If it isn’t the onslaught of grim national and international news, it’s a blizzard turning the sky dark and bringing all travel and activity to a halt…but I hope you’re all finding some balance and a sense of fulfillment in your own days. Here’s are some notes on some of my own recent doings.

Reading: Another advance reader copy, from my bookstore source: Bone of My Bone, by Johanna Van Veen, a folk-horror, historical-fiction novel that’s well-written and weirdly fun (in an often-gory way).

Art: I went up to The Cloisters with Daisy for a late-night, all-night program at which we met The Greedy Peasant, posed for photos in gold halo headdresses, drank cocktails in one of the eponymous cloisters, kept running into people we knew (Liv!!), and browsed the exhibition Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages.

Video: In actual theaters, two films I’d never seen before: Center Stage (starring Maggie Cheung, 1991) and Bitter Rice (directed by Giuseppe DeSantis, 1949). I really do have the best cinema companions, incidentally.

Drinks: Espresso and tea dates with some favorite fragrance-and-cosmetics co-conspirators. Right now, though, just lots of Airborne, because I’m trying to kick a little sore throat and cold bug.

(Tr)eats: Worked my way through a big bar of cardamom-and-coffee chocolate. “Lenten biscotti” from our favorite bakery. The final pomegranates of the season.

Beauty Products: I learned of the existence of a Tesolife (a chain of Asian “lifestyle stores” heavy on snacks and cosmetics) near my optometrist and visited after my recent check-up. I picked up a Shiseido hand cream in a very functional-looking red tube, a Canmake eye primer and, because I just learned (from the doctor) that I have dry eyes, a set of reusable cooling eye pads (with Hello Kitty on them, because when in Tesolife…).

Fragrances: Dark snowy days make me crave fragrances with notes of bright neroli and/or crisp aldehydes, like LBTY Liberty Maze, Chanel No. 5 L’Eau, and Quartana Parfums Beaut’Air.

Garb: My friend CH gave me an Anna Sui sweatshirt and so now I have two, lucky me. They’re all I wear at home these days.

Pleasures: Co-presenting about scent in art spaces at Bard Graduate Center with my colleagues Andreas Keller and Tedde Brown. A friend’s birthday party. The final melting of the snow, making local travel much easier.

Up Next: I’m tucking deep into into my writing cocoon for the next few weeks, but I have a couple of fun spring events in the works (stay tuned!). And I’ll be reading up on Marcel Duchamp for an upcoming exhibition at MoMA.

Brighter days are ahead, literally! I hope your Daylight Savings weekend is a good one.

Image: Bernard Sleigh, February from The Faery Calendar, 1920. Victoria & Albert Museum, London.