Well I’ve continued the daily routine of waking up early successfully so far. It’s just getting harder and harder because I keep on going to bed late. I average about 5 hours of sleep each night and by the time the alarm goes off I’m clinging to the sheets for dear rest. Fortunately my dad is awake at the same time so he’s there to nudge me if I start snoozing again.
I shot my first two rolls of film for Photography Class. Alls I need to do is develop my photos at the lab. It’s been years since I was in a dark room with all those lovely chemicals. There’s something magical about seeing your very own photos develop. The only thing I need to get a hang of again is rolling the film onto those darned metal clamp things. ‘Tis a struggle for a newbie.
I did my first Illustration presentation and it went… mediocre. The class liked my work, but I completely forgot that we had to dress professionally for our critiques. Naturally I was the fool wearing a t-shirt with two cars crashing into each other, my shorts, and running shoes, (A fly combination, I might add). I made up for my looks, as usual, with my charm. I spoke up, smiled, complimented my classmates, nodded, and smiled some more. Hopefully my professor will show some mercy. If not, oh well, it’s my first time doing it for this class, so I’ll have opportunities to show improvement. I just don’t want to hear another lecture on the importance of dressing for the presentation. I get it.
I woke up this morning to the throbbing pain of a thrown lower back. My guess is the pain came from an intense workout from last night. Curses! Though I do admit that it couldn’t have come at a more convenient time. Today I was off from school and work due to the latest in hurricanes passing the Florida southern coast. Fortunately my area did not receive any serious damage that I can detect. It barely rained, though there some strong winds. Our power stayed intact through the whole day. But what’s a bed-ridden boy to do except watch tv? There’s nothing to watch! Everything either causes me to roll my eyes out of disgust, frustration, or boredom. I find that my latest hobby nowadays is to search for new music. I spend a lot of my time online on Purevolume hearing the tunes of signed and unsigned bands.
I’ve done quite a bit of research on which bands are coming to town and I am the proud owner of 3 tickets to upcoming shows. They are, chronologically: Yellowcard and Acceptance, Copeland and Daphne Loves Derby, and finally MuteMath and Mae. Seeing how there are a few other acts coming to town, you can accept my amount of tickets to increase. Some promising shows include Emery, MewithoutYou, The Roots, and Kanye West. This is definitely the year of shows for me. I’m a show-junkie. It’s going to cost me over $100 to attend all these shows, but I think we can all agree that it is money well spent. And if you don’t agree well then I’m sorry. And no I won’t bring you a band sticker, you big meanie.
So here I am still trying to find ways to kill the hours. I refuse to watch anymore television. Perhaps I’ll do some more work in my sketchbook or finish reading one of my books. Desperate times call for desperate distractions.
Doing homework sucks. Finishing homework is great.
Fridays call for celebrating, which for me entails eating. I woke up smiling to the sound of my alarm at 7:40am instead of the usual 5:30am. I was able to get back to my jogging route and take my time getting ready for work. By the time I was dressed and groomed I realized I had enough time to grab a bite to eat at Katz Deli around the corner. You gotta love these little Jewish restaurants. The service is always pleasent and the breakfast is delicious. Mmmm eggs with ketchup and tabasco sauce and a bagel and orange juice and fruit. Man I love food.
So yeah school is fun, but consuming. How have you all been?
Walking around the campus again brings back fond and unfond memories of people I have known in the past. I have found myself avoiding eye contact with people I recognize from my middle school days and other sources of pre-teen angst. I am, however, enjoying the time alotted me between classes. My psychology class tends to end about 20 minutes early so I take the opportunity to do one of my favorite activities on campus: eat. There are cafes, restaurants, burger joints, smoothie bars, and hot dog stands all over the downtown campus. It doesn’t help that I’m trying to save money and maintain a steady metabolism, so I’m getting into the habit of bringing my own food to school. I have a few meal-replacement bars that serve as snacks and there’s usually some left-overs from last night’s meal that I can stuff into my backpack.
Waking up early has the one advantage: an extra meal. It is recommended that one should eat every 3 or 4 hours each day, equaling up to about 5 or 6 meals if done right. My schedule is as follows: 6am, 9am, 12noon, 3pm, 6pm, and perhaps a healthy snack around 9pm. Ah the beauty that is food.
I’m getting hungry typing this. Off I go for a sweet cafe con leche.
My jaw hurts. Did someone punch me without telling me?
As I was watching a movie the other night, a friend of mine noted during a dramatic scene of infedelity that every man’s downfall is a woman. The character was getting involved in a relationship with his brother’s wife. Ever since I heard my buddy say that last week I’ve been thinking about it over and over. I’ve thought back at the relationships I’ve had and that of my friends’ and families’. It saddens that many people throw the word “love” around so much that it has lost its meaning. This is also true of the word “nice”. It has almost become a pointless word (of which I am guilty of saying all the time. Niiiice.)
I think of how people choose to jump on this rollercoaster of pleasure and pain they call love and how many feel its bitter sting at the end. Is it because the idea of self-sacrifice isn’t clear to them at the beginning? Is it a lack of understanding that the emotions run high and low in all relationships? Either way, more than often people leave relationships with a bitter taste in their mouths and their hearts. I know this is true for me. In fact, I can really only speak for myself.
I see so many young people jump and fall into relationships that were bound to fail. Oh that I would have the strength to prevent them from it and stop the torture beforehand! But I’ve learned that when young hearts are set on someone, even the wisest of advice often falls on deaf ears. And yet, experience seems to be a harsh teacher.
This is not an advocation for or against relationships. I’m only ranting because I hear that love is in the air these days and some of us are blinded by the allure of television’s depiction of it. Holding hands, smiling, kissing, sex, and riding off into the sunset. The idea of it seems so promising but there is so much more to Love. There has to be. It has been experienced and written about for centuries. Men and women have endured much for the sake of Love.
Ahhh! I’m going crazy thinking about all of this. I’m going to take a break and finish this post sometime later. It’s too early to be thinking about this stuff. Believe me, I wish I had a better conclusion to this too. I’m still learning and thinking.
