New Year's Lazy Sunday

The first day of a new year is always a little strange for me: fraught with expectations that I can't quite shape into real goals or purposes yet. I always feel like making big progress towards something, but how much can I really do in a day, any day? The motivation and resolve of a new year follow me around all day, trying to make me sit down and decide what I want to accomplish.

Through no fault of my own, I actually did have a pleasantly productive but still relaxed day. I got up moderately early and finished The Namesake, which was really good, and then wrote about it, thus beginning the long process of fulfilling two of my resolutions - reviewing 52 books and writing every day.

Then, after much consideration, I opted to risk going out for a run. It was a bright, cold day, and the sidewalks were terrifically icy, so I wasn't sure if I should, but I knew it was only supposed to be colder Monday, and since it was still a holiday, no one was going to clear the ice, so it wouldn't be any less slippery. I decided to try it, since the trails are more covered and usually better than the sidewalks, and I figured if it was too icy to run I could always turn around and come back home. Once I got to the trail, though, it was fine. There were a few spots I slowed down for, and I skipped the last 100 metres or so, since they were still frozen over, but the bulk of the trail was already worn in and running wasn't a problem. I had to do three laps to make it up to 5K, but that's often a problem on that route. I'm proud of myself for going out there, even on a cold day!

Google auto-prettified this picture for me, and I actually kind of like it. 

I spent the afternoon puttering around, mostly reading, sometimes watching TV or playing Fire Emblem or just bothering the cat. I was trying to enjoy the feeling of having nothing important to do, since it's rare and kind of a treasure.

In the evening, I made my first new recipe of 2017, rice and beans from Alton Brown's Everyday Cook, an exact version of which does not appear to be online. It doesn't matter, since it was entirely fine. You can probably find a similar recipe just by googling, or, hell, by throwing together a handful of ingredients at your discretion. It'll probably be better, too. Don't get me wrong, it was fine, it was just nothing spectacular - which, after the couple of really great things I made from this cookbook last year, was kind of a letdown. But it's cheap and nutritious, and it'll feed me for a few days this week, so it's not a big deal.

Finally, I settled down to finish watching Black Mirror - though I didn't realise the final episode was 90 minutes long, oops! The third season was good, and I'm glad it's already been renewed for another. As ever, there were a couple of standouts - Nosedive was really good, as was San Junipero - and a couple that just didn't stick with me as much. I actually just had to go check IMDb to remember Playtest and Shut Up and Dance. All in all, a good season, and I'm happy to finally scratch it off my list.