Sunday, March 30 - Day 120

My neighbor Jennifer just threw me the most delightful surprise birthday shindig, joined by Alex, Bryce, Carla, Fabiola and Teddy. She did a great job keeping me in the dark (admittedly, not a difficult task), and coordinating the guests, dinner at the Liberty Tavern, and dessert (my favorite, carrot cake). I had a great time, as did all of the guests, and I'd go on but am exhausted and need some sleepy-bye time.

Recovery continues from Thursday's bio-warfare experiment conducted within my person, but outside a slightly funny feeling, all seems to have returned to normal. Work on the novel suffered in quantity, but I was satisfied with the quality of the writing as well as solving some plot points that had been dogging me. I'm going to be so happy when this thing is in the hands of my first set of readers, I have a nagging doubt that it just plain may not make sense, but at the same time, since it's first person it should hold together. Whatever, again, very tired, need to wrap this up.

Friday, March 28 - Day 118

Woah, got hit hard by some stomach bug yesterday, if the wisdom of the internet is to be believed it was viral gastroenteritis. Whatever it was, it was ridiculously violent, and reminicent of a particularly crude episode of South Park. I was still pretty banged up today, both from how efficiently my body emptied itself, and from some random sleep (one of those doze off at 7:00 wake up at 11:00 type things). Pretty much just sat around sipping water and watching TV, need to get a good (uninterrupted) night's sleep and I think all will be back to normal tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 26 - Day 116

As usual, the three days of my work week were pretty much me going to work and coming home, not legendary fodder for zippy prose. I have found getting to the gym before work to be more difficult than is easily explained. As long as I'm productive on the novel the next few days, I'll also do some work on my physical goals. What it all boils down to is that if I want to make the pre-work workout happen, I need to be asleep by 8:30 and getting home between 6:30 and 7:00 that means getting all evening activities done quickly.

The weather getting more spring-like should help a lot, its been a long time since the walk home from the office could be called delightful, and this evening was delightful. I've also been chipping away at Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces", which continues to be mind blowing on re-reading. Need to hit the sack, good week at work, now its time to create rich experiences.

Sunday, March 23 - Day 113

I had a delightful Easter, as usual, my mother created a delicious feast and wonderful decorations. On the downside, I stuffed my yap like a poorly fed german shepard, and find myself in some kind of food induced stupor. I have taken care of all of my pre-work-week ritual chores, food preparation, shoe shine and the like, which given my mood is a small victory.

Did not work on the novel, which is a dark spot on the day, will need to keep focused as I move through the week. Need to find out what's in bloom outside, looks like cherry blossoms, but might be dogwoods, whatever they are they're friggin' spectacular and I'm in hopes the snow they call for tonight doesn't jeopardize the spring spectacular.

Off to see what's what in the NCAA, before getting a little reading in. Jeez, could this post be more dull?

Saturday, March 22 - Day 112

I'm freakin' exhausted, spent the day helping my friend Victoria get her new place in order, doing random handyman tasks and moving stuff from here to there. And just got off the phone with my Brother Charlie and Sister Karen, with mea culpa's and wishing them both happy belated birthdays, which were on Monday and Tuesday respectively. I can't believe I spaced them both out, I'm really slipping up. Oh well, can't dwell on it, but my time management really needs some serious attention.

Need to get some sleep, and can't let myself get distracted. Am looking forward to gathering with the family for Easter tomorrow, but also need to do a boatload of things before I head out at 11:00. Gotta' get my shoes shined, the apartment cleaned, food for the week cooked and packed and it wouldn't be a bad idea to get about 250 words in on the novel.

Well, I can barely lift my hands to feed myself, so I'd best get my act together and hit the sack!

Friday, March 21 - Day 111

"So, so you think you can tell, Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain?"

Heard Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" today for the first time in a great while, a song I've always enjoyed, both for the strong, simple chord progression and relentless interrogatory of the lyrics. Three questions in particular, "did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?", "cold comfort for change?" and "did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?" always rattle somewhere near the back of my mind. Live long enough, and you see the ghostly cataract of regret just past the pupils of some of your contemporaries. It ain't pretty. Its one of the reasons I'm writing this novel, like climbing a mountain, its nice to have simply done it and not blame the exigencies of life for not doing it.

I'm writing this at 4:30 and realize I need to run out to the gym before too long, don't want run out of juice. I'm at 510 words for the day, partly because I indulged in some Pho at lunch time with my bud, Alex. Always a pleasure catching up with him, but it did throw off my schedule a bit. Not to mention stuffing my yap with crispy spring rolls and a gallon of soup.

As coda, some more words from the Floyd...

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

Thursday, March 20 - Day 110

Okay, I'm back, for real this time. You'll note the aborted entry below from last week, which I for reasons I can't remember I didn't get around to finishing. Here's the deal, I got sick last month, took me forever to get back in the groove, and just got out of the habit of cranking these entries out. However, as those of you who know the genesis of this journal, its not about my daily ramblings, its about keeping on track with finishing my novel (and remind me to get to the gym).

Many things have transpired over the past month, but I'm not going to get into it now. I need to make sure I get this posted before I hit the sack. In addition to getting this thing back on track, I've updated the Web Design section with two new projects that have gone live in the last month, as well as some other tweaks.

Today was my first 1000+ word day on the novel in a long while, and its not that hard, you just need to bear down and drop the hammer. All creation is an act of asserting your will over "reality", and I need to do some more asserting!

Friday, March 14 - Day 104

Yikes, just noticed it'd been 26 days since I last made a journal entry, not only that but that I had only written four entries during February.