Self-criticism

Seems I've neglected this a while. Not without reason, of course. Well, at least some reason. Last weekend I made a whirlwind trip to visit Colleen, and while I had my computer with me, I wasn't about to siphon off precious moments from hanging out with her to update. And sandwiched around that I've been doing the normal things that occupy my evenings. Mainly reading, along with the occasional trip for groceries or some other errand. Exciting stuff, I know.

Really, I just don't feel like there's much to report these days. Or at least I don't feel the pressing need to post daily. That makes me a pretty lousy blogger. And it isn't exactly helping my writing. It would be good to make a habit of devoting at least some time each day to writing, simply to keep my skills up and to hopefully hone them a bit. But trying to sacrifice the time for that is challenging. Obviously I'd love nothing more than to reclaim the nine hours I spend either at work or traveling to and from work doing whatever struck my fancy. Certainly it'd free up a lot more time for reading, writing and language learning, the intellectual pursuits that occupy (or should occupy) a fair chunk of my free time. Plus, I do manage to cram in close to two hours of reading between my commute and my lunch hour. And in all fairness, I wasn't exactly a paragon of productivity back in the days four months ago (hard to believe it's been so long -- or so little -- already) when I wasn't gainfully employed.

Still, it's a challenge. Mainly I think it's to try to reclaim some time for myself when I can just "vege out" a bit, ditching the books and just sort of relaxing. Maybe I already do that a fair amount. I don't know. But I can't bring myself to rot in front of the idiot box, and I just feel so idle when I'm not doing something. I know, I know, being idle is a means and an end unto itself. But it's the way I feel, anyway.

I keep telling myself that it'll change soon. Part of my slavish devotion to reading owes to the knowledge that Joe's books will be leaving my apartment in a little more than a month, so I'd best be reading them now while I have the chance. But this ridiculous commitment to reading really seems to have consumed me. I mean, I'm starting to wonder if, after several months, I'm going to stop reading for my own edification once I have more free time, or at least more time freed up. But, then again, once I have classes and required reading and homework, I'm not sure I'm going to want to heap more of same upon myself when I don't have to be doing it. I'd like to thing at minimum that I'll take up some other hobbies, or maybe start indulging pop culture to some extent. (Well, at least lower culture, in my effete, erudite view.) But it'll be interesting.

In other news, it's looking more likely that I have a place to live in Seattle. At least, the folks renting this room are exceedingly enthusiastic about me living there. They basically want to seal the deal by next week, I think just because they're keen on the idea of having it rented. And I'm pretty up on the prospect of living there. From the pictures I've seen, it's a pretty nice place. It's fairly cheap, too. And the folks seem pretty nice. So I think it'd be a good fit. I'm just trying to get someone to check it out for me to make sure the place actually resembles the pictures. I feel pretty good about it, as is, but it'd definitely give me greater peace of mind to have someone I know kick the tires and such. Of course, Steve's actually getting pretty busy at his posh summer law firm gig, so it might not be prudent to wait for him to get a chance to inspect it. We'll see.