The First.

Mode of distraction: starting this very blog
Distracting me from: eating dinner, my 40th page of new work on Muscle Memory

I had yet to really consider a blog until last night when I took pictures for my dear friend and confidant, Karen, to use on her own elegant, eclectic blog while the two of us were on a fabulous first* date. Basically, the seed to this blog was jealousy. Her blog is so cool and I love reading it. It seemed like such a lovely distraction for both Karen and followers. And so on.

Seeing as it's a new year, new blog, new post, etc., I'll start in an cliched, basic, and long-winded way, appropriate considering how template-y my blog is to begin with (and I do mean "begin with"...stay tuned for a more imaginative spread): highlights and lowlights to the beginning of 2011.


Highlights

• Brought in the New Year on a roof with fireworks and some of my favorite friends.
• Cousin Jenn and her husband Anthony visit for Jenn's first club experience, gay or otherwise. Tremendous fun, complete with a British accent (the kind you can only find in the heart of France).
• Two great dates: the aforementioned with Karen, and one with mi amor that included a great movie (The King's Speech) and great sushi.
• Received a fair-but-compromised raise.
• New bedding that includes Hotel Collection sheets and a heated mattress pad (if you don't own one and live in the city, invest in one immediately).

Lowlights

• The trials and tribulations that come with re-re-re-re-re-starting a workout program.
• Missing my opportunity to see Roseanne read from her new book because...I was hungover in bed all day.
• Becoming obsessed with Avril Lavigne's seriously bratty new single, "What the Hell." 
• Struggling to reach my bare minimum reading and writing goals I set for myself for my six-week winter break. 

All in all, a slightly sluggish but not disheartening start to the year. Really, what is one to expect with a number like 2011? Though, I will turn 25 this year, and for some reason that number has always seemed significant to me (and not just because Kevin and I can finally call each other and yell "25--fuck I'm old!" à la Sex and the City with actual legitimacy).  I will also presumably have a completed thesis (i.e., starting place to my novel) and an M.F.A. by the end of the year. It has yet to be seen where starting this blog will fall, but I hope it becomes a delightful distraction for me and anyone else in need of one.

Cannot think of a graceful way to end, so...

*Hard to believe it was really our first solo date. We went with the classic: a movie (the devastating and brilliantly acted Rabbit Hole) and our respective go-to cocktails: dirty martini for her, mojito for me. It was her idea to eat at the Hyatt bar, and it did not disappoint: