ON MON DÉGOÛT (THAT'S "HERE" IN PORTLAND)

it's been raining for a week, which isn't out of the ordinary for winter in the pacific northwest, but the bike i've been riding isn't ideally equipped for this weather, and the water resistance of my bag was already suspect in december of last year, which was the beginning of what must have been a comparatively dry season because i rode without fenders for the entirety of it and had never until now thought once about buying shoe covers (they're hideous, even if they do come in white).

so it's possible -- despite having been on a holiday spirited mission to purchase the most unique and inspired wrapping paper possible for my nieces' gifts -- that my irascibility at seeing the sidewalk sign outside of oblation papers & press was nothing more than ill directed ill humor caused from going on eight days of wet feet. it's also possible that since i didn't notice the sign until i left the store that my tetchiness was just a result of not having found any paper to meet my expectations (or my nieces', i'm sure, after the beans and rice and the patchwork stuffed animal papers that oblation sold me earlier this year). but "european style" paper store? is that still something we're trying so hard for, portland? i know that some stationers know people who can make them a new sign.

i'd meant to send you all to the bookstore this evening with the 'looking good in pants' best books of 2010 list, but my disappointment with oblation lit an already short fuse (a poor choice of metaphor, because i have no way of explaining how my fuse, albeit short, stayed dry through all the rain on which i'm blaming the origin of this mood), and so all you're getting of a list is that freedom wouldn't be on it. it's on nearly every other fiction list on the internet, anyway, including laura miller's at salon.com. we've been neglecting coverage of her work lately, but her list doesn't really make us want to go tracking back through the archives, either. i read neither her review of franzen's book (i think she might have moderated the salon.com book club discussion of it, too) nor her justification for selecting it as one of her favorites. to be honest, i'm unhappy that there's a copy of the book in the apartment.

sorry, jonathan. it's tough to pick on ms. miller when salon.com is in such financial straits, and you're so easy. it makes it easier, too, this mood. it may be cold in new york, but at least there's snow; and there's romance in that, no? or maybe the romance is all just new york. no. the snow is part of it. it's so much better than this rain. there's a good chance of snow there for the holidays, no? andre aciman's eight white nights was magical. the snow and new york and late december. and eric rohmer. he's a big part of it, too. i wonder what's going on at film forum. we'll see you at the christmas eve party. we can talk about it then. secret agents on the balcony. magical. read the book. we can talk about it then.

in the meantime, i have gifts to wrap.