New Year's Hit List

Before I dive into my list of things to do this year, allow me to update my vacation reading...

I FINALLY read Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille. I had absolutely no idea of what it is about. Turns out its basically about the sexual explorations and violations by adolescents. Its great and liberating, like all things that don't obey rules, and the writing is lovely despite its incredibly graphic content. But there's some pretty kinky sex in this book and I can't say that I'm particularly a fan of that stuff for myself. Also not a fan of rape. But I'm infinitely less offended by the word "cunt". Not recommended for those that are easily offended, though it'd be great to decolonize some minds.

I'm still in the middle of The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Lovely stuff, but long and depressing. I am harboring a growing grudge against capitalism and aggressive, manifest-destiny-like nature.

I'm also not done yet with Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel. I love Wurtzel's worship of bad, and fabulously interesting women. I can identify with so much of what this woman writes! I recommend it for anyone. Really. It's not just for feminists.

A doctor's visit this morning informed me that my eczema situation has gotten progressively worse and now I should avoid the following things:

1. seafood
2. bamboo
3. mushrooms
4. eggs
5. nuts
6. jewelry that is less than 14k gold
7. all lotions aside from aveeno, cetaphil and sarna
8. all soaps aside from aveeno, cetaphil and dial
9. stress, if possible
10. sleep deprivation, if possible

Maybe I should just be vegan. Oh but the CHEESE!! and it's difficult enough already when eating out. ]=

Looking back on 2008, there were so many good memories. Here are the highlights:

1. Running a half-marathon
2. Writing pages and pages of word vomit all summer. To be edited next summer.
3. My first tattoo
4. Getting a cartilage piercing
5. Visiting the Steinbeck Center and his house in Salinas
6. Taking Anna Joy Springer's Contemporary Feminist Literature class
7. Crossfading for the first time and then writing while still in my altered state. Really cool weird stuff came out
8. Reading tons of Beat Generation stuff: Curso's poems, Ginsberg's poems, Kerouac's poems and books, and Burroughs' books.
9. My column
10. Seeing and hearing Melody Gardot live
11. Spontaneous and even reckless decisions that I don't regret at all
12. Interning for APALI
13. Essay grading parties
14. My second tattoo
15. Making fabulous new friends
16. My Crackberry
17. Rachael Yamagata's new cd.
18. Calling and emailing Bhanu Kapil and her actually writing back to me
19. Discovering City Lights Bookstore and visiting the Beat Museum
20. Protesting Prop 8 in Hillcrest (multiple times) and on campus.

OKOK time for my New Year's Hit List (I don't believe in resolutions, they don't work):

1. Go Sky-Diving
2. Figure out how to be Zen
3. Read more (all) of David Sedaris' Stuff
4. Learn all I can about experimental writing during the summer. Try it out too
5. Get a drastically different hairstyle and love it
6. Learn all I can about Carolyn Cassady, wife of Neal Cassady and friend of Allen Ginsberg and sometimes lover of Jack Kerouac
7. Run my first marathon in 4:15 or less
8. Find a muse
9. Edit last summer's writing
10. Write more weird poems
11. Heal a few relationships that have fallen apart this past year
12. Visit the place where Neal Cassady used to live in Los Gatos. The house was demolished in 1997 and the Monte Sereno community was completely unaware of its historical value. Sad. 18231 Bancroft Ave. Maybe I'll visit it the day before I leave for San Diego.
13. Enjoy the Presidential Inauguration. What an experience! 17 days until I'm in DC for the spectacle
14. Practice and learn more italian on my own.
15. Listen to more Italian music
16. Do well on my GRE exams. I'm particularly worried about the Subject Exam for Literature in English. Fabulous.
17. Try decorating the walls of my room. My ugly pink walls. The only saving grace of the room is the fact that it basically a miniature library.
18. Find and visit more dead author's houses
19. Work on the graduate school plans (applications)
20. Enjoy being 21 (in April)

It's going to be a good year.