Seeing the light after Blue Monday

Above is a photo I took of the tennis courts by my house. The light is striking against the snow. I'm trying to focus on the positive.

Here's a list of things I think are great:

1) "The Duck" by Luis Alberto Urrea, released now into the public domain (via The Syntax of Things). Not only does he do a good job of incorporating an animal sound into a poem, there are a few lines that are especially killer. My favorite, perhaps, is, "You have to remind the body it exists."

2) There are eighteen types of zoo creatures featured in animal crackers.

3) Clever but puerile humor. The "streaker" gets me every time.

It is miserable outside. A friend has just e-mailed me her playlist for an imaginary beach party on her roof in NYC. Perhaps the thing we lack most in January is not sunlight, but beach music.