Thinking, Drinking, and Doing

It's times like this, really early or late at night, when I tend to think very deeply.  Anyone else do that, too?  Times like these can be nice.  Time to just think, listen to music, and write.  Everyone's asleep and it's so very quiet.  I was just sitting here, trying to do my best Faulkner or Ellison impressions, and drinking tea.  Nothing fancy, just the Nestea powder that comes in a jar.  I've had much, much worse.  How bad can you screw up tea?

I just let my mind wonder for a few minutes.  I came to realize that, had someone told me a year ago that I'd be living a writer's life in a ridiculously beautiful city, I probably would have laughed.  Sometimes, I kick myself a little for not moving here sooner.  But things happen as they are supposed to, no sooner or later.  Packing up everything and moving any distance isn't exactly something you just do, but once the decision was made the weight vanished.  I feel so much better about things.  I don't want to sound like I'm bragging about my life, though.  I still get sad and frustrated sometimes.  The usual ups and downs.  Just the fact that I'm going through that, something deliciously normal, is more than reassuring.  Can you tell I want to major in psychology?

So, I've been organizing my craft stuff, too.  I've got a few things in production for Le Petit Aubergine and I'll most definitely post pictures when I'm done.  Oh, and I finally gained one Tumblr follower.  Huzzah.  That's about it for right now.  Today should be a good day and I'm totally going to relax and let it be.  :)

Hipness

I've been wanting to make a post for the past ten or so days, but I could never think of how to start one off.  Do other bloggers ever experience this?  Anyway, it's been too long.  Sorry about that.

Things have been fantastic.  Portland has the most erratic, "WTF" weather I've ever seen.  I don't mean that in a bad way, of course.  I can honestly say that I've seen snow, sunshine, and rain all in the same day.  That's probably not that unusual, but I hadn't seen it before, so it was new to me.  Anyway, you're probably wondering what this has to do with things being fantastic.  Last Sunday, I totally had somewhere to be and the weather was kind of a worry.  But that all went well, and let's just say I have a new person in my life, whom I was very pleased to meet and am looking forward to getting to know.

So, yeah, it snowed like crazy the other night.  We got a couple of inches in a matter of hours.  Dad decided to go ahead and go to the store that night around 11:30, just in case traffic was crazy the next day.  I went along and Dad drove slowly, taking the shortest route.  We saw a few people walking around, but most places were practically deserted.  As we pulled up to the grocery store, Hotel California came on the radio. I sat there for a second, watching the big, fat snowflakes fall.  It was an oddly beautiful moment.

In other news, I've been getting more writing done than I have in months.  Proud?  Yes.  Determined?  Most definitely.  Tired?  A little.  Things in that area are coming together nicely.  What's kind of weird, though, is that lately I've had several very jarring, thought-provoking dreams that I felt beyond compelled to put on paper.  It's hard to link them together or even to get them to flow sometimes.  Nice, long walks are good for that.  Sometimes, you can't find all your building blocks right then and you need to look elsewhere for them.  But it all works out.

Lastly, I've developed a taste for bizarre, obscure, indie music.  Bands from years ago who have a unique sound and twisted album covers.  Mostly folksy stuff and some psychedelic-sounding songs.  I guess it's something that I've always been kind of interested in, but I've recently found some artists I really dig.  Does this make me a hipster?

Dame Tu Waflera

It seriously hasn't seemed like five whole days since my last post.  The past week or so has gone by fast, yet kind of slow.  Not sure what I meant by that.  Roll with it.

I finally managed to get my sleeping pattern back on track but it seems like the past me is already fighting it.  Sleeping at night and being all normal about it makes me feel so much better, though.  I wake up, exercise, try not to choke on my cereal, and try to get whatever's floating around in my head out onto paper.  Much easier than it sounds.  The bad news is that my recent writing purge has resulted in stuff being randomly splattered all over the page and needing to be sorted out.  The good news is that ideas are being shaped and vague daydreams are coming to fruition.  For this, I am thankful.

So, yesterday was my dear mom's birthday.  I called her and she sounded very happy, which in turn made me very happy.  I miss her and wish I could have been there to wake her up at the crack of dawn with a boiling cup of coffee.  Then, I would have made her favorite spicy ramen for lunch and we would watch cat videos.  In case you couldn't tell, I already have a few things planned for whenever I visit Tennessee.

In other news, I've been putting my verb conjugation book to use and brushing up on my Spanish.  I was almost semi-halfway fluent there for a while.  Sometimes, I like to read the Spanish parts of labels or ingredient lists out loud.  Good practice, I guess.  I also like to look up random words and phrases and try to work them into sentences.  I'm not sure if that counts as practice, but it sure is fun.

It's mid-morning here and I should probably get my day started.  I feel like it's going to be a good one.

Dogwood Flowers

Life has gotten interesting.  In a good way, of course.

New Year's was uneventful but great.  I called my family shortly after midnight their time (nine pm here) and they had bunch of friends over for evening festivities.  Everyone seemed to be in good spirits.  The only thing I didn't really dig about my evening was the series of window-vibrating explosions coming from down the street.  Someone had apparently discovered fireworks and was going to town on them.  It added to the atmosphere, though.

The past couple of days have been slow but very calm.  I went on a spur-of-the-moment walk earlier this evening and the weather was wonderful.  Light jacket or sweater temperatures (for me, anyway).  I hadn't been on a nice, long walk in a while and I learned some alternate routes back to the house.  For some reason, I kept getting whiffs of all these scents that reminded me of where I grew up.  Wood smoke, diesel and fog, and even something that smelled like a factory I used to ride past all the time.  It didn't make me feel sad.  If anything, it made me feel even more at home.  At some point, Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show got stuck in my head and I trotted down the street with it playing loudly in my head.  The part about heading to Johnson City always gives me chills.

Anyway, the walk was dandy and all but my legs and feet hurt.  Totally worth it.  And when it comes to life being interesting, I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks.  For the first time in years, I'm okay with letting things be and not flipping out.  It's a simple idea, but very liberating.  Everyone should try it at least once.