Shades of Awesome

• It feels so good to be back to blogging after (kind of) taking three weeks off.  I love blogging, but it takes up more of my time than I’d really like to admit.  I decided not just to take a break from publishing posts, but from writing them as well.  That was really hard at first. I found myself doing what I always do, writing posts in my head, and then I nearly went mad not being able to put them in writing.  I wasn’t trying to torture myself.  I was just trying to carve out more time to focus on my other interests.  I too often neglect them in favor of blogging.

• I’m, like, bursting at the seems with enthusiasm and creativity lately, and I am expressing it strangely by making huge lists of goals and plans and thinking about productivity and professional development, and I don’t know, maybe the adrenaline or whatever it is that’s making it possible for me to get by on so little sleep is pushing me somewhere I haven’t been before.

• It was a crazy week at school.  I had two presentation and given my crazy schedule, I thought that preparing adequately for both would be impossible.  I still have a lot of insecurities surrounding my academic life and giving presentations on huge amounts of difficult reading in intimidating classes puts dread in my stomach.  Of course I didn’t feel adequately prepared for either, but I wouldn’t had I had weeks to prepare, so that’s no big thing.  I would like to say I kicked ass on both presentations, but the truth is that they both went pretty well and now the end of the semester is in sight.

• Speaking of which, it has been so nice here in Southern California.  And since the time change, it has been light out even when I take my dinner break at work.  All of a sudden, my mind is focused on Summer.  Only six weeks to go and I’m there.  I’ll then have what I think they call evenings and another thing called weekends.  I don’t know if you’re familiar.  I think I remember them from another life.  Really, though, after working swing shift for long stretches, you forget what it’s like to be a normal person who doesn’t work until midnight every night.  I suspect I will go crazy at first, because I always do, but I’ll adjust.

• March 21st marked the 10 year anniversary of the release of NSYNC’s No Strings Attached album.  Oh, what an occasion.  It took a second to get over the realization that it’s been ten years.  Let me do the math for you: I was 16 then and I’m 26 now.  Lisa and I planned an elaborate celebration, but ended up just watching a bunch of videos on YouTube.  If only we’d had YouTube 10 years ago!  I could have saved myself so much money and stress; those VHS tapes added up and it was always so difficult to hit record at just the right time.  I cannot refer to anything about my life in high school as crazy, but the craziest things I did were probably NSYNC related and the No Strings Attached concerts were some of the most fun I ever had. This is pure magic as well as I know it.

• I am, as I’ve probably admitted before, a little obsessive, especially when it comes to pop culture things.  I wouldn’t say I never just like things, but I more often double exclamation point and italics love!! things.  With music more than anything else, though my Lord of the Rings days were epic as well.  I’m so obsessive about music that I tend to listen to the same albums (the word album feels very outdated) over and over, rarely letting anyone new in.  But, for the last couple weeks I’ve only been listening to Vampire Weekend.  And, I’m an idiot, because I know I saw them all over blogs a long time ago, but it takes a lot for me to commit to anyone new.  I’m bummed that all their shows around here are sold out.

• Thanks again for all of your feedback on my effort to get serious about writing.  I’m feeling really good about it.

Have a great weekend!