That New Year feeling all year long

The first month of the year is almost over. For me, it's been a challenging one. Between the weekly blizzards (and all the slowing and hazards they create), dreams that make me think about stuff I don't want to, and a rocky start to taking steps to be healthier, my simple-sounding New Year's resolution ("manage stress better") is taking a beating. And one thing that is keeping me determined is this playlist I made. I know it sounds trivial, but the lists I make myself help to propel me forward and reinforce what I need to tell myself. I had actually just made one in December, so this one is more of an EP-length, so to speak, and it doesn't have a specific order, which is a departure from the usual. There are two songs on it by the Decemberists, whose new album I really like, a lot. (It's something new, but it's still them.) I'm going to put the list below.

Sorry for the short, non-book-focused, entry. My reading lately has been for specific purposes (book group, writing an entry for a reference book), but I'm chugging along in Down and Out in Paris and London, as well as Matthew Zapruder's latest poetry collection Come On All You Ghosts, so hopefully I'll write about those soon.


Oh January (order should be shuffled):

"January Hymn" - the Decemberists
"Medicine Wheel" - Aimee Mann
"Dia de Enero" - Shakira
"Don't Carry it All" - the Decemberists
"This Year" - the Mountain Goats
"Calendar Girl" - Stars


"Calendar Girl" really should be my personal anthem - focusing on being alive rather than worrying about how and when one is going to die. And I have this episode of This American Life to thank for the Mountain Goats song.