Friday, November 26, 2010

my power weakens due to lack of yellow sun

I haven't been around here in a while. Mostly because I've been too busy being addicted to information. I swear to god, Google Reader is crack for people like me. I don't even know what that means because I don't know any people like me (read: crazy). This year has spun me around like a whirling dervish. It started out kinda good, then it got kinda bad -- lather, rinse, repeat. I would say from mid-July to around a couple of weeks ago was probably one of the most memorable periods of my life, hands down. Mostly because of the places I got to go and the people I got to meet, more on that later.

In the past day or two I've thought of several topics I'd like to address and the fact that I had somewhere near 70-ish posts last year and what feels like all of 3 this year really lit a fire under my ass. I mean maybe if I cranked my output to one a day from today until New Year's I could catch up, but not bloody likely. Anyway, I was all set to come home and write about oh I don't know, how I'm so happy that Kanye is self actualizing (I'm laughing at my self for the turn of phrase here), how twitter is the most awesome sauce in the world, how y'know, there's this dude whose writing I love and how I totally got to experience his awesome -- that kinda stuff. I was Speedy Gonzalez-ing to kind of a good end to a semi good (if long) day. I actually got to my first class on time (Prof seemed impressed), I picked up a book I needed to read, finished In the Skin of a Lion with notes, ate a pretty decently healthy lunch, had delicious and pretentiously named coffee, made an interesting observation in my CanLit class, blah blah.
And then somewhere on the way home it all went sideways, I got all tired and cranky. I felt completely out of my skin. Luckily a friend came over with wine and illicit books (illicit because I can't really read them until class breaks for Christmas) and restored some of my humanity.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that everything seems to be winding down. It gets dark really early and my fragile inner ecosystem/equilibrium (I'm being borderline sarcastic here people) is craving massive doses of sunlight and coming up short. The adrenalin high is over now and I'm going through some sort of experiential withdrawal. That's what winter seems to be all about. Man, bears know where it's at.
I think I'm trying to keep a light tone here because I actually feel quite meh about everything right now -- although to be fair it's 3am. I'm about to head to bed with E.M. Forster's Howards End. The reason I'm here though, why I couldn't wait until the sun came up (however feebly) is because I found something extra redeeming about my night.

Whenever I feel really really down in the dumps there's a certain URL I direct myself towards. It doesn't happen too often but it works. I won't tell you what it is, that would give away the surprise. The short of it however, is that somehow I was reminded of a conversation -- which I had conveniently archived (huzzah!) and as I went through it I got an idea for a short story. So I wrote all the dialogue down and I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with it. I'm going to sneak an hour of poking at it into my plans tomorrow.
I'm tired, but also cautiously chuffed.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Dyson FTW

I'm a fan of bathing - of baths that is, because I tend to be a cleanly person. So here's my pickle - I live in a pretty cold house. Generally if I close the door and the windows tightly and make sure the hot water heater is full I'm pretty set, other than the fact that a) my bathtub is not long enough for me b) there's no goddamn tv in the bathroom. So I did all of that today. Except I've been using eucalyptus epsom salts (shut up I've been sick) and um...there's this odd effect. You know how...you eat a tic tac and breathe in and suddenly your mouth is super cold and stuff? Yeah. Think of that happening to your entire body as you get out of your really hot bath. #fail
It was worth it though, I was reading this awesome Nathaniel Hawthorne short story - Roger Malvin's Burial. That's usually why I take baths lately, because I need to read something and I find myself not being able to expend the focus.

So I'm standing on my bath mat shivering, and suddenly I think: hey Dyson, make an airblade. For my entire body!