January: One Line at a Time
Image: Edward & Josephine Hopper's New York Notes, Noted by Jillian Hess
January 1
2024 Goals: Finish what you start. Build community. Eat more protein.
January 2
Dan, Hugo and Sophia were nearly stranded on the side of the mountain during a snowstorm. Dan was pretty nervous but focused on getting chains on the tires. Hugo made it his mission to find food, water and blankets in case they got stranded. Sophia called home and asked me to plug in the curling iron because she was going to be running late for the nightclub and didn’t want to have to wait for the curling iron to heat up when she got home.
January 3
Yesterday was World Introvert Day, which I didn’t realise because I spent 10 hours writing in my journal and planning a solo trip to Tenerife.
January 4
It’s downright blustery. Icy whitecaps are pounding the waterfront and last night the deck chairs flew off the terrace and into the bushes. We’ve eaten all the leftovers in the house and are subsisting on stale bread (pain perdu!) and coffee. This made for a delicious dinner and breakfast, but I think it’s time for me to bundle up and venture into the village for provisions. And by provisions, I mean cheese.
January 5
Kelly helped Dad sort out his phone so that his Face ID works. But somehow he got it in his head that the phone takes your ‘pitcher’ each time you unlock it. So now every time he needs to use his phone, he sits up properly and smiles his best smile. It’s the cutest thing ever.
January 6
All my clothes smell like cheese.
January 7
A few weeks ago, I re-started my blog so that I could practice sharing creative work. Sort of like a daily drip of creativity. So the pipes don’t freeze. And tomorrow I’m posting a substack for the first time in a long time. I don’t know why I’m so nervous, literally no one cares.
January 8
Drove from Annecy to Calais, listening to various podcasts and books I discovered Joanna Penn and now I am AI Positive.
January 9
Slept at the Holiday Inn Calais. Míša barfed every two hours all night long. The hotel room was carpeted and she refused to go into the tiled bathroom. So each time she started to gag, I had to quickly get dressed, take the elevator downstairs, walk her through the lobby and across the driveway so that she could puke in the grass. Then we went back upstairs and repeated the cycle 90 minutes later. All. Night. Long.
January 10
I attended a workshop today where the presenter read from her script for a full hour, barely looking up. At one point she read the following advice: When you go into a meeting, don’t read directly from your notes. Make it more of a conversation.
January 11
Overheard at the cafe:
The mosquitos love me, right mum?
They bite me with a little needle on the end of their nose, right mum?
We need to spray me with stinky spray, right mum?
So that I don’t taste so delicious, right mum?
January 12
This was the best night I’ve had in a very long time! I attended a literary salon at a friend’s home. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eliza Griswold spoke about her career and the craft of writing books. God, if only I could do something like this every week… I loved it so much.
January 13
Went to a co-writing session in Waterloo at a place called The Glitch. I wrote some words. If I delete them all and start over, I might have something.
January 14
This morning, I was running late to yoga. I grabbed a pair of leggings and realised too late they were Sasha’s (size XXS). Once I got them on, I couldn’t get them off, so I had to go to yoga wearing them and as the class went on, I got hotter and hotter and my legs looked like two sausages about to bust through their casings.
January 15
Went to Pilates at 8am. The instructor was a mean, sharp stick of a woman with swollen lips who played rave music at full volume. I asked her to turn it down, which she only pretended to do, and then 5 minutes later turned it even louder.
January 16
I fell into a rabbit hole this morning, lost all track of time and nearly missed my hair appointment. The reason was Sarah Miller. She’s a little bit like David Sedaris, if David Sedaris was a woman and not obsessed with garbage collecting and taxidermy.
January 17
Today was the greyest of grey. London looked cold and felt colder. Soph and I tried to find beauty by traipsing all the way across town to attend the London Art Fair. But honestly, we were both tired and cold and our hearts weren’t in it. We walked around for about an hour, had coffee and schlepped ourselves home again.
January 18
Last night on an LWS Gold Circle call, I shared my Query Letter with an agent who was incredibly complimentary and yet couldn’t have been less interested in my idea. Oh well. The reminder: everyone’s trying to sell a memoir. If you don’t have a platform, you better have a clear and specific story to tell.
January 19
Kelly is such an inspiration to me. January is hard for her (too), so she’s doing a personal challenge: every day in January she’s doing something that scares her! Not like, jump out of an airplane scary, but you know, something do-able. For example, she’s taken a lot of cold showers. Or gone the entire day without screens… She did her first hot yoga class! She went line dancing (alone)! And - all this without drinking any alcohol. Which is also part of her January plan. I’m super impressed.
January 20
Lately my mindset has been January sucks, London is depressing and writing is boring and hard. I need to flip the script and make it a mantra. Because: “Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in life.” (Tony Robbins, I think?)
January 21
Okay, new rule. Only do yoga at an actual yoga studio. The gym’s yoga classes are the worst. They are mostly taught by fitness instructors who play music too loud (with lyrics?!! Wtf?) and bark instructions at you.
January 22
Travel Day: I thought my new Away travel bag would change my life and it 100% did.
January 23
Tenerife is sunny and that is about the only positive thing I can think to say about it. I walked for hours in the sunshine. I have sand in my hair. I forgot my kindle at home, but thankfully found a used bookstore. I picked up Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld and Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson.
January 24
More walking for hours in the sun. After I’d listened to every podcast ever recorded and finished all the audiobooks in my library, I realised that one of my words for 2024 was connection and yet I chose to go on a solo trip to an island in the middle of nowhere.
January 25
I walked for miles along the beach. I read books. I watched the sunset until the sands from Africa started blowing and swirling and smacking me in the face. Then I went back to my dingy hotel and made a cup of tea.
January 26
Travel day. Why does every taxi (outside London) smell like air-freshener and sound like a nightclub?
January 27
Sick.
January 28
Still sick. Not happy.
January 29
You know the old adage that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with? I feel like I bring down the average of every circle I’m part of.
January 30
I’ve re-entered society and will work the rest of the week from Kindred. Just getting dressed up and doing my hair and make-up has helped. But mainly, this: dinner with a friend who swept up all the shattered pieces of my self-confidence and glued me back together again.
January 31
Attended a networking event with Women in Film and Television and met so many inspiring, creative women. I was only there for two hours and met a director, a showrunner, a composer, an actor, a writer and a production designer. How do I do more of this kind of thing?