Year in High Heels: The Girl's Guide to Everything from Jane Austen to the A-List

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Chapter One

January

January 1

January was named after Janus—the Roman god of gates and doors, of beginnings and endings. This god was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions (Janus Geminus—twin Janus). It is his head that was part of the original logo for the fashion House of Fendi. The two faces represented the sun and the moon, and symbolized change and transitions.

Today is the perfect date to put your dreams into action. New Year, New Resolutions, New Diary, New You.

If moving from the sofa is difficult, if not impossible, especially after last night's festivities, today's the day to think about areas for improvement. Start with some honest self-analysis—you can manage that. Be sure to upgrade mind, body, and soul as well as your wardrobe. No point looking the part in next season's labels if your head is stuck in last year's groove.

Bette Davis commented, "I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and at times disagreeable . . . I suppose I'm larger than life."

And you?

Best foot forward

In English and Scottish folklore first-footing decrees that the first visitor to your house, after midnight, will determine your year. So this could be where things have been going wrong . . .

A male visitor is said to bring luck (no, you don't say?). Getting specific, he should be dark, so why not just add tall and handsome to the wish list and be done with it? Tradition says he will come bearing gifts such asmoney, bread, or coal. Just turning up is a good start . . .

If he's blond, red-headed, or, worst of all, isn't a he but a she who's first at your front door, you're going to have bad luck. Be very cautious whom you invite over and use your peephole before opening the door. You could always refuse to answer. Or tell blond friends to come back tomorrow; they should understand.

How to Pepys

"This morning (we living lately in the garret) I rose, put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately worn any other clothes but them. Went to Mr Gunning's chapel at Exeter House, where he made a very good sermon . . ."

So began Samuel Pepys' Diary, in 1660.

Pepys (February 23, 1633–May 26, 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who rose to be Chief Secretary to the Admiralty, under King James II. To be honest he would have been totally forgotten had it not been for his private diary that he kept religiously for nine years and five months (until his eyesight was too poor to continue). It was published posthumously and his name became linked to that period of history forever. It's not revealing any great scandal or state secrets, but it is the most important primary source of the English Restoration, and includes eyewitness accounts of the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London.

So, as dawn breaks on this first day of January, isn't it time you committed to finally committing? Whooah! Not to a him or a her but to you. Record in a book your deepest thoughts, wild nights, and inner feelings, as well as noting the more bland appointments, like when the meter reader is coming—any time between dawn and dusk.

While the thought that your diary could be read decades, or even centuries, later might seem unlikely, it really depends on you. It's all about content. Aim to make it a page-turner and it could become a pension fund.

As Mae West said, "Keep a diary and one day it will keep you."

Famous diary keepers to read and be inspired by include:

Real Life: Ossie Clark, Anne Frank, Kenneth Tynan, Andy Warhol, Virginia Woolf.

Fiction: Bridget Jones, Adrian Mole, or, depending on how the week's panning out, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol's Diary of a Madman. But let's hope this is the year your own day-to-day does not make the National Enquirer pale in comparison.

How to blog it

Forget the padlock.

Increasingly, diaries are no longer private. Everyone loves to read a diary, from handwritten scribbles to weblogs for the more technically inclined. If the Internet is anything to go by, diaries are back in fashion—big time. If you feel like giving the world immediate access to your musings, rants, or inner turmoil, rather than leaving your diary open on the bus it's time to embrace technology and start a blog. Expose your angst to cyberspace. As author Kingsley Amis said, "If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing."

Blogging is an open forum to express your opinions on everything and anything . . . and a way for everyone, and anyone, to write back. Be warned— they will.

The best sites to go to for help when setting up your own blog are www.blogger.com, www.wordpress.com, and www.livejournal.com. At www.mac.com, they have even included an easy-to-install blog/weblog option within their iLife upgrade packages if you can't persuade a techy-friend to take pity and do it for you. Google has a Blogs of Note section that includes everything from a New York cabdriver's rant to many a dieter's agony.

Making your opinion heard has never been so easy.

So, first things first . . . what to do?

Follow the steps on your selected program:

1. Create an account.
2. Name your blog.
3. Choose a template.

The most established website, and therefore the most experienced in looking after nervous first-timers, is www.blogger.com. Before clicking on the options decide what you want to use your blog for. What do you want to say, show, discuss, or record?

Download a template, follow the instructions and registration steps 1, 2, and 3, . . . Let your host site worry about the layout, graphics, and HTML. All you need to do is work out the content.