Friday, January 11, 2008

New semester's resolutions

Neither January 1st nor Rosh Hashanah has any particular meaning in my life, but the start of the new semester most certainly does. So, resolved:

1) Binders! By which I mean organization in general. I used to subscribe to a variant of the attitude Rita describes in this post, except rather than bragging about papers done in one night, I was somehow convinced that pulling a decent paper out of a messy apartment was more impressive than citing from alphabetized books and tab-containing binders. Apparently all of this was evidence that I am, in fact, mentally ill. A broad definition of mental illness, I'd say, but there you have it. Appealing as it is to have a backpack-organizing personal assistant, I think I'll make it to Staples and back on my own.

2) Aside from binders, not buy anything, ever. Among purchases of the past several months that were of no use whatsoever: these shoes, liquid eyeliner, silver pencil eyeliner, and yam-quail-egg tuna. No more gratuitous trips to Sephora, even when my grad-school buddies suggest them. I will not succumb to temptation in the form of $4 two-use nail polish bottles!

2a) Attempts at reducing portion of income spent on coffee are probably futile; cheese, definitely.

2b) Continue to wear $??? fabulous Camper boots every day, until price-per-wear becomes acceptable, at which point, just every other day, because they are Camper and thus will neither fall apart nor go out of style. I will be picking up my AARP newsletters in these boots.

3) Revive once-passionate interest in U.S. politics. Despite periodic threats that I will leave for more falafel- or waffle-filled pastures, it looks like I'll be here for a while, so it might be time to, say, decide whether I'm a more a Democrat or a Republican.

3 comments:

Miss Self-Important said...

So liquid eyeliner is a failure, or you just haven't had the opportunity to wear it? I am curious. It looks so nifty.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

It looks great on, less splochy than pencil, but a) is hard to apply evenly, and b) does not slowly disappear throughout the day like normal eyeliner, meaning you can wake up the day after wearing it with it somehow in your eye... even if you thought you'd washed it off. It's just more high-maintenance than I'm willing to deal with, and so was probably not worth it. It could also be that I got the cheapest one at Sephora, and that this is an issue of (calling Julie Fredrickson) quality mattering in fashion.

Anonymous said...

Why limit yourself to either Dem or Rep? The world is complex and you aren't afraid of complexity. You are an Independent or, as it is in the state I live in, "No party designation." Then you can decide whom to vote for based on the particular person, his/ her stand on the issues, the pressing concerns at the time, etc. Labels are overrated; the only loss could be not voting in primaries. That said, I'm a Democrat and my son is "No party affiliation." -- JM