11 days into the new year and I've still not had a drink, despite Jo at the Cornerhouse prodding me every few minutes last night and waving funny coloured spirits under my nose. I thought it might be harder than this. Christ, I've even had a J2O. It was actually pretty nice. I'm a bit surprised, but I feel noticeably livelier and healthier for it all. I'm sure that didn't happen last time I did this. The only downside is that I don't get to sleep as quickly, so I have to lie awake pondering the state of things, which is always unhelpful. I'm starting to think the trick to a happy life is to try and get quietly to the end of it without really having paid attention.
I also seem to suddenly have a lot more time (partly because I've barely been out apart from to go to work - I'm scared of snow now that I seem incapable of not falling over on it - and partly because I've been up in the mornings at the weekend) so the house is cleaner than at any point in the last 3 years, and I think I'm getting closer to finishing a new CD, for what that's worth. Just a few bits of singing, some harmonium/accordion and a drum part to go (Barnes, if you read this, return my text messages). Then it's just the dreaded editing and mixing process, but I don't think I'm going to be nearly as fussy this time. It's just a few really old songs that didn't fit on the last one but I want to have recorded properly, and some newer ones that aren't sad enough for the next one. I wonder if that'll mean people actually like it? As per, I've been procrastinating and trying to make the booklet instead of finishing the recording. If I manage to make it look ok it's going to be the lyrics in my spidery child-like handwriting on scrunched up bits of paper that have been unscrunched (as if they've been retrieved from the bin). But they were still too scrunched up to scan properly when I unscrunched them, so now I'm re-flattening them under some heavy books. Finally my PhD has served some practical purpose other than wasting my mid twenties.
Nothing else to report really. I've pretty much either been working, cleaning, scrawling then scrunching and unscrunching, recording, playing scales in front of the telly or practicing blackjack on my phone ready for Vegas in a few months. I'm doing the "right thing" about 95% of the time now. Still losing massively though.