Signs of Spring

As I sat on my couch, reading my cooking magazine, a sound came in through the open window.

The ice cream truck. Playing the ever-popular ice cream truck tune, “Turkey in the Straw.”

I didn’t think 60-ish degrees was warm enough to entice kids to buy ice cream yet, but I’ve been wrong before. Even so, it’s a pleasant enough harbinger of warm weather to come.

This Will Be Me In 15 Years

Courtesy of Jill Shalvis:

Last night was Back to School night for the High School. It’s set up so that parents can experience the day as their child does. My daughter handed me my schedule. AP Calculus, AP Science, Weight Training, Leadership, and AP English. I looked at the schedule and felt the nerves jump in the pit of my stomach. “I already survived high school, I shouldn’t have to survive it again.”

keep reading…

Totally. Going to be me when I have a kid in high school.

On Blogging

I was looking through my old archives today, seeking out the tattoo of my name in Elvish that I really wanted to get back in 2002:

when it occured to me that I’ve been doing this blogging thing for quite a while now. Nonstop. Since September 2002, and sporadically before that, before blogging had a name (that I knew of, anyway). Reading Dooce‘s entry from today about the anniversary of her own website made me think about it again.

Sometimes I wonder if I should be trying to “make it” in the blogosphere. If I should get some Google Ads going on, and write more carefully-crafted entries that read more like essays on Life than normal journal entries. And I realize that this is still what it’s always been: my journal, but online, for my long-distance friends to read.

One of the main reasons I started this, besides to get back into daily writing and journaling, was to keep in touch with all my scattered friends in Michigan, Missouri, California, Illinois, Arizona, and various places in Ohio, amongst others. That random strangers and new friends find my blog is just a bonus.

Do I wish this thing were bigger and more popular? Not really. Keeps the pressure off. Keeps me honest. Keeps me writing about normal things I’d write about in a normal journal, like how my weight loss is going or what I had for dinner or OMG Japan vacation in the works.

I’m content just being one singular, generally grammatically-correct thread in the giant tapestry that is the blogosphere. You all read my drivel, and comment on occasion, and that’s all I’m really here for.

Good Day.

Proof (first draft) of contracting project? Done in three hours’ work. Hopefully my peeps don’t find too much wrong with it; it was my first project, after all, and I’m sure I screwed *something* up. Still, though, I got it done by the imposed deadline, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything drastically wrong.

Got my annual merit raise today. I’m content with what I got. Other people, not so much. I’m trying to be supportive, while still feeling slightly guilty that I’m happy with my own pay increase.

Despite extreme soreness in the quads, I did my beginning kickboxing workout today. Yesterday I did PUSH DVD #2, Session #2, and really focused on my legs, since my knees are not currently giving me crap. (Maybe that glucosamine / chondroitin supplement I’ve been taking really does do something.) Tomorrow, I’m planning to do Yoga For Dummies and get my stretching on.

Started round two of thumbnails for my freelance client. Their favorite wasn’t exactly mine, but I’m rolling with it. I’m conbining my idea with some of their existing marketing materials, and that’s got a few more related ideas working in my brain.

Getting into an evening groove that I’m enjoying. See Aaron off to work, change clothes, feed the cat, check for vitally *important* e-mail (like, from a client), start dinner (if it’ll take a while), work out, eat dinner and watch national news & Good Eats, work on something important, then work on stuff that isn’t so important (like blogging).

I should go shower and go to bed right about now, but I’m interested in checking out the special on Bob Woodruff tonight (ABC news anchor who recovered from a head injury from an IED in Iraq), so I’m gonna go veg in front of the TV for a little while.

I’m feeling pretty good. I feel weird about feeling good. And that’s kind of sad on some level.