Journal Entry: November 2009

I survived.

I'm tempted to make those two words my whole journal entry, but so much happened in November that I don't want to forget. And so much happened in November that I'm going to forget it.

Even this post won't get it all, but I want to grab the highlights.

I started the month with a NaNoWriMo kickoff party at IHOP with my writing group, and that actually is documented already. I've also talked a little bit about my NaNoWriMo progress, and my class sessions. I'll do another post with a post mortem for NaNoWriMo, but here I wanted to talk about what else I did.

I finished a major manuscript for work on the 5th, and that freed up some of my attention and some of my creative energy, so I finally really got started writing on the 6th. I had a birthday lunch at P. F. Chang's on the 8th, and then a holiday (Veteran's Day) on the 11th that gave me a pretty easy work week, and a good opportunity to get caught up on my word count again. Then Saturday the 14th I had a great opportunity to get behind again.

Probably the big event of November (for me), T-- threw a big birthday party for my 30th, inviting my mom and dad, and all my friends. D--, of course, B-- and E--, K-- and N--, my little sister and her family, as well as Courtney and Ed (who were a real hit). T-- had everyone bring a bottle of wine, which was quite a treat, and she grilled up ribs for us as the main dish in a pretty extensive (and delicious) spread. We chatted and played Rock Band, and had a great time. Shawn and Liz showed up after most of the other guests had left, but stuck around to watch UHF with the Cantrells and me. That was fun. The whole night was incredible.

In WoW news, I got my Hunter to 80 (which marks the first time I've had a Hunter at the level cap). I also started a pair of Horde characters on Shawn's server, so I can chat with him from time to time. He's popped in on Dark Iron a time or two, too, and that's been fun.

I had a conversation with T--, and a conversation with my writing group, and a conversation with my dad over the phone on a drive home from work, and the end result of all that is that I'm finally going to try to get some treatment for my social anxiety. That's not really something I want to talk about in detail in this post, but it happened in November. So there you go.

Then last week was Thanksgiving week (which is always drama, and NaNoWriMo brings its own demons). T-- headed up to Wichita early, on Tuesday afternoon, and I had dinner with D-- at a new Mexican place downtown (Iguana Grill, and it's awesome), then went by Bruce's to borrow his ladder and ended up spending an hour and a half chatting with him, then went home and got started on Christmas preparations instead of going to bed.

I wanted to have the tree up (and ready for decoration) by the time T-- came home from Wichita. I decided to get all the decorations down from the attic, too, and somewhere in there I decided I should hang Christmas lights outside. Wal-Mart had LED lights at a reasonable price, so I picked up 8 strings and spent Wednesday afternoon crawling around on the roof of the house, getting everything set up. It proved to be more work than I anticipated, but the end result is stunning. (I'm sure T-- will have a photo up on her blog eventually.)

I'd barely gotten off the roof when D-- showed up to take me down to Chicasha to pick up his grandma, and then we all headed to Wichita. With that extra trip, a two-and-a-half-hour drive became something perilously close to five, but I spent most of it sleeping in the back seat, so who's complaining.

Then Thanksgiving was four straight days of Charboneaus. That's an amazing family, and they really know how to have a good time when they get together. T-- brought my XBox and Rock Band, and that was incredibly popular. The food was incredible. The Cowboys won convincingly, and then a disappointing Sooners team showed up on Saturday and totally shut out OSU in the Bedlam game, so that was pretty satisfying.

We got home Sunday afternoon, and as we turned the corner onto our street, AB called from the back seat, "Ooh, the house is ready for Christmas!" T--, of course, was thrilled. After watching her parents get all their Christmas decorations done Friday morning, she'd been left wondering when we could even get around to it, and here it was all ready for her.

AB couldn't wait to get started, and she and her mom got the tree all decorated before bedtime.

