Back in the Swing

I haven’t been writing much. I’m not entirely certain why. I’m sure part of it has to do with the fact that I’ve been wallowing in escapism. I bought a few books over winter break, borrowed some from my Dad, and finally got a library card. So, I’ve been reading rather than writing. The more I read, the less I write and vice versa. I am addicted to novels. I always have been. Even bad ones. So I’ve been fulfilling that addiction. Now it’s time to drag myself out of the swimming pool by the collar, before I really do drown. I need to crawl back onto dry land and go to class, go to work, go to meetings.

Another reason I think I’ve not been writing is a lack of compost. The more shit life throws at me the more the flowers grow. Winter break was very easy, slow, and domestic. I spent four or five days at my parents house over Christmas and then again over New Year’s. On New Year’s Even I stayed home with my folks and went to bed at ten o’clock. I probably would have stayed up later, but I had finished my book.

I did go out with friends a bit, saw my extended family, and spent plenty of time with my parents. Last weekend, the final weekend of freedom before school started, I had a couch surfer come and stay. Fritz was on his way from California to New York. He got in late on Friday after it had begun a descent snow. The wind was bad on the way across Nebraska, so the next day he didn’t feel like going on to Minneapolis. We spent the day together and had fun. After he told me he wanted to do whatever I normally liked to do, see the places I liked to see, and not the touristy ones like the state capitol, of course, I had to take him to the state capitol because it is so exceptionally cool. We also walked around Architecture Hall and then went down to the new Indigo Books in the Haymarket to while away a couple hours and then to Bread and Cup for a late lunch. On the way home we stopped at First Plymouth Church just to look around and a nice man let us climb up the bell tower, where I had never been. It was actually nice and spacious, cold, but no pigeons or gargoyles, so we thought Quasimodo would have liked it.

My most recent book, which I am allowed to read even though school has begun because it is not a novel, is Dharma Punx by Noah Levine. I had put off reading it for a while despite how much I enjoy memoir/anecdotal dharma books. I figured I had almost zero in common with an recovering addict punk rocker for the west coast, except, of course, the dharma. I was right, but the book is amazingly good and I am glad to have it. I think I will have to pick up his second book when I am done.

One week into school and I am amazingly, but not overwhelmingly, busy. I wrote a twelve-hundred word email to my parents and didn’t even have time to tell them about half of the things going on. I started a job at the state department of health and human services. It is a graduate assistantship, so the pay is good, and I am very grateful to have it, but the word that I fear will best describe it is “stultifying.” I hope I’m being too pessimistic. All things considered, I believe this will be a good semester and am looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to returning to my writing.

Actually, I’m just cheerful because after a week of -20 degree wind chills, I finally get a day where I don’t have to leave the house.