Around the same time, work went through an out of control period of intensity until around mid-July. By the time that was over, I looked back, as I often have, at my most recent gaming spate with a feeling somewhere between fascination and disgust at how completely my non-work life had come to revolve around WoW. There was no withdrawal to speak of, so it has been easy not to go back. I don't even really miss it, mostly because I'd started to become disenchanted around the time the fates conspired to take me offline again. I found myself upset more often than not because I couldn't get anything other than a fill-in raiding spot. The majority of my then-guild appeared to live in the Central or Eastern time zones but to have chosen a Pacific time zone server for reasons known only to themselves. As a result, they started raiding at 4 or 5 p.m. on weekdays my time, which just didn't work for me. Escapism that is frustrating is no escapism at all, so I escaped from my escapist frustration.
So now, I'm doing things with my "free" time that are no doubt much better for my body and soul. I've combined the nutritional elements of three different weight loss programs into one, tweaked them some, and this, along with approximately an hour of exercise most days, is enabling me to make good on my long overdue resolution to get back to my mid-twenties weight. I'm about halfway to goal, and another fifteen pounds to stretch goal. Along the way, I looked online for inspiration and discovered the screamingly funny writings of Shauna Reid. I also developed a fascination with The Biggest Loser, which my kids call the "watching fat people get skinny show." Though I'm more than 75 pounds too light to qualify, and though I'd rather die than cry about my personal shortcomings and spew my stomach contents from overtraining (or indeed for any reason) in front of millions of people I don't know, I do fantasize about having Jillian Michaels as my personal trainer, psychotherapist and weight loss dominatrix. I'm even toying with the idea of trying to run another marathon on the 21st anniversary of my first and only, but I don't think I can swing the training schedule. If I start now, I might make the 25th anniversary, though. Here's a memento from my only marathon to date:
On another note, we have a kindergartener in the house and I'm just tickled about it. He came home the other day and explained to me what an ellipsis is. There's something charming about a five-year-old who hasn't yet fully broken the reading code opining on "the three dots that means something is missing." August and September have been full of school-related tasks and commitments; I'm hoping things have settled down for good.
I may be one of the only people in the world who remembers the names of their first school readers, and I'm probably one of even fewer people in the world who have good enough memories of them to track them down on Alibris. Opening Books (cool picture of the inside at this link), A Magic Box, and Things You See (another cool picture) are winging their respective ways to my doorstep and I'm looking forward to cracking them open with my little emergent reader.
That's the nutshell version of how I spent my winter, spring and summer hiatus. There's a ton more to it of course, but even this much is too much for Morgie's Spot. I vowed when I started this thing I'd write about ideas, books, movies, writing, politics, memories, people other than myself, and other topics I find interesting rather than making this a (yawn) personal diary. Just thought I owed an explanation for the rather crevasse-like gap between posts.
**Morgana**
2 comments:
Those primary readers smelled good! They're on the best smeller list. Even better than ditto paper, another artifact our children are unlikely to encounter.
I know exactly what you mean. Was it the paper or the glue that smelled so good on those readers? I haven't thought about ditto paper sniffing in a while. Hmm. May be moved to do an entry just on smells at some point...
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