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comments: 0Today is a two load day; and given that I coined said term approximately 10 minutes ago and haven't told anyone what it means yet, you probably don't know what the hell I'm talking about, or why I'm referring to any day at 3:00 AM in the present tense. But I must repeat, today has been a most splendid, two load day.
Every once in a while, one's life spirals out of control. It doesn't matter whose life it is, but sometimes people are just floating, unable to get anything of any significance done. It's probably the reason we don't have flying cars yet. The reasons vary to such a degree as to defy logic; too much work to do, or too little work to do, can send one down the downward spiral to a hell lacking productivity, fun, and most importantly purpose.
So there I was, first 3 weeks of school slowly passing, every Monday bringing a rush to complete the computer architecture, senior design and graphics looming in the background. My October monthly report was due and the date for submission was approaching quickly; a submission that would require the use of a fax machine, something I, as tech savvy as I am, have not a single fucking clue how to use. Pressure to be at house events was high as I am the President, and of course pressure has been mounting at work as I was feeling more and more under the gun to keep my job. Rather than exploding, I let off stress by skipping work and (usually) not telling my boss about it. The pressure was mounting and I was on the verge of a breakdown.
And then, calmness. I went in to work quite regularly, my projects were all finished and handed in on time, I found myself with a few weeks in which there were no projects due, my first exam came and passed without much of a fuss. Things at the house were cooling down, and I finished and deciphered the rather interface of the dreaded fax machine with ease. But this calmness, this void of pressure and stress, led me down a road of late nights reading Internet sites and long days of doing nothing in particular. Eventually, and the process was certainly not a long one, I started to oversleep classes, some for the first time all semester. Then, I fell Ill with some random bug whose remnants are still with me today. I started to miss my morning work in preference to sleep, and miss my evening work in preference for nothing in particular. The fact that I had absolutely nothing to do seemed to be getting in the way of me doing anything at all.
This is where today comes in. At 8:00 AM, after falling victim to George Carlin's abrasive musings and being powered by Akira Kurosawa and IFC's samurai Saturday the night before, I decided to call it a night and head to bed. 12 hours when I woke up, I realized that this would devastate all that I have worked so hard to keep up this semester. I hadn't spent more than an hour at my desk in a week; watching movies almost every night, playing ping pong, and general tomfoolery led to an entropy of my personal area that could not be overcome even when calling upon the power of my own disgust. But things were about to change; and, as with many things in my life, they followed the climate.
Being rather brisk the past few days has gotten me into the holiday season frame of mind; and indeed we are but a month and a half away from Thanksgiving. And when the sun hits just right, right before the leaves are about to turn and everything goes fucking nuts, one can catch quite the nice snapshot of New York City from right outside the house. Last night's Beirut tournament was just the light hearted fun filled social event I needed to kick my ass back into gear, and It was made official today. I did two loads of laundry.
Like all great things in life, like all great periods of innovation or progress, the great period in my life that will most accurately be described at this point as "the next few weeks" was kicked off by doing two loads of laundry in a single day. Like most college students, I let my laundry languish in an undone state for quite a while, feeling confident that I have enough clothes to last the week, or that those shorts can probably be worn again, or that all I have today is Gym and its OK if you smell bad at gym.
As a great believer in the feng-sui esque thought that your surroundings impact your mood and your productivity, I hate to have bad clutter around. Prior to this golden age of enlightenment, dirty socks and loose change littered the floor; unimportant handouts or uninspired printouts joined them, along with empty Gatorade bottles and votive candles. The cables for laptop Ethernet access and my baby lie in disarray, routinely disrupting the mobility of my desk chair. A thin film of dust covered all things, augmented by random hairs that seem to be grown by my various electronic equipment but in reality are probably attracted from all corners of the room by static electricity. This immobile desk chair, which could hardly be turned comfortably, was filled with clothes making it rather uncomfortable to sit in. And finaly, the worst part, is that I had two laundry baskets filled with dirty clothes.
So tonight, I cleaned them. And then I came back, and in order to make the process complete, dug out socks and shirts that had fallen back behind my desk from so many late night jettisons, and proceeded to add them to the next load. I went out and procured food and money, and got an update on my cash situation; and to usher in a beautiful brisk autumn week purchased some excellent hand pressed apple cider and some Lakewood cranberry juice. Most important of all; because golden ages cannot be claimed by simply restoring a previous statusquo, I cleaned out and returned to working order the hot water heater so that I can once again enjoy fine tea's in the cooler months.
And you don't even understand how much of a life changing experience this all was. But don't worry, my life isn't totally out of the shitter. Here's a brief list of gripes that I have with my current situation:
- I can't find my fucking suit jacket
- I can't find my fucking remote control
- The shower doesn't drain
- My fridge still doesn't make things cold
- It will soon be too cold for comfort in my room
As an addendum to the last one, I no longer have a confidant with whom I can (or at least do on occasion) share body heat, a definite minus to the cold situation when compared to the last time it was cold as hell in here. And a short list of things missing from September:
- My fucking remote control and suit jacket (that's the last you'll hear of them)
- Trips to the gym
- The cashing of paychecks
- The filling of timesheets
- Anime, Manga, and the absence of Video Games
- A girlfriend or even a friend who by chance is female
So, while my life is indeed better having passed through September and into October, there's still plenty for me to bellyache about, and so there will still be plenty for the 90 something people who apparently actually come here every day to skip over and not read on their way to my PyGTK tutorials. At least Amit will be happy. And, my thoughts now having shifted to sweeter things, I'll probably be happy too. This is HoboKen, signing off.