Runnin', Writin', and Rockin'

NaNoWriMo has me in its clutches, but I intend to run and to play guitar every day this month (at least) in addition to the writing.  OK, I procrastinated Friday and Saturday, but I did manage to do all three today, and while I haven't produced as much text as I'd like just yet, I have started, and that puts me far ahead of where I was in the game last year.  While I've not put too much planning into "The Divorce Is Final," I'm happy with the direction in which it's currently going, and I do have some general ideas and will no doubt develop more as I get deeper into it.  I do want it to feel at least as much like fun as it does like work...

Isn't it?

Preeti dozed on the couch behind me this afternoon as Mozart streamed from the Apple TV and I began putting words to paper the cloud.  (I'm sure the end of Daylight Saving Time means absolutely nothing to a creature who dozes most of her day away anyway.)  Tuesday will mark one year since we brought her home to the apartment, and while our little family is littler than it was then, I think my female feline is pretty happy overall.  Granted, she'd prefer to play fetch with her mousey for at least an hour a day longer than I consent to, but we do play.  Meguilla the chinchilla gets her playtime, too.  And her raisins.  Mustn't forget the raisins.

While I've mostly played either the Danelectro or the Kona acoustic/electric over the past two years, lately I've been eschewing both left-handed guitars for my old Epiphone knockoff of a right-handed Strat (strung and played "upside-down," of course).  I do love the sound of the Danelectro, especially with the light top/heavy bottom strings I mainly use with it, but the Epiphone seems to rock more, and I like to play it slung down lower than my other guitars, which just feels more rock, too.  Anyway, I played this evening 'til my fingers were sore, and then I played a little more.

I'd planned on recording a new song or two this month, but I'm realizing that I can't really dedicate that much time to it, not if I want to get a 50,000-word novel done before December.  That Entwistlian bassline for "I'll Live" that keeps running through my head is just going to have to wait a bit longer...  I'll settle for getting a few new songs written, and although I'm not going to run a 5K before springtime, I'm determined to run every day and gradually get my endurance and my speed up to something that'll make a good showing when I do tackle my first race.  Should help to keep those winter (and holiday!) pounds at bay, as well, and I'm starting to reintroduce some South Beach phase two recipes into my meals, after a lengthy period of not managing what I eat very well.

Also going on this month: a weekend road trip to Boston with a couple of my colleagues, and "The Day of the Doctor."  I've been a fan of "Doctor Who" since probably sometime around 1982, and this special looks to be... well, special.  I'm going to watch the simulcast at the AMC Loews Village 7 in Manhattan on November 23rd, having snagged a ticket despite Fandango's ineptitude.  Anyone else going?  Anyone wishing they were?

OK, I've written too many words already for something that isn't "The Divorce Is Final."  ;-)  I'm going to relax with a cup of hot chocolate and a scone.  Later!

The Divorce Is Final

Laura Liston and I never even actually got married... but she came over on Saturday (Sweetest Day, coincidentally) to pick up the last of her stuff and haul it away back to Pennsylvania.  I'd packed most of it up carefully ahead of time, and I helped her and her two roommates carry everything out to the car; she did thank me for making myself available (though not for the work I did), then just got in the car and drove off without so much as a goodbye or even a little wave.  :::sigh:::  The closest she got to the old Laura was when she found and picked up Preeti, but it was a fleeting moment.

So, yes, despite how much I loved her, despite all the sweet things we did for and said to each other, despite our engagement (and the ring, which she gave me back, even though I'd told her to keep it), despite her having elicited a promise from me that I wouldn't do this to her, Laura has flounced out of my life.  Presumably forever.  Tonight would've marked one month of marriage, but instead it feels like I've been through a divorce, and while I'm glad to have custody of the "kids" (furry though they are), I still can't make much sense of what's happened.  I knew, getting into this relationship, that she had some emotional baggage, but then who among us has not?  I had some myself, though I like to think that it was only a carry-on at that point.  I seem to have underestimated how heavy her baggage was, however, and as a result, I've found myself with quite a lot more to carry around now.  Please bear with me as I adjust to the weight, and build the Wall back up...

The kids still love me, at least.

I really like the Google Nexus 7 I gifted myself for my birthday.  :-D  The fact that I can tether it wirelessly to the iPhone (when there isn't open WiFi around) definitely helps, though I've got some books and some music on it that don't require Internet access.  It came in handy for showing my dad my "honey-less-moon" pictures while he was in the hospital, too.  He spent two weeks in a HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital after that, and is home now, but he's still not doing that well.  We've heard talk about fibromyalgia, or possibly polymyalgia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and anemia, but no one has really helped him with the pain, or the weight loss, or a definitive explanation and treatment plan.  It's been really frustrating, for all of us.

Hopefully, I can channel some of my depression and anger and frustration and loss into art.  In addition to working on a few new songs (lyrically, at least, for the moment, although the music is coming, too), I've decided to try NaNoWriMo again this year, in spite of the fact that I failed miserably at writing much of "They Might Be Roses," my intended novel last November.  I still intend to write that one eventually, though it'll be bittersweet now; but this year, I'm thinking that the novel's going to be titled "The Divorce Is Final."  It's not going to be about a literal divorce; it will be flavored (seasoned?) with some of my recent sorrows, but it's not going to be the story of Andy and Laura, either.  If you're interested in what it is going to be, well... stick around.