31 Jan 07
I taught my first class in eight years tonight. I’m teaching a web design class through the county’s adult education, and I’m developing the course from scratch. I’ve been nervous all day, asking myself: What if I lock up? What if the students are all difficult? What if none of them understand English? It was […]
30 Jan 07
Last night, I finished reading Boris Akunin’s The Winter Queen. I greatly enjoyed its rollicking mystery/adventure vibe and wry black comedy, until the last two pages. The ending was bleak, dark, melancholy, and completely unexpected. I still like the book, and want to read others in the series (The Winter Queen is the first). But […]
29 Jan 07
Last week, I realized that I have enough money. I’m saving, I’m eating well, and I’m paying my bills. I’d been planning to get another tenant for my spare bedroom. But with that realization, I asked myself, Why deal with that? Why not use what I’ve been given? So I converted the spare bedroom into […]
28 Jan 07
In one sense, I accomplished nothing today. I just did my duties at AWANA, then went to my parents, ate dinner, and chatted. Then I came home, took a bath, and wrote this. Let me reframe that, though. I attended AWANA, where I encouraged and advised a bunch of boys. I showed them a clip […]
27 Jan 07
I’m back from an all-nighter. I work with ten- to twelve-year-old boys in a church program, and on Friday night attended an annual lock-in in which about seventy boys eat pizza, drink lots of soda, and run around a massive church shooting Nerf darts at each other. It’s great fun, and it went off swimmingly. […]
26 Jan 07
This past Christmas, since I spent less than usual on presents, I made and gave out a lot of cookies. So I spent much of the week before Christmas driving to my friends’ homes and delivering cookies. A surprising thing happened. Without fail, my friends would invite me in, and we’d sit down at the […]
25 Jan 07
Tonight, after work, I ate thick slices of seven-grain bread, alternating with wedges of cheddar and Morbier cheeses, and sipped a small glass of 2004 Red Truck wine. I took twenty minutes, alone, just me and the meal. It was glorious. Why not enjoy and fully experience every meal? I could have wolfed it all […]
24 Jan 07
As I knocked the sodden mass of tea leaves out of the strainer this morning, I realized I had unconsciously done so to the rhythm of “Shave and a Haircut.” I must be feeling better. Meanwhile, Saalon writes: Creative people – writers, painters, musicians – put a lot of work into their early projects. There’s […]
23 Jan 07
Still sick, but managed to get in four hours at the office. I fear that only worsened things, as I’ve felt exhausted since then. But I had to go in. I spent the rest of the day laying in bed, watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Whose Line Is It Anyway. Not my best day.
22 Jan 07
I hate being sick. I hate it because I want to do things, I want to even do relaxing things, but I don’t even feel like relaxing. I feel like watching Oprah.