Monday, May 22, 2006

It’s a perfect day. Weather-wise, at least. About seventy degrees, sunny, with just enough clouds to provide gilding for the clear blue sky. You could walk or run and not feel the least bit like sweating, or you could stand in the shade in a t-shirt and feel comfortable. What’s better than that?

Well, obviously, a few things: Deep love. Honor. Respect. Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Mmmm. (You know you can make your own?)

Where is this going, you may ask? Not sure. Let’s see where today takes me:

Woke up with the alarm and managed to crawl out of bed quickly enough that I got to work half an hour early. That was a nice bonus, since I had a two-hour meeting starting at 9:00. A meeting in which the chair recited a list of requirements for an hour and a half. Not exciting, but useful; we were able to clarify a number of things.

Then back to my desk for some last-minute work before lunch, during which I snuck out to my truck to watch an episode of Gundam Wing on my laptop. (Why? A friend wants to see it, but wants me to re-watch it before I loan it to him.) It’s been quite a few years since I watched Wing, which worried me a bit.

See, Gundam Wing was one of my early anime loves. Oh, I’d seen a fair bit of anime at that point, but that was a series I completely fell in love with, after watching enough episodes to no longer be confused (that is, about twenty). It it had some depth, but it was also able to be light-hearted and fun. It was exciting. It was classic kid’s Saturday morning adventure, but with suicidal pilots and ridiculously colored giant robots. It was also my first Gundam series, a franchise I’ve since gobbled up with the joy of a starving African given a free trip to Outback Steakhouse.

So, I worried, would I still enjoy this series after a much broader exposure to anime? Would my experience with the rest of Gundam hurt my love of this series, or would I still be able to love it?

Yes!

Oh man is it fun. I can see the cheesiness more clearly now, and the voice acting grates on my ears now that I’ve heard so much better. I’m not quite the die-hard fan I once was; my appreciate is more mature. But I still love it on a deep, fundamental level. It’s such great fun.

So, back to work, where I finished up some training materials and took care of other business before quitting time. I took a shrewd shortcut that ended up adding five minutes to my driving time, and stopped by the grocery store to stock up on exotic things like onions and butter. Then home.

And here, at home, I began a serious night of more work. Because i need to clear the decks of a bunch of things that have been bothering me—mostly phone calls that I need to make—and I’m not going to put them off any more.

So I tossed ingredients into the bread machine and got that going, ate some dinner (microwaved homemade soup…not great, but certainly a good meal), hard-cooked some eggs, and just finished making a batch of chocolate chip cookies for the coming week.

So we’ll see if I can keep this up all evening, or if I crash and burn. I have two hours to make these phone calls and do some editing of Giant Armors before bedtime. Can I do it? Or will I burn out?

Bring it on.