There are many ways to be self-defeating, and I prefer to try them alphabetically so that I'm certain not to miss any. Luckily my friend C called from New York today and, as usual, provided just the kind of encouragement I needed to hear. This has happened before and it's quite a phenomenon, since we don't have the kind of relationship that encourages expressions of unadorned positivity; our mutual pep talks come cloaked in comforting layers of jaunty despair and hopelessness. Far from undermining the overall message of inspiration, such crabby exhortations instead deliver much-needed cloying medicine disguised in a reassuringly bitter pill.

Emboldened by our conversation, I'm going to try to more cheerfully embrace my marginality and blurry partial existence.