pH Balance

The first month of 2023 gone, just like that!

If you haven’t been keeping up with your New Year’s Resolutions (or if you haven’t made any attempts at self-improvement at all), consider February a do-over. Instead of New Year’s resolutions, see if you can stick to a habit for just a month. Now that everyone’s (pretended to have) read Atomic Habits, we know that it takes just 21 days to form a habit—and maybe 2 days to break one.

February is also a short month: you’re only committed for 28 days, rather than 30/31.

Today, instead of a post about real things, I thought I’d tease the prologue to the short story I’ve been writing. It took me most of January, writing at least one hour a day, to figure out a basic skeleton of the plot. Now, I’m going back in and filling in the details. It’s hard work making sure there’s no plot holes, and trying to word things in just the right way.

Prologue

“This just in—officials at the British Museum have reported that the Kohinoor Diamond has been stolen. The Jewel, on loan from the Tower of London, was discovered to be missing this morning when curatorial director Dr.—THUD.“

The newscast was interrupted by an orange tabby knocking over (another) one of Laila’s mugs. Rolling her eyes, she picked it up and exchanged it for a dish towel to clean up the puddle of Earl Grey on the coffee table.

“Stupid cat,“ she thought, cursing her flatmate for not taking it with her on her summer holiday. The news report transitioned to various commentators earnestly speaking about how tragic the loss of such an important artifact was for history, science, and culture everywhere. The same commentators probably didn’t think raiding tombs and looting graves were antithetical to history, science, and culture: but they were, at least below the Ivory Tower. The report transitioned to a detective inspector, who informed viewers that investigations were ongoing, but they had no leads yet.

“Known for its great beauty and size, the Kohinoor Diamond remains one of history’s most iconic objects,” one newscaster said. “And one of the most controversial—many South Asian and Middle Eastern nations have claimed ownership, demanding its return from the British Crown.”

When ex-PM David Cameron was asked to give the Kohinoor back, he said no, saying that it would be a slippery slope to emptying the entire British Museum. And would that be the worst thing in the world?

The current PM remained unavailable for comment. Laila snorted, and turned off the TV. An eerie silence settled over the flat. She was used to her flatmate’s sounds and movements, rattling pots in the kitchen and talking to the cat like it was an infant. Under any other circumstances, she would have loved to be alone. But she’d never had a secret this big to hide before.

After triple-locking the front door, putting food out for the cat, and tidying up, she was ready to retire. Closing her bedroom door, she wedged a chair underneath the handle. She sat on her bed and exhaled. After a few moments, she reached under the bed and peeled back an object taped to the frame. Setting the adhesives aside, she looked at the almost impossibly bright jewel and wondered aloud: now what?

This Week’s Top 3

• Pathaan 💥 – well-choreographed fight scenes, even though Deepika’s dancing was a little difficult to watch
• “L to the OG” 🎧 – another hard-to-watch moment, this time from Succession. But it was incredibly well done.
• Ring-Tracking on Apple Fitness 🍎 – Garmin is great for a lot of things, but having compatibility with Apple Fitness now lets me see how much I’m doing each month. Habit tracking monthly went pretty well in Jan, and allows you to see big-picture trends so you can actually keep your new year’s resolutions past Jan 5th.