My life is full right now. Full of commitments, full of surprises, full of love. I can't stand to add anything else to my plate, and I don't want to start anything new until I get something good and firmly accomplished. There's a bit of a problem with that, because a lot of the things I'm working on right now don't have very near-term goals, or even clearly-defined endpoints. They all have milestones, of course, but there's always another carrot to chase after the current one's been caught.
Take the Philadelphia Marathon, for instance. I just started my training for it earlier this week, but it's not my first marathon, and I have no intention of making it my last. I had a good workout today on that front, too---five and a half miles, averaging an 8:20 pace. That's just about the best I've ever done in this kind of weather.
I ran from my office, which was something I've never tried before. I'd originally planned to wake up early, but I was writing so much last night that I got to bed late, and there was no way I was going to turn an already-pushing-it seven hours of sleep into six if I could help it. So I brought my running clothes into work, thinking I might run at the end of the day. Looking at the forecast though, it seemed more and more likely that it was going to rain later in the day, so I decided to run right when I got there. Even that early in the day there was a bit of a drizzle, but it was a good drizzle---more refreshing than soaking. I ran from DUMBO down to Red Hook along the waterfront. The route's an interesting mix of parks, heavy industry, and hipsterdom. When I came back I felt accomplished and ready to start the day. (I stayed an hour later at the end than I usually did to make up the time---I'm not trying to goof off here or anything)
As far as the writing goes, I set a goal at the beginning of July to revise 15,500 words of my novel by the end of the month (using Camp NaNoWriMo), and I hit that goal exactly at midnight last night. Now I'm a bit more than halfway through the whole thing, although I still have plenty of work ahead of me (some of the bits that are in most dire need of revising are still to come).
On top of all that, my wife and I are currently trying to introduce a kitten to our household. She started life as a stray, and she's still trying to adapt to life among humans, so that's one hurdle. She also faces the prospect of making friends with our existing cat, which currently is feeling like more of a challenge from Existing Cat's side than it is from Kitten's side. It's only been five days so far though, and we still have plenty of tricks up our sleeves. Kitten's starting to get more and more affectionate, and she's started playing with her jingle balls all on her own (although she could have chosen a better time than the crack of dawn this morning to reveal that to us).
Work has been keeping me awfully busy as well, with a project that could have a huge benefit to my career going live in two weeks, ready or not. Right now it's looking a bit too much like "not", for reasons that are beyond my team's control, but we're pushing as hard as we can, and we're still a long ways from giving up hope.
I've let some things slide in the midst of all this. I've managed to keep up with my progress using Duolingo relearn all the Italian I forgot from high school, but my Japanese lessons on Rosetta Stone have slowed to more of a crawl than I'd like. I've been neglecting the piano and guitar lately as well. Most significantly, however, I haven't been keeping up with my share of the housecleaning---that's the one I feel worst about. It's funny: I generally consider myself a clean, meticulous person, but when I'm focused on a project I still find it all too easy to let that kind of thing slide. My wife's convinced that she's been a bad influence on me in that respect, but even when I was living alone I never managed to develop much of a passion for keeping everything tidy. We've used a maid service from time to time, but there's a weird psychology around that: you can start feeling that your home is too messy to invite a stranger into it, even if that stranger's job is to clean the place. Part of the problem is the clutter. When there's stuff lying around that you'll lose track of if somebody else rearranges it, you want to deal with that first before getting to the more sanitation-related stuff. When you don't get around to putting those things away though...
Still, we're making progress even on that front. We've vowed to have the place in a state fit for company by Sunday, so with a firm goal in mind we've got a fire lit under our ass to accomplish it. Then it's on to the fifty million other things we want to do with our lives...
Take the Philadelphia Marathon, for instance. I just started my training for it earlier this week, but it's not my first marathon, and I have no intention of making it my last. I had a good workout today on that front, too---five and a half miles, averaging an 8:20 pace. That's just about the best I've ever done in this kind of weather.
I ran from my office, which was something I've never tried before. I'd originally planned to wake up early, but I was writing so much last night that I got to bed late, and there was no way I was going to turn an already-pushing-it seven hours of sleep into six if I could help it. So I brought my running clothes into work, thinking I might run at the end of the day. Looking at the forecast though, it seemed more and more likely that it was going to rain later in the day, so I decided to run right when I got there. Even that early in the day there was a bit of a drizzle, but it was a good drizzle---more refreshing than soaking. I ran from DUMBO down to Red Hook along the waterfront. The route's an interesting mix of parks, heavy industry, and hipsterdom. When I came back I felt accomplished and ready to start the day. (I stayed an hour later at the end than I usually did to make up the time---I'm not trying to goof off here or anything)
As far as the writing goes, I set a goal at the beginning of July to revise 15,500 words of my novel by the end of the month (using Camp NaNoWriMo), and I hit that goal exactly at midnight last night. Now I'm a bit more than halfway through the whole thing, although I still have plenty of work ahead of me (some of the bits that are in most dire need of revising are still to come).
On top of all that, my wife and I are currently trying to introduce a kitten to our household. She started life as a stray, and she's still trying to adapt to life among humans, so that's one hurdle. She also faces the prospect of making friends with our existing cat, which currently is feeling like more of a challenge from Existing Cat's side than it is from Kitten's side. It's only been five days so far though, and we still have plenty of tricks up our sleeves. Kitten's starting to get more and more affectionate, and she's started playing with her jingle balls all on her own (although she could have chosen a better time than the crack of dawn this morning to reveal that to us).
Work has been keeping me awfully busy as well, with a project that could have a huge benefit to my career going live in two weeks, ready or not. Right now it's looking a bit too much like "not", for reasons that are beyond my team's control, but we're pushing as hard as we can, and we're still a long ways from giving up hope.
I've let some things slide in the midst of all this. I've managed to keep up with my progress using Duolingo relearn all the Italian I forgot from high school, but my Japanese lessons on Rosetta Stone have slowed to more of a crawl than I'd like. I've been neglecting the piano and guitar lately as well. Most significantly, however, I haven't been keeping up with my share of the housecleaning---that's the one I feel worst about. It's funny: I generally consider myself a clean, meticulous person, but when I'm focused on a project I still find it all too easy to let that kind of thing slide. My wife's convinced that she's been a bad influence on me in that respect, but even when I was living alone I never managed to develop much of a passion for keeping everything tidy. We've used a maid service from time to time, but there's a weird psychology around that: you can start feeling that your home is too messy to invite a stranger into it, even if that stranger's job is to clean the place. Part of the problem is the clutter. When there's stuff lying around that you'll lose track of if somebody else rearranges it, you want to deal with that first before getting to the more sanitation-related stuff. When you don't get around to putting those things away though...
Still, we're making progress even on that front. We've vowed to have the place in a state fit for company by Sunday, so with a firm goal in mind we've got a fire lit under our ass to accomplish it. Then it's on to the fifty million other things we want to do with our lives...
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