overheard at tnt foodcourt:

woman: Oh, there's another one. (Motioning to a white man.)

woman: In Richmond it's worse. You can go for hours without seeing a non-Asian person.

I just tilted my head and wondered if she felt threatened.

I feel overburdened by the riches that is my book collection.

I read a bit of this and a chunk of that.

I'm stalled by indifference, incomprehension, embarrassment, fear, distraction, laziness, and many other reasons.

On the plus side, I wanted to read new authors, and I have. So far, two new names have joined my list of favorite authors: Steven Gould and Laurie J. Marks.

I want to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time. I want to be gripped by a book, moved and swept away as if I were lashed to the prow of a storm-drenched ship.

I also want to start reading my poetry and non-fiction books, so I feel like I'm learning something. (Of the craft, of the world.)

So many wants, so little time.

Let's get into this life plan of mine: strength, productivity, ethical choices and habits, creativity and passion. Also, enduring skills, feminism, adventuring spirit, poet, teacher, artist, archivist.

No more waiting. I'm twenty-eight. The sand's slipping away.

Assignments: (On paper)

1. List the skills you want to have. And their purpose. List places and ways to earn them.

2. List small ways and big ways to live ethically and walk (run, dance, leap) towards my goals.

3. List dream projects to try.

4. List equipment you need to get and other things to save up for. (Like traveling.)

5. Look at the entirety of assignment and compile into a visual hodgepodge to put up on wall as daily reminder. (Collage? Mindmap? Checklist?)

Get to it, F.

My book-love is becoming a liability.

But I can't help it! Found Primo Levi's "The Periodic Table" at the thrift shop yesterday, along with a book of poems by William Carlos Williams, a copy of Sherlock Holmes stories with illustrations, a book by Bujold and a sci fi by Steven Barnes, and a book by Ron Koertge. It was satisfying, even though I paid almost two hundred dollars because my dad got a lot of winter jackets. That's like my yearly clothing budget already.