The truth is, I have no idea why this blog is anonymous. I don't really have any enemies and I have never, to my knowledge, been in prison.
I have, however, done a few things for the first time this year which you may or may not find interesting:
1. I went to a strip club for the first time, at the tender age of 32. I am 32 years of age.
2. I just joined a healthclub for the first time, but only for a limited, one-month trial period. My trainer/introduction guy is named Gunnar, which may or not not tell you something about how my body feels today, having experienced its first hour-long session with Gunnar last night. Alas, I am on the road to physical fitness after many a year of little-to-zero official exercize. Gunnar told me that I am neither particularly out of shape nor overweight (nobody see the belly when one is somewhat taller than average, as I am), which made me think fondly of him for about 12 seconds.
3. My favorite thing (well, almost) is to take baths. I can take a bath virtually anywhere a bath is present, and I almost always enjoy it. I like to have a few magazines stacked beside the bath, which I make increasingly hot as the bath progresses. Not the magazines (hot), but the bath. I have the heating process down to an artform, more or less. I know when to drop the last magazine, and when to get out before overheating. I essentially treat baths as a northern European would a sauna.
4. I am writing a novel, and even though I have tried to write novels before, I will actually finish this one. My trick? I consider the novel always finished! I've found that adding to a completed work is easier than trying to write an entire book, which can be daunting. The novel is called "Tenuous," and I will have it published if I ever finish it. In short, I am trying to invent an entirely new style of writing. That is the goal of the novel in question. This is not a joke - I mean it.
5. I secretly (well, now not so secretly) think that my attraction to Germany (perhaps even the sole reason for my living here!) is based on a subconsious desire to force myself to compensate for the extremely non-German aspects of my character, so that I can become a more balanced person. I am everything not German. As a result, the social and cultural boundaries of everyday German life give me a container in which to make concrete that which could never, otherwise, be made concrete. I'm not joking about this either. It's a formula for success, and when the right chemicals are lined up and all the contracts signed, I won't fret for a second about going (almost) completely tropical on your ass (a strange phrase, no?).
Anonymous no longer!
Right on. Perhaps one day you'll share your bath heating secret? About your approach to the novel: I think I can relate to the method you're describing, because I thought I was done with my writing project when, as it turns out, I actually have two or three largish things to add to it. But thinking of it as always already done is really useful. It makes you confident that any [more] work you do towards it really counts, isn't just icing but another whole layer on the cake. And don't forget to tell us when you get it published, ok?
Posted by: heather | March 23, 2005 at 11:11 AM