I was just about to join the pencil people for a big show-and-tell and possible trading party when I woke up. Serious bummer. I was particularly looking forward to trying Pencil Revolution's My First Ticonderogas and some of the more exotic pencils brought over by the European contingent, and maybe trading some of my pencils for new ones.
But I'll have to settle for solo scribbling. *snif*
I didn't buy them.
The pandas...they haunt me.
As if I need more pencils.
I'm not right in the head.
*twitch*
I spent Feb 27-Mar 2 at Wintergrass--the big indoor music festival held at the Hyatt in Bellevue, WA. We take over the whole place--people wandering around with fiddles and guitars and banjos and mandolins, jamming in hallways and stairwells. And then there are the concerts! It was, in short, an incredible experience. Highlights for me:
I also have so many other happy memories: morning jams after breakfast, a trip to the dim sum place nearby, where we laughed at our varying ability to eat with chopsticks, running up eleven flights of stairs sometime after midnight when I got sick of waiting for the elevators after the last concert of the day, a walk to the QFC (across the street) wherein I got us so lost I think we saw most of Bellevue....
Good friends, good fun, good food, good music. It was a perfect vacation. And the accommodations definitely beat the tar out of your average bluegrass festival...beds? Private bathrooms, with fresh towels provided daily? Thermostats? Whoa!
So excited!
So last night when I jumped back in to working on my NaNoWriMo story, I thought I'd switch to pen there, too. I sat down with my notebook and wrote about three words before panic set in.
Aw, heck no.
I guess I need a certain amount of impermanence to feel comfortable when fiction writing. For now, at least, with this particular story. So I dropped the fountain pen like a hot potato (not literally--you fountain pen lovers can get off my back) and went back to pencil. Whew. Much better.
How about you? Do you use different tools for different purposes? Switch from one to another over time based on mood? Or is it all or nothing?
The walking project continues apace (har har). I will need to fit in a few short evening walks or longer weekend jaunts in order to make up for a few slack days, but otherwise, I'm on track.
I *am*, however, thinking of once again attempting to get into running. Nothing fancy: it would just be nice to be able to handle 3-5 miles of slow jogging. Even at a slow pace, it'd be quicker than walking the same distance, thus freeing up some time for my next resolution-to-tackle, "Write More."
I actually planned to start this weekend by jogging the last half mile or mile of my usual walk. This may seem counter-intuitive, leaving it to the end, but I don't usually find my rhythm even for walking until I'm a couple miles in, so I think waiting a bit until my legs become my own is best.
However, Saturday afternoon a snow storm blew through. Nothing like what some of the east coast has seen, or what we used to get in Vermont, but six inches of heavy, wet snow put a damper on my plans all the same. I did go out and walk in it yesterday (three miles of laps between two half-mile markers), which was HARD WORK, but probably burned as many calories as my usual longer walk...but there was no way I was going to try running in the stuff, especially over uneven, footprint pocked trail.
But sometime this week, I hope. May have to wait until my legs recover...my calves are awfully tired and sore from that snow workout.
In the meantime, I got a good start on my "Play More" resolution. I've had the tenor banjo out pretty much every day, working on triplets and trebles and tunes. Currently I'm trying to polish up Humours of Tulla and The Clumsy Lover and learn Garrett Barry's and Pinch of Snuff, to name a few. Also continuing to practice Gravel Walk in the vain hope that someday I'll be able to keep up with the insanely fast pace they play it at the local session.
I need to change strings before Wintergrass. Especially mandolin strings. But changing mandolin strings is something I tend to put off as long as humanly possible....
I was going to finish up my NaNoWriMo story. I was going to finish up other stories. I was going to roll up my sleeves and start carving up some older drafts to make them more fit for human consumption.
Instead, the only writing I've done has been diary entries and the new walk log.
But I have walked more. Quite a bit more, in fact. In the past there have been times when I pretty routinely got in three miles before work (plus a brief warm-up and cool-down bit I don't count in my pencil logged mileage). This month, I wondered how much longer five miles would take. About thirty minutes longer, as it turns out. And the turn around point brings me to one of the more scenic parts of the trail, right alongside a river (albeit generally a river in the dark at the moment).
I like it. I've been getting up that half an hour earlier to get in those extra two miles, me and my Black Diamond Gizmo headlamp, which has been a trooper. And I've walked through wet weather and cold. (But not ice--I don't do ice. See a few entries back where I fell down the stairs. That's clumsy me WITHOUT ice. I really, really don't do ice.)
I started doing a little quick math, and if I can average 25 miles a week (doable, if I'm willing to stick it out in the rain and occasionally sneak in some evening and weekend walks when I have to miss the morning excursion), I can walk 500 miles by the first week of June. (And IIII would walk five hundred miles and IIII would walk five hundred more...)
It's a nice round number to aim for. We'll see how long my gumption lasts (not to mention my shoes).
But I haven't really managed any of my other resolutions this month.
Maybe I should start one resolution a month until I finally (hopefully) have all of them going at once. Like learning to juggle, starting with tossing a single ball from one hand to another.
Next month should probably be "Play More," as in music. Wintergrass is just around the corner!
Don't have a set format yet, but I'll get there.
This weekend I bought new sneakers. Because I am a knucklehead, Monday morning I went for a three mile walk in said sneakers, without having worn them around the house long enough for them to get used to me and I to them. Gave myself a blister.
I limped in to work that day to find that one co-worker had messed up his back and another had pulled a muscle in her calf and was also limping. And one of the uninjured had to leave early because her furnace broke down. Also, Comcast throughout the region had network glitches and intermittent outages most of the day. Not fun.
Well, I chalked it up to "Monday" and figured it was over. Bought blister bandages on the way home, and was able to walk as usual on Tuesday (albeit in old shoes). The work day was hectic, but without major outages. Everything seemed to be looking up.
Then this morning I stepped out the door onto the waterlogged front steps (which, I might add, I've traversed hundreds of times in far worse conditions) and my feet went out from under me. Came down HARD on my tailbone, wrenched my shoulder. It. Hurt. One of those moments where you can't decide whether to curse, cry, or maybe both.
So I'm back to limping.
Is there a lesson in all this? Not really.
Except that, maybe, though we've escaped the Polar Vortex, we in the Pacific Northwest are in the grip of a Vortex of Kaput.
Be careful out there, folks.
