Those of you who know me have heard me complain, repeatedly, about my insane workload over the past year. Those of you who don't, should know that I recently ended a 13 month, full-time contract. Not tragic, I agree, but when you combine that with BC+D's client work, it amounted to 13 months of 12 hour+ days, plus frequent weekends.

I ate, slept, breathed and dreamed graphic design. It played havoc with my shoulders, neck and BMI. Was responsible for me missing numerous opportunities to interact socially with real people. It caused me to miss the rare chance to catch up with a dear friend, who was in town, visiting from out west and contributed to the overall dimming of my intellect - which was never that bright to begin with. Basically... If it didn't involve close-cropping, kerning, dummy text or creep allowance, I didn't have time to think about it.

I'm slowly starting to tackle that whole Body Mass Index issue, though, and on the subject of intellect, I noticed that I've stockpiled quite the reading list over the year. Till now I've only managed - typically out of guilt, to read a couple of paragraphs from any given title, in that vapoury 15 minutes before falling into slumber. Yesterday however, I realized that I finally have time to read again! So here's the list I've put together of books that I plan to tackle over the next few months, in between bouts of cardio and vigorous tv watching:

Iain M. Banks - Transition

Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

God's Terrorists - Charles Allen

Decision Points - George W. Bush

Zodiac - Robert Graysmith

Griftopia - Matt Taibbi

Bush At War - Bob Woodward

The War Within - Bob Woodward

A Journey - Tony Blair

Obama's Wars - Bob Woodward

Known and Unknown - Donald Rumsfeld

Truman - David McCullough

Oh joy!

So I'm trudging down my apartment building hallway last week, on my way home from another joyous day at work and I spy a hand-written note stuck to my neighbor's door, along with a tasteful faux-stained-glass ornament.

The note is a spidery cursive, penned in blue ink and makes me think of Mrs. Martin, my 4th grade teacher who was as old as the hills 40 years ago, so she's probably not doing too well at all, these days. The thought makes me sad, so I stop to read the note, hoping to learn that Mrs. Martin isn't dead after all, and is now in the habit of leaving reassuring letters to her former students, notifying them of her good health and vigor.

No such luck. The note starts off by saying "STOP Listening at our door" and goes on to detail the various, clever ways they know that you are, in fact, listening at their door. For one, they can see you through the peep-hole, you ninny, and for two, the dog can smell you and hear you.

I got that far in the note and then heard a shuffling sound behind the door and realized that in all likelihood, I myself had now been branded a sneaky door listener, so I withdrew - before reaching the end of the note, which includes a tantalizing bulleted list (see below).

My combination drive-by, side-eye approach to getting it read hasn't worked because the writing is pretty messy, and my attempt to photograph it was also a failure, so I'm going to have to figure out something new. Any ideas?

Happy New Year!

Let's make this one count.