A time to rest and think

The track season is finally over.  I have a jumble of mixed feelings ranging from sadness over not seeing that bunch of cool guys anymore to happiness at not having to struggle along on hard runs behind those cool guys anymore.  We’ll see which side of the spectrum wins out eventually but for now, I’m happy to just hang out, nap, watch good television and chill with friends instead of running myself silly.  A break will be good and I’m excited to be able to plan things with people at 4:00 in the afternoon again.

I also picked up an old story that I haven’t really touched in a few months.  I wrote just a little bit of it and then left it, partially because winter break was here and all I wanted to do was sleep, eat, and watch BSG, but it was also partially because writing is just a little bit easier for me when I can do it in my mind.  That story, a tale about a land called Other, has been sitting on the bench in the back of my head, just waiting for me to notice it.  Well, today I finally did.  It’s pretty rough and there is a lot of reorganizing and reshaping that should happen before I start writing new stuff, but it feels good to be back there.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed those characters and that setting and it was nice to be in Other again.

On a totally unrelated note, Dollhouse was excellent this past week.  I am planning on doing a longer post about it tomorrow but suffice it to say for now, Alan Tudyk is my hero.  Thank you Joss for bringing him back to us.

Busy few days

I had the chance on Friday to tag along with a few friends in a car headed for the cities for an academic conference.  My bud B presented his incredible paper on creative non-fiction and its legitimate place within academia.  After he rocked it at the conference, we piled back in the cute little silver space pod known as our Prius and drove to a Malaysian restaraunt by the name of Peninsula.  The food was some of the best I’ve ever had, the conversation was fun and happy and content, and the company was the best.  On the way back, my future professor and current pal T introduced everyone else in the car to kumquats, which are a tiny, egg-shaped fruit, orange like an orange and more delicious than you could ever imagine.  I do believe that I’m in love with that fruit.

The team had a meet in River-Falls, WI, yesterday and after the 3.5 hour drive, we evacuated the overly warm bus into the totally cold outside.  The meet itself went pretty well but the coolest part was the ride home.  I hadn’t called my family in a while so I rang them and my little brother IP picked up the phone with a “Yes hello Mr. Brother.”  He’s only 9 years old so a solid conversation is usually hard to manage due to external distractions.  Before he could manage to see something shiny or sparkly I asked him how he was doing, how school was going, etc., to which he responded with a huge burst of joy, “I got my report card back and guess what.  I got an S in every class!”  I am so proud of my little bro, not only because he had a good quarter of school and is putting in the effort (well, all the effort that 9 year old should be putting in) but that he hasn’t fallen into the mindset of “Being smart and getting good grades is dumb.”  IP is also great to talk to because he’s always so excited about things.  He helps me to put things in perspective and realize, yeah, things in this world are pretty magical and awesome.  I need to stop forgetting that.