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2-15-10 // 6:01 pm riding on the trade winds of age I've been listening to Blind Pilot's "3 Rounds and a Sound" for about three days straight now. The weekend was a nice "reset." Friday night arrived & I was 100% spent. despite it having been an objectively awesome day and with nothing specific or actual to annoy, I was a cranky bitch all day long, everyone and everything was irritating the piss out of me. I know that state, that means I am officially out of gas. So I got home from work and collapsed, I just drank a few beers, ate a huge salad, and watched a disc's worth of "30 Rock." Saturday I slept for like 8 and a half hours but could've slept for 12, but upon waking up I was starting to feel minutely better; I drove up to Champaign for a long overdue, several times put-off visit with my sister and brother in law. I don't mind the trip up, it flies despite being endless Illinois flatness; it's only like 185 miles from STL, so I can do it in like 3 hours, including coffee breaks. But it was a small taste of proper R&R. My sis asked what I wanted to do when I was up, and I said I didn't care about specifics, per se, I just wanted to catch up, eat well, drink well, sleep, and maybe do a bit of wandering round downtown Champaign. So we did! Had lunch at a cafe, bought some CDs at a fab little indie record shop ("Exile on Main Street," on Main Street, how rockingly cute), took a few pics before my fingers went numb, and just kinda wandered with no schedule. My bro in law showed me his science-tastic lab (he's a genetics/microbiology post-doc), including a fancy-ass million dollar electron microscope and attending high-powered computing devices. We made pizzas from scratch, drank beer (I finally found the ever-elusive Beerlao!), watched "Back to the Future II" (arguably the best of the three), goofed around, played a bit of Mario Kart on the Wii, and lazed about in pajamas/drank coffee the next morning. Gloriously low-key! I saw my sister's lab (she works in one of the microbio labs for the university) since she had to go check on an experiment, I took a few pics of choice signage, and before long it was time to head back to STL. I just barely beat the latest round of snow/wind/ice madness. But damn, what a great little trip! I wish they were still in the STL, although I do like the jaunts up to Champana, I do love me a proper college town. Makes me all missing the goods in Berkeley. But anyway, it was just what I needed, it helped me turn the corner from the, frankly, exhausting work^3 mode I'd been mired in since early December. I'm still kinda tired, but I can feel my strength returning, my mental clarity returning, my anxiety abated and then evaporated, and those depression-y aches & pains finally subsided. This week is a catch-up-on-sleep, no beer, mega-veggie detox week. My workouts have felt great the last three or so days, and I'm overjoyed that I'm making progress on album reviews and CDs I owe folks. About damn time! I was feeling so unbalanced for a long while. I need time for art/music/words. So no day off for President's Day (I'm offended, I need time to celebrate the life and works of Chester A. Arthur), and no snow day. Just another 2-4", as it's been all winter long, ad nauseam. At this point, I'm over getting super pissed off about it, winter is so close to being over that I can grit my teeth and deal a little while longer. But I'm still not having fun with disentombing my car in the morning, getting my shoes and pant leg cuffs all wet, the constant dirt and ice and salt grime, the slip-sliding and crawling to work. But I am feeling better, physically and mentally. Today was the first day that's felt "normal" for months now. It's almost disarming, I barely know how to handle it. But then I remember what it's like to move at a measured, normal pace, and I ease into it. Today was a good one, I had energy and good humor, and time to do a bit of down-time writing but to also get shit done but not at a frantic pace. Plus, I was approved to cash in some of my comp time for a four day weekend at the end of the month. Score! Hell fucking yes. I'm gonna brew a new batch of homebrew, write a shit ton, sleep, work out, etc, etc. Can't wait. Now off to eat some dinner & then assemble my "best of 2009" CD for Tom's CD party on Saturday night. Word up, peace out.
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