Then yesterday was the 30th, the end of my wonderful, grueling November, and I capped it with a write-in at Courtney's. We both made our official submissions to the NaNoWriMo website around 11:00, validated our winning word counts, and then stayed up far too late talking. All too often, in the midst of a conversation about this or that, one or the other of us would trail off, staring away into space, and then just say quietly, "I can't believe it's over."

It's over. And I survived.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: October 16, 2009

Well, after all my angst yesterday over the NaNoWriMo prewriting stuff, I loaded up the rough draft of my novel-writing how-to, and discovered that it was already reformatted to work on two weeks of prep time (instead of the month I thought I'd used), and that all of the assignments were written out, and all but one of the lessons that go with them.

So, it turns out, I've got about one hour's worth of work to do over the next two weeks, to take care of all that stuff I was woeing over yesterday. That doesn't count my own prewriting, of course, but I can find time for that. It was the technical writing I was worried about. Turns out, that's done.

So I spent about an hour (off an on) on Facebook yesterday posting that material and chatting with my writing group, and there's some real excitement to get started. I can't wait.

In the evening we had the last of our monthly summer picnics for Britton Road. T-- was really looking forward to it (as she always does), and with them going out of town it seemed like a really good idea to go along and spend the evening with my family, away from my computer. Of course it didn't hurt that T-- was bringing two gallons of my chili recipe to compete in the chili cookoff, so I knew I'd get a great dinner out of it.

Turned out, I didn't do so well. Before I'd finished the short walk to bring the crockpot from our car to the picnic tables, I found myself struggling to breathe. I thought, "I'm not that out of shape" before I realized what it really was. Too many people. I ended up spending an hour and a half huddled over my little bowl of chili, trying not make eye contact with anyone but K-- or N--, and mostly just focusing on my breathing. It was a real waste of what could have been a fun evening.

I got through it, though, and when we got home there was a whole Thursday night's worth of comedy to watch, and we watched it all (quite in spite of the late hour). That was fun.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: September 28, 2009

Wednesday
Wednesday after work we met K-- and N-- at Johnny's Charcoal Broiler -- carrying on a tradition started the first time T-- took AB to church, and we ate there for lunch. The food was delicious, of course, and it was a fun time getting together with friends.

Afterward, everybody but K-- and me walked over to church for Wednesday night classes. K-- came over to my place to help me with T--'s broken computer. He had a hard drive caddy handy, with connections for all manner of hard drive, and in no time at all he had the data from T--'s laptop copied over to mine. That solved the biggest of T--'s fears (lost photos and work documents), but of course the laptop was still broken.

After church the family came back home, and we spent the evening watching TV while I played WoW.

Thursday
Thursday I had to prepare a tutorial/lecture for my students, and I spent a significant chunk of time after work reviewing it and getting it posted to the website. I also spent much of the day (and evening) reviewing the students' submissions for the first document packet, and fielding questions from them (by email, of course).

Karla made us some incredible quesadillas for dinner. D-- came over for that, and to play some WoW with me, but mostly to pick up T--'s dead computer and take it home with him. He spent the evening getting it resurrected (with the help of a spare hard drive he had sitting around, which probably saved me a hundred bucks), and getting the OS back on it.

Apart from that, Thursday night was more TV, and more WoW. We chilled, and caught our breath.

Friday
Friday I met Toby for lunch, and we discussed (among other things) a document conversion project I've got to get done for work. He had volunteered to help with that when they came to visit at the hospital, and this was my first opportunity to provide him with more detailed information. He sounded optimistic that he could get it done, and we made arrangements to meet at his place Sunday evening.

Then in the afternoon I got home from work a little bit early, so I was there when D-- brought T--'s laptop by, and I installed a few more programs for her, and now it's better than new.

D-- had to go back to work, but he agreed to meet us for dinner. Half an hours after he left, Mom and Dad got in from Little Rock. We introduced them to Alexander (or XP, as he'll be known hereabouts in the future), then spent some time socializing while we waited for my sister and her family to come over. A little after five we piled into a bunch of vehicles, and headed over to Mama Roja for dinner.

