a few miscellanae

I realize that I have not updated over the last two weeks, and I apologize. To be truthful, there has been very little happening in my life to warrant exhibition; I seem to have settled into a routine of humdrum monotony, satisfying but not particularly productive in any sense of the word. Aikido proceeds apace, as does work and taxes. Other than the charmingly sophomoric state of my kitchen floor, there isn't all that much to comment on.

I have, of late, been taking part in a monthly writing exchange with my good friend Flamingo, which is more gratifying for me (since I get to read what she writes) than it could possibly be for her. My talents in the writing field are not what one would call organized or, if one were strictly truthful, coherent; my journal is about as good as it gets, which should go some way in explaining the situation.

I meander.

I get distracted and easily bored.

I forget what I was writing about.

My sister -- you see how we digress already? -- my sister has been living with my mother in Seattle now for several weeks already, well on her way to completing ... if not her degree, at least another wedge of its requirements. Birthdays abound in February: both Flamingo and she had one (one each, that is) on the 25th. Sako is now 28 and, we think, beginning to feel the remorseless drumbeat of Time catching up with her halcyon youth. At any rate, Mom claims that Sako is studying, studying, doing nothing but studying, and that she has never seen anything like it.

"She working so hard!" she announces with some awe, followed by the inevitable, "I wish she would--"

--would what? Would something else. Something Mom wants her to do, something Sako doesn't want to do, something Mom's perfectly willing to deploy the heavy guns of guilt for, something Sako retaliates for by calling me to wail, "I can't take it. I'm going to go insane."

I am a bad sister. Comfortably aware that I am a good two states away, I console Sako and advise her to patience, then hang up and think gratefully on the difficulty of interstate travel.

There are no real segues in my thought processes. Follow along.

The Guy thinks that it is "sad that they have to put sugar in vitamins to make kids take them." He was inspecting a large jar of children's chewable vitamins at the time: shaped like dinosaurs, flavored 'just for kids!' He was attempting to make some sort of point, I surmise. For the last three years he's been attempting to get me to take vitamins, under the theory that they're somehow good for me.

Unfortunately, said vitamin pills are approximately the size of my thumb. I am not accustomed to the taking of pills, excepting the tiny medications that have been prescribed to me by assorted doctors. The Guy is not a doctor, and the adult vitamins are too large. Thus, the purchase of childrens' chewable vitamins at Costco the other day.

Every day now he reminds me to take my multi-vitamin. Before, my response to this was a flat, "No," followed by screaming while he chased me around the apartment with them. Now that the vitamins are shaped like vitamins and taste like Sweet Tarts, I take them before he even prompts.

"I swear," says the Guy. "It's like being married to a three-year old sometimes."

"The Guy speaks truth," Flamingo observed, after being told the story.

The Guy still tries to stick his fingers up my nose. You want to talk about three-year olds?

In the meantime, I might have (possibly) maybe sprained my left ankle during Aikido. It would be my first Aikido-earned injury. I am very proud.

I am also very stupid, since I continue to go to Aikido and re-injure it every class. Knowing that I am being stupid does not, mind, preclude me behaving stupidly.

In thirty-one years of life, I have never learned how to tie a knot that holds. Screw the blue belt. I'll consider it a victory if I make it through a single Aikido class without having to retie my belt or keep my pants from falling down.

Anyway. Back to the ... subject. Whatever it was. Writing. Concentration.

Yes. Linear thought.

Having a problem with it. However, I have managed -- for the first time in my life -- to write an outline. How that will contribute towards the piece of dreck I'm working on now is anybody's guess. However, we can hope. And pray. And it's possible I'm taking blows to the head during Aikido that I'm just not aware of, you think? I swear I'm getting worse lately. Not with the Aikido, though yes, that too, but with the whole ... whatever it is we're doing here.

Linear thought.

Right.

Crap.

I'll try this again tomorrow.