I put the newsletter on summer semihiatus because a) I was moving and b) I need to finish novel revisions. Update on that first point:
And the novel is coming along swimmingly, thanks for asking!
I have to give a non-paid, not sponsored, entirely love-based shoutout to PaceMaker Press. If you are trying to hit a goal on a long-term project, creative or otherwise, this web app will help you break it into daily mini-goals, and makes adjustments based on your progress (so if you skip a day, you will know what you need to make up, and if you’re ahead of schedule, you can choose when to take it a little easier). Every day since I started using it, I have written consistently, and 90% of the time I beat my word count goals because I like to overachieve. Highly recommend if you, like me, procrastinate and say “Oh yeah I’ll just write 25,000 words in three days, I’ve done it before, no problem!”
Summer semi-hiatus will continue through September because September is still summer. Fall comes on October 1st. I will tell you when.
Another cool website
If you want to spend time reading instead of writing, try Pudding.cool, which is another funky URL that leads to fascinating data visualizations. Here’s one about the relative rarity of female songwriters in mainstream music.
What I didn’t buy this week
New skates. Eventually I want some FANCY roller skates with a cute pattern and rainbows and glitter and pom-pomes and rubber wheels that light up and laces with my name in neon letters. But! Until I am better at skating, I am decorating the skates I have, and they still look rad. Thanks, Dollar Tree glitter tape/glue.
This key holder is a little goose, and if I didn’t have so many heavy keychains to knock him over, I’d make him come liv e in my house.
Babbel has constant sales on their annual/lifetime plans. I skipped one this week – two years of one language for $89, pre-tax – and already sort of regret it. I set a goal to practice my French more consistently, and more widely, going beyond Duolingo, and it’s working, but…I really do think I can find a better deal on the Babbel course. We’ll see what sales emerge around the holidays. Any Babbel-onians reading this? What about Rosetta Stoners? Would love to know what other language learners are doing!
For the cost of two years of French, I could instead get this hyperrealistic cat backpack…hmmm. Much to think about.
Okay! That’s it for me this week. Happy writing, reading, skating, shopping, cooking, kissing, stealing, painting, and whatever else you get up to this weekend. I have a laundry card for my building now, so I will probably do a little of that. Yucky.