Scheduling a Life

How you doin'? (pausing for appropriate NY reply here)

Glad to hear it!

I had a busy -but very fun- weekend. My two nephews stayed at our house and we all just hung out and had a really great time. The older of the two is three months or so older than my boy and he's spent better than half his life at my place (which is a good thing - he's a great kid!) The younger is only four and this was his first time staying overnight anywhere other than home. The Wife and her sister (their mom) were concerned over how he'd react but he had a blast. He got to hang out all weekend with "the guys" and we have a huge couch with recliners on each end in the basement so all three of them slept there, which he thought was the coolest thing ever. We played lots of video and computer games, did some swimming, hit the boardwalk, etc. the usual stuff. Hmmm . . . does anyone outside Jersey know what a boardwalk is? Good question: let me know if you need a definition, 'kay?

The two older boys and I also got to spend most of the day Sunday playing D&D (Yes, I AM a geek!) We had a great time . . . we've played before, but not in a year or two and they've both grown up quite a bit in that time and learned a lot about logic, planning, and rational thinking. It made for a really fun day. I actually thought about it afterward and realized theat I was just aout their age when I first started playing . . . world moves fast, don't it? Seems like last week! Damn, I'm gettin' old!

No writing over the weekend (or last night - The boy wasn't home so The Wife and I hit a really nice Italian reataurant for a quiet meal) but I've been working on creating a revised . . . well, LIFE schedule I guess. I don't intend to implement it until school start back in -things are gonna be too crazy over the next two weeks at home- but I've set myself to a schedule that's pretty reasonable and should give me plenty of time to write, edit, submit, and get a little exercise in each day as well. I was even careful to make sure I had time in there to shop for and cook dinner every night! Yes, I -the male- do the bulk of the cooking at home. The Wife is a very good cook but she hates doing it. I actually enjoy cooking - it's the cleaning up stuff that kills me. She doesn't mind that, so we each stick to our own preferences. I need a set schedule . . . I am waaaaayyyy too easily distracted by meaningless crap if I don't have a steady routine. That' s true of everything, not just my writing. Makes The Wife nuts actually: I'm fair with remembering things if I do them on a regular schedule. Disrupt it even a little bit and I'm dead in the water. She's actually great about that - you can throw a hundred curve balls at her and she won't miss a single thing that needs to be done. Me? Not so much . . .

Anyway, the Life Schedule will be a huge benefit for me if I can get it instituted and keep life from disrupting it too badly. I actually wrote it all out and had to put in little disclaimers for myself like: "If you stray from the shcedule, just come back to it. It’s not a failure, it’s a side path and you can get back on the main road at any time." I need reminders like that. When things don't go according to my plans, I can get pretty down about it and give it up as a failure. gotta stop doin' that! :-)

I'll keep you posted on my progress from time to time.

Later!