I'm afraid my muse hasn't been very vocal lately. My mind has been preoccupied lately, on top of wanting to get some others part of life in order. So actually uploading art is lower on the ol' priority list for the time being. I feel sorry for people who recently started watching me since I use to upload pieces fairly often. I use to hate to put anything but art related here, now not so much. Part of how I create art is everything ELSE that happens to me though so I don't feel so bad that much. I'm also pretty certain this is about the fifth time I'm lamented about this so I should just shut up about it and write my heart out and let read who wishes to read...

I've been meaning to update since last week for a few Little Things (TM) that happened. Lately I've been going over to my parent's for some dinner and to play Wii. For Christmas Mom ended up loading up on peripherals for the Wii. Dad got her Wii Sports Resort and I got her another two Wiimotes with the Motion Plus attachments and a couple nunchaku attachments. And while we play a little bit of everything, by far our favorite game is bowling, especially 100 Pin bowling. Only on a video game is this possible and the night melts by as we play frame after frame and game after game.

***WARNING GOLF LINGO AHEAD PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK***
However, we do switch it up and two weeks ago we were playing golf. As boring as golf might be on TV, it's fun to swing heavy objects at objects are reciprocally light. One reason I like video games is because things I normally suck at in real life I only mildly suck at in the virtual world. Admittedly, I suck so much at real life golf I am infinitely better at in Wii Sports Resort, being fairly good at getting par and the occasional birdie or bogey. So this was a par 5 course and I'm on shot 4. The only problem is I'm on the fairway half a yard away from the edge of the green, translating about 33 total yards to the hole. The hole is up on a hill and using a putter is out of the question but I hate using a wedge. This time I thoughts, Ah, this is a good shot for a wedge though I'll probably overshoot it but at least get par on the next shot. I line the shot up, compensate for wind, take a few practice swings, step up to the tee, and thwack! The ball pops up in the air and flies right in the hole. A chip in for a birdie. I swear I'll never make another shot like that in my life.

Ok, golf lingo ended. So I head home around 10 and take a walk around the block as I've become accustomed to doing to clear my head. I get to a major intersection when someone drives up to the current red light with their window rolled down and ask for directions to a street in the exact opposite direction and on a diagonal. Did I mention I live downtown with one way streets? It's easy to explain across the table to someone; turn left on next street, left at first light of that street, right on street half a mile down and the road you want intersects at the next light. It's hard to do as your walking 10 feet away to the car that is driving and you have to rival Google maps in processing speed and accuracy to get an answer and yell it out before the light changes. I managed to get a decent answer out there before they take off. I hope they got to where they were going...

So I ended up heading in the general direction they were asking so I took a left at the next intersection. I swear it wasn't 3 minutes after I spoke with the last person when someone else randomly called out to me, "Hey! I like your hat!" I look over and someone heading the opposite direction, again driving in a car, had their window down. I called out thanks and they were off. Of all things, the hat was a fedora my ex got me from Target which I am partial to. I might have little fashion sense but I apparently wear what I have well...

So it's the little things in life that keep me going. And in this constantly transitional phase that my life has become, I'm doing my best to not just be open to possibilities but make some solid choices, no matter how tough they might be to follow through with. Last weekend I just wanted to vegetate and escape from things for a bit, and was accomplished it with flying colors. Between Saturday and Sunday I logged 11-12 hours on Dragon Age: Origins. The frosting on the cake with that was the level of escapism I attempted at once. So the game is an open-ended role playing game with LOTS of choices in characters. I wasn't feeling particular to be someone like myself so I decided to make a character as far as I could from myself. The result? A Dwarven Warrior Princess named Sereda Aeduncan. I'm tall, she is short, I normally play intelligent mage characters, she runs in and bashes things with a great sword that is taller than she is, I'm a commoner, she's royal and lastly she's a she and I'm a he. It's been all kind of fun thinking things through differently. Seriously, the great sword strapped to her back drags ground when we run around. I'm trying to find a good double sided battle axe for her but to no avail.

After 12 hours I was satisfactorily vegetated. Monday I had the day off work for Martin Luther King Day which was quite nice. With my slackerism spent I decided to get productive. I had been planning on joining the YMCA across the street and getting in some running and swimming. I finally got around to doing this, the joining that is, not the running or swimming. Way back in college I had some good physical activity classes like the basic Kinesiology, a theatre movement course, stage combat, swimming. I think I may have gotten down to a 6:30 minute mile back then, if not that at least 7. And our final for swimming was 2.5 points per lap your swam in a 30 minute period. If you got 24 laps you passed. Not even a lap a minute. And if you got a lap a minute, a C. If you pulled off 40, 100 percent. More was bonus points. I somehow managed to pull off 40 laps in 30 minutes which I'm proud of to this day. Another guy in the class pulled 60... he had to have been amphibian.

Tuesday night after getting some running pants (because you just don't want to run in jeans, which unfortunately is all my closet consisted of for the past 10 years) I stretched out and got to running. Man... talk about being rusty, I was coughing up these little brown metal shards 5 minutes into it. Ok, maybe not THAT bad but I had to walk a couple laps 3/4 of the way through the mile, which 20 laps makes a mile. Yeah, small track. 2nd floor of a basketball gym. Cosy, the same way a coffin is peaceful. The next day my legs were rebelling since their 10 year vacation was over. So Wednesday was a no-go for anything. I was wanting to get into a morning workout routine so I decided Thursday around 8 would be perfect for a swim. Hmm... bad idea. I hadn't swam a lap since lap 40 10 years prior. Got in the water and thank goodness for muscle memory. My body remembered everything it needed. Exhale with face under water, right arm raises, turn head to right for breath, right arm comes down, exhale while right arm pushes back, right arm comes up, turn head for breath, etc. I didn't get the exhale/inhale backwards or anything. However, those rusty lungs were kicking into high gear and forgot how to operate under pressure. I got 4 laps in free style and I was winded. But I had some strength in my muscles still so I decided for the side stroke. Your head stays out of the water so you can breath as much as you want but most your power comes from scissor kicking. So 2 laps of that and my legs began clinching up. I called it a day and sat for 15 minutes getting my breathing back in order and my legs mobile.

It's Saturday now and earlier I went back for a mile rematch. After the quads in my legs healed back up and my lungs were expanded, things were MUCH easier. Got a full mile in without stopping. Which is pretty slow and sad to start off like this but I am starting off. Hopefully I'll be alternating run/swim each morning and in a month or so I'll be in decent shape. Work up to 2 miles and 20 laps or so. Already I'm feeling much better, appetite is back to normal, my mind is focusing easier, I don't dwell so much anymore. It will take time and be tough at times but it builds a good foundation for later in life.Anyhow, this is me rambling about the little things in life. If you've made it through such a boring subject, congratulations! I appreciate it, really. Oh, the other thing I hope to get back into is juggling. They have a nice big multipurpose room at the YMCA and I just don't have enough space in my little condo to wildly throw objects around with reckless abandon. Not that I'll do that at the Y but you get the point.

I hope everyone's year is going well. If it is not, take it from me that things can get better with time and a good attitude.