As we were waiting for our table, T-- turned to me and said with some surprise, "Can you believe it's been nine days since we've been here?" Her Mom rocked our world by pointing out it had actually been two whole weeks. Craziness.

Anyway, it was a crowded, busy table, but we all had delicious food and enjoyed the opportunity to talk. Afterward, T--'s parents left from the restaurant to head home, and everyone else came over to our place.

I took Mom up to Homeland to pick up the necessary supplies, then when we got back to the house I mixed up a pitcher of rum margaritas. They went over pretty well, but T-- and I had a hankering for the real thing, so as soon as the pitcher was empty I filled it up again, with tequila this time, and we had a grand ol' time.

Saturday
Saturday morning T-- and Mom headed up to Edmond (with XP in tow) for pedicures with my sister, and Dad headed to Edmond for a conference at Memorial Road Church of Christ on an educational framework called Journeylands. That left me at home with AB. We played in her room, we spent half an hour or so on my laptop playing the Memory game, we read from her books, and we practiced telling each other stories.

Then T-- called to tell me we were all supposed to meet Dad for lunch at Jason's Deli, so I had AB watch some TV while I got ready, and then we rapidly got her dressed (and I made a humorous attempt at putting her hair in a ponytail), and headed north.

Lunch was awesome, and afterward T-- and Mom took AB with them to go shopping for baby stuff. Dad headed back to his conference, so that left me alone. I ran home, took care of some stuff on my laptop, and then headed back out again for our monthly writer's group at Courtney's.

That probably deserves its own post (as it's gotten in the past), but I'm feeling lazy now and I was sleepy and distracted then, so I couldn't do it justice anyway. Shawn was missing, so it was just the three of us. We started out talking about dreams (and nightmares), and I told the story of my first nightmare (the killer shark in the apartment swimming pool), and my most recent (last week, when T-- walked away from our marriage because I left her to fend for herself when we found ourselves caught in a swamp surrounded by killer snakes and spiders).

Then from there we talked more about our creative influences, how we come up with titles, and how we cope with the constant temptation to jump to new projects -- leaving old ones unfinished. We also talked about another OKC writer's group we might try to crash sometime, and a potential addition to our group, and traditional versus non-traditional publishers. I also dragged the conversation toward magic in the real world for a bit, and we each seized that opportunity to feel a little bit foolish.

Then it was 4:30, and time to split up. I got home just after Dad, and Mom was still there with AB (who was taking a nap). T-- was already up at the church, getting ready for a crop, and she had XP with her.

So it was just me and Mom and Dad, and I took the opportunity to ask them for some advice and analysis on parenting. Specifically, I wanted to know how much change I should expect in AB in the coming years. I feel like we've weathered the differentiation called "the terrible twos" at this point -- we've seen it, we've found ways to address it, and at this point, though her rebellion can be frustrating at times, it isn't baffling. It's predictable, and addressable, and I feel like we both know who she is.

So my question was, how many more major change events are there, in early childhood development? I was relieved when Mom and Dad both agreed there really aren't any. We can reasonably expect AB to be pretty much the person she is now for most of the next nine years. I'm happy with that answer. I like the person she is.

They also had some good information about how to handle the challenges of her differentiation events in her teenage years, but I really didn't enjoy thinking about that. Not that I'm worried about the rebellion or family drama or anything...I just don't like thinking about her being a teenager. It feels far too close, and that's only a handful of years before she's gone. Miserable thought, that.

Anyway, that took up most of an hour, and then I went and woke AB up so she could go to the church with Mom. A few minutes later K-- came over, having dropped his baby off there, too. We ordered a couple pizzas and loaded up Beatles: Rock Band. An hour or so later, my brother-in-law called to ask if he could come join us, and we rocked out for two hours before he and K-- had to go pick up their little ones.

