It’s 2014 and it has been for about ten hours now (where I’m from). I celebrated quietly because I’m way more into cozy times than parties and isn’t that what wintertime is all about anyway? My resolutions this year are to make more room for femmes and sober people in my life (I’m a sober femme y’know!), to improve my French, and to continue building my self-confidence. I wrote a lot about my efforts to build self-confidence in The Triumph Of Our Tired Eyes #3, a lot of it has to do with putting myself out there and doing “embarrassing” things like karaoke, and also learning how to be alone, which I think I’ve gotten really good at. But now I wanna work on it in new ways, like being more honest about my feelings, allowing myself to be vulnerable, going to the gym and getting tough, and also DRAWING. Which may seem so simple, but whatever. I think it’s kinda funny that so much of my life is focused on (reading and creating) perzines, because I think in images more often than words. I’ve never allowed myself to draw very much, because my pages never turn out the way I imagined them and I’m easily discouraged. So I’m giving myself a chance to draw, to find my style, and to share these pages with people. I want to draw more often and have confidence in what I’ve created.

So this is where Fun-A-Day comes in! Fun-A-Day was started nearly a decade ago by Artclash in Philly and has expanded to cities all over the world – that means you can organize your own, too! The premise is simple: pick a project, do it every day in January, then show your work in a big group show. Stay inspired and beat the winter blues! I’m doing a drawing a day. My first one is posted below. In February, we’ll do a group gallery show where people can display their projects and talk about ’em.

Winter survival strategies are so important to me. It’s too easy to stay curled up in bed to avoid the cold, get up at noon, then the sun goes down at four and suddenly you’ve missed the whole day and you’re in darkness, falling into a depression. I made a goal to be awake for most of the daylight hours of the winter, and so far, so good. The thing that’s been most important to me is my membership at the Y. I joined the gym because I wanted to have some sort of physical activity to make up for a season without my bike, but it turns out that it covers so many winter survival bases – most importantly, happy endorphins! It’s also good for boosting self-confidence, first in challenging myself to go to fitness classes alone (and soon, to learn to use the fancy gym equipment and maybe start lifting weights), and then, getting tough and feeling more and more confident in what my body is capable of. For the record, if you have proof of your low income, you can get up to a 50% discount on a membership at the Y (I’m paying $30.00 a month).

Fun-A-Day of course is a part of my winter survival strategy. That, and keeping myself busy with projects, eating well (by which I mean, I dumpstered eighty bucks worth of sushi the other night), writing, giving myself plans to look forward to (like going to see Godspeed in a couple of weeks!), making tea dates with friends, co-ordinating the winter workshop series at the Ste-Émilie Skillshare, and well, snuggling. I hope wintertime is being good to you too, dear readers. Take care and stay cozy!

Fight Boredom Distro News: There are a bunch of new zines in stock, including Anarchism & Hope; Scoopin’ Times #2; Telegram #31; Birthday Party #1; Psych Girl #1: Stories From A Clinical Psychologist; Sinvergüenza #1-#2; Long Walk Back To Broadway; Imaginary Windows #6; Sour Puss #8-#10; Zine Crush #3; Tongueswell #1; and Finale 95 #2. Also, I booked my table at the Chicago Zine Fest – see you in March!