It's dangerous to go alone

So, I've been in my new place officially over a week.

I like it so far. I'm taking advantage of the weight room daily, and I love having my own place to do my own stuff. Even having a roommate isn't horrible; he's being very good about the "it's my place/I call the shots" attitude I have. Heck, I'm even running around most of the time in the nude and he hasn't batted an eye (but then, I told him about that before he moved in, and we've gone on trips together so he knew my propensities before).

I am looking forward to when he moves out, though, even though I know that's not until January. I'll stick with the original commitment just because I made it and I know he needs the time to get his financial house in order, but this is definitely not going to be a long-term roommate situation. I'm actually hoping he manages to get himself together faster and can therefore move out early.

The consulting company wants me to keep working until October. I said we'll make it through middle of August and see how it's going. Frankly, I'm burning out on it. It's great money, don't get me wrong, but it's a lot of work/hassle when I'd just like to relax. Having two jobs is tiring, no matter how much money you make.

The new place helps with that a bit, though. Since I'm not driving as far, I get more "down time". Also, with the gym downstairs and even room to spread out my bench and free weights, I'm burning through some of the stress in workouts. I don't know that there's a lot of difference yet, and I don't expect there to be, but I certainly -feel- a fair bit better. I'm also eating healthier, as I've got a fridge and my own kitchen. Haven't really started cooking much, but I can get the kinds of things I like - which tend more towards "snacks" than "meals" anyway, things like pita and hummus or small salads or such.

I'm also trying to adapt myself to the whole "if you can't carry it, don't get it" mentality of grocery shopping, since I'm usually walking to/from one of the nearby grocery stores. Which also means more exercise, more fresh air, etc. The weather's also been cooperating, as I've only had the A/C running two days out of 10.

Haven't really unpacked much, but also haven't really furnished the place. I don't want to set anythign up in the living room until I get an area rug, and I think I know what I want but there are logistics issues (such as making sure someone's home to receive it). For the bedroom, most of my clothes are hang-up-able; what's not is in the "sto-away" beneath my mattress, so I don't really need a dresser.

I haven't even bought a desk for my desktop - but that's a different thing. I've actually decided to do something I've wanted to do for a while: build a kind of lounge chair/console for my home computer. The chair gets delivered tomorrow; its frame is 2" steel pipe, so I can mount things to it pretty easily. I have a rough idea of where I want to go with it, but I'll know more when it arrives.

Anyway, that's the drive-by for the day. Maybe interesting things will start happening and I'll have something to post about.

A dreamer who slumbers

(This poem means a lot to me; for a variety of reasons, it's resonating especially well lately. Enjoy.)

Ode - Arthur O'Shaughnessy

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.


With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.


We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.


A breath of our inspiration
Is the life of each generation;
A wondrous thing of our dreaming
Unearthly, impossible seeming—
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.


They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising;
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broken,
A light that doth not depart;
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man's heart.


And therefore to-day is thrilling
With a past day's late fulfilling;
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of to-morrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for its joy or its sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.


But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing:
O men! it must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
A little apart from ye.


For we are afar with the dawning
And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
Intrepid you hear us cry—
How, spite of your human scorning,
Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
That ye of the past must die.


Great hail! we cry to the comers
From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers;
And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
And things that we dreamed not before:
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.

If I won the lottery, I don't think I'd move to Maui.

Don't get me wrong, I love it here. I just think that a big part of what I enjoy is being on vacation here, not just being here. If I lived here, had the normal responsibilities, etc., I don't think it'd be the same.

In fact, I think the perfect life for me would be a "permanent vacation": traveling constantly, never staying somewhere more than a month or two, maybe having an apartment in L.A. to come back to once in a while. Something worth considering as I'm a week away from moving. Obviously I'm not in a position to afford such a lifestyle, but at least I know what to aim for.

Something else to think about - that really isn't the kind of lifestyle you can live when you're in a relationship.