(The above is a representation of the future, not an actual photo of me on a snowmobile.)

In 2009, I plan to be more active (!). I have already written a list of things that would make me more active (!) and have taken the first steps toward more activity. I just booked a snowmobiling trip in Tahoe for next month, I’m going dancing tonight, and I’m planning to take a trip to Puerto Rico in mid-April, whereupon I will do active (!) things like hike in a rain forest, dance salsa, and wear a bikini. Okay, so wearing a bikini is not active (!), but it is daring for me, which seems important right now.

I have been really burying myself in my work lately, which seems to be bringing this on. Therefore being active (!) does NOT include the following:

reading
writing
staring at screens, TV, computer, or otherwise
eating things
drinking things
working on the house
walking around downtown Petaluma

That is what being active (!) does not include. It DOES include the following:

Snowmobiling, as mentioned above
Ice skating for the first time
Tennis
Walking in places that are not downtown Petaluma
Seeing plays and musicals
Seeing live music
Hiking
Going to literary events and readings
Going on a boat!
Whale watching?
Museums
Day trips to other parts of California
A trip to Portland or Southern California
Art shows
Riding more roller coasters?
Painting pictures
Tidepools

And so on…

(To be clear, being active (!) is not the same as being sporty. Active (!) = fun and no pressure. Sporty = pressure and not fun at all.)

Hurrah to an active (!) 2009.

Merry Christmas! As a Christmas gift, listen to Fiona Apple’s charming rendition of Frosty the Snowman here.

Time for another YouTube video. This one is about cats. Cats are small predatory carnivorous species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes and scorpions. It has been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years. Cats are the best animals. See above video for proof.

On Saturday, we celebrated my birthday. I’m 32 now. We went to a fancy-pants restaurant in San Francisco. I had curried chick peas for a starter and arctic char (a fish like salmon) with nettles and lentils for my entree. I wore my new dress. We shared a nice bottle of wine. It was all very elegant.

Maybe two hours later, we were back at Petaluma at a cowboy bar, singing karaoke. Not only were we the youngest people in the bar, we were the most stylish. The men around us were wearing cowboy hats and the women were wearing sweaters with teddy bears on them. None of us like cowboy bars or country music–we just wanted to sing karaoke. However, when my husband and friend started singing “Family Tradition” in their best country twang, whipping the cowboy hats and teddy-bear sweaters into a frenzy in the process, I thought that the evening could not contain more contrasts. And that is the pro and con of putting me in charge–each thing we do may well be wildly different from the last thing. Weirdo.

There’s this blog about the Daily Routines of writers and artists. Most of it is pretty boring. I will simplify what most writers–including me–do for you: They get up early in the morning, have coffee, and write until between noon and 3 p.m. Then they stop. (I don’t actually stop then because I need to earn a living, but I do switch from fiction to nonfiction around 1 p.m.)

Anyway, some writers are more interesting than that. My favorite was Gertrude Stein, who had the greatest. daily. routine. ever:

Miss Stein gets up every morning about ten and drinks some coffee, against her will. She’s always been nervous about becoming nervous and she thought coffee would make her nervous, but her doctor prescribed it. Miss Toklas, her companion, gets up at six and starts dusting and fussing around. Once she broke a fine piece of Venetian glass and cried. Miss Stein laughed and said “Hell, oh hell, hell, objects are made to be consumed like cakes, books, people.” Every morning Miss Toklas bathes and combs their French poodle, Basket, and brushes its teeth. It has its own toothbrush.

Miss Stein has an outsize bathtub that was especially made for her. A staircase had to be taken out to install it. After her bath she puts on a huge wool bathrobe and writes for a while, but she prefers to write outdoors, after she gets dressed. Especially in the Ain country, because there are rocks and cows there. Miss Stein likes to look at rocks and cows in the intervals of her writing. The two ladies drive around in their Ford till they come to a good spot. Then Miss Stein gets out and sits on a campstool with pencil and pad, and Miss Toklas fearlessly switches a cow into her line of vision. If the cow doesn’t seem to fit in with Miss Stein’s mood, the ladies get into the car and drive on to another cow. When the great lady has an inspiration, she writes quickly, for about fifteen minutes

A few weeks ago, Marcia and I ditched work and drove out to Bodega and took a random country road. At the top of the road, all these Welsh-looking calves came and blocked our path. There were about six or seven of them. They were very friendly and came up to the car to say hello. Marcia took a cellphone picture:

Perhaps I should go back there and try to write?

Meet Jonathan the tortoise, believed to be the oldest living animal. He’s is at least 176 years old. He was “photographed during the Boer War around 1900, and his life has spanned eight British monarchs from George IV to Elizabeth II, and 50 prime ministers.”

Apparently, Jonathan still likes the ladies: “Despite his old age, locals say he still has the energy to regularly mate with the three younger females.”

Also, Jonathan might even be older than 176. According to a spokeperson from South Atlantic island of St Helena, where he lives: ‘Jonathan is the sole survivor of three tortoises that arrived on St Helena Island in 1882. He was already mature when he arrived and was at least 50-years-old.’”

Go Jonathan, go!

Pronunciation: \ˌpər-sə-ˈvir\
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): per·se·vered; per·se·ver·ing
Etymology:Middle English, from Anglo-French parseverer, from Latin perseverare, from per- through + severus severe
Date: 14th century

: to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition, or discouragement.

This is SO AWESOME! It is a two part interview with Sylvia Plath. I have wanted to hear this for years and some wonderful person finally put it up on YouTube. No matter how grumpy I get about new technology ruining books and reading, when something like this comes along, I forgive it for its faults.

Listening to this, I have to say, I really like Sylvia Plath. I like how she’s bubbly and nervous and obviously very intelligent with lots of interesting opinions. This was about two months before she died. I also find it interesting that she had a golden opportunity to bring up The Bell Jar–which had been published already–and chose not to. She wasn’t very proud of that novel, calling it a pot boiler, but still, you think it would be something to mention. I guess she wanted to be seen as a literary writer and she didn’t see The Bell Jar as literary.

Now I think I’m going to re-read her journals for the thousandth time.