In the spirit of posting more often, a quick life update post:
1. Since February I have been working at the National Portrait Gallery, an awesome job that I really enjoy. I will actually be giving a talk there next Saturday at 12:30 on Cecil Beaton’s painting of John Vassall. So if you are in London have twenty minutes to spare, see you there. If you can’t make it, I will probably post my talk in some form or another soon enough.
2. I have moved from Tottenham to a more suburban part of Greater London. On one hand, it’s great! Beautiful home, nice housemates, quiet neighborhood. But…it’s very quiet. A little bit too quiet. I knew I was in trouble when I was ecstatic that the local park has one of those outdoor gyms- I felt like a hamster who loves their wheel because it is their only source of stimulation. Back in Tottenham I was within easy walking distance of several grocery stores, two movie theaters, and eight hundred off-licenses. Meanwhile, my new neighborhood is still preening over the fact that a Costa has opened up on the high street (which, to be fair, Costa = the best). And, well, as nice as it is to have my own space I do miss my fellow Canadian ‘Your Everywhere Girl,’ who claims that she is studying aboard in Prague but I know that’s just a front for her diamond smuggling operation.
3. I had a birthday! On April 13th I turned 29 years-old. This has special significance to this blog as a year on Saturn is roughly 29.7 earth years. When I started this blog several years ago, it was a way to set a kind of goal post to myself, that I would have achieved something significant by the time I had reached my first full Saturnian year (and by ‘achieve something’ I meant basically be a best-selling, world-famous author. That’s all). Upon reaching this milestone I thought I would retire this blog and start a new site, one that could handle all the traffic you get when you are the next/current JK Rowling. I now see that this is kind of silly, not the goal itself but the idea that we ever reach a place in our lives where we can stop comfortably. As long as you are alive there are no ‘end goals.’ Everything is constantly changing are all we can do is our best day-to-day. Maybe I haven’t become a published novelist, but I’m a much better writer now than I was three years ago, and I also have a better idea of just how much work it takes to even get a little bit good at this business.
4. I was going to go shopping today but it is raining really hard. Like, it is like the blitz out there, but with rain. Luckily for my birthday the universe gave me the second season of Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix. Yay!