I found a picture of that gate I mentioned in yesterday’s post– the one that the family used to live at. This was taken in the first few months I was there. It’s hard to tell that these are world-class level competitive martial artists.

Interestingly, one became an elite professor (no, not me you little monkeys), one became an action movie actor and stuntman, and one went back into the military for a while and, after that, started reading shit. That’d be me.

I miss those days, most days. It was a very singular purpose: prepare, compete, prepare, compete. When that’s your routine, it’s amazing the things you end up thinking, and realizing and how satisfying your life can be. At least for me. I guess I still try to recreate that for myself wherever I go. That’s weird.

THOUGH, I’m the type that fantasizes about living in a gorgeous log cabin in pristine wilderness and on a crystal clear lake with a couple giant dogs. For some, that’d be a nightmare life. New Yorkers tend to be that way because of how they’ve been trained by each other.

I’m off work today. I do have a call at 3, and at 4 I have a meeting about a conference at a museum I’m speaking at next Friday. Dang, that event really creeped up on me. I have a lot of preparation to do– it’s about innovative partnerships between museums and higher ed. Anyway, that meeting is on campus, so I’ll train afterwards and eat there.  Then I’ll head to the secret office and listen to a ball game on the radio while working on some other things. I can’t wait for that.

See? I’m the type. For some that’d be a nightmare of a Friday night. For me, it’s sort of what I want to do, though having a woman around would be better. Ah well. BBQ girl wants to come over tomorrow. We’ll see. Trying not to be weak about it.

Have a great Frigg, maybe we can all be working on things that are important to us later tonight, under the glows of our lamps, in the steam clouds of our coffees and teas, and under the duress of our hand and neck aches which mean we’re doing our projects correctly.

Indeed, if thou hurteth in thy efforts, and thou suffer painful dings, then thou art Doing it Right.