Right around then Mom and my older sister came home with AB, and after she went down to bed the rest of us played some more Rock Band. I mixed up a pitcher of strawberry daiquiris for us, too, and we all had a good time. By the time T-- got home my sister was gone (to stay at my little sister's place), and Mom and Dad were in bed, so it was just me still awake, playing WoW.

I didn't stay up too late, though. I was tired, so I went to bed around 11:30 with no regrets.

Sunday
Sunday morning we had a full house getting ready for church, and all of us running a little bit late, but we managed to get ourselves together somehow and showed up no more than five minutes later for service.

The sermon was on the various social values of hymns in a congregation, and before Rob was done Dad leaned over and said, "I want you to introduce me to your preach after church." Turned out that was a sermon Dad had been wanting to preach for years, and while he'd heard lots of sermons on the topic, he'd never heard anyone express the real benefits and perspective that Rob gave in his sermon.

So we caught Rob after church (after waiting through an impressive line), and Dad got to compliment and thanks Rob for his sermon, and Rob got invite Dad to come give a marriage and family seminar to Britton Road sometime -- something he's been wanting to talk with Dad about for a while. So that's pretty cool.

Then afterward we all went over my sister's place for an Italian-themed lunch of salad, chicken pasta, and cheesecake for dessert. Everyone agreed the food was incredibly good. AB and her older cousin weren't getting along terribly well, though -- probably because they were both in severe need of a nap -- so we split up and went back home to put AB to bed. Mom and Dad decided to head home around the same time, too, so we got them packed up and said our goodbyes.

And then, suddenly and unexpectedly, the house was quiet. For the first time in ten days.

T-- watched some Law and Order, I played some WoW, and then AB woke up from her nap and the spell was broken. We grabbed some McDonalds for dinner, and then all too soon it was time for me to head down to Norman for my meeting with Toby.

I didn't want to go. I was tired and worn out, and it's not a short drive, but I had made a commitment. And, after all, Toby was doing a favor for me. I showed up, and found out he had, in fact, finished it. He walked me through the code, teaching me what it did (so I could make little modifications on my own), and it's one of those things where it's fascinating in its simplicity. He did a really fantastic job. And after a quick test run (and double-checking how the output looked in Word), I was able to put the work stuff aside and we had some time to just talk. That was fun. He's in the same boat I am -- having to work with a new baby at home -- but in spite of all the chaos, and petty problems at work, and weird happenings with rent houses in Tulsa...in spite of all that, we're both doing pretty well. It was fun to get to hear that, and say that, and just to talk programming with my programming teacher for an hour or so.

Then I drove back home, in the weary dark, and crawled into bed and said good night to my weekend.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

My Tens of Thousands

I'm an observant person. I'm introspective and extrapolative. I spend a lot of time thinking about how the world really is, and how that information should affect my decisions. I call this careful consideration my "governing intellect" -- not that it does a ton of governing. It ends up being more a source of guilt (that I don't follow my reason) than a helpful tutor. But still, I sometimes heed its advice -- and sometimes to my own detriment.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, the Lord said to my governing intellect, "Come and sit by my side." I'm not a proud man. I went and I sat. The man had some interesting things to say.

I have always lived a charmed life. This has manifested in mundane ways (a happy, prosperous family environment, an upbringing with a strong emphasis on education, and an inborn talent with the written word), and in ways mystical (I've never lost real money in a game of poker).

I've long recognized this effect in my life, and rarely taken it for granted. I remember reading the Odyssey early in high school and recognizing an easy familiarity with Odysseus, beloved of Athene. He was clever and careful, but even so, he had help. Things ever fell his way. So also with me.

In our own lore there's another like him, and I've also often compared myself to King David. Chosen and blessed, set apart to do great things, I had nothing to fear from even the mightiest of enemies. That became my refrain. I can't count the times I've whispered under my breath, "Lord, let me pass unseen through the camp of my enemies."

He took me aside recently, though, and reprimanded me. That has been too much my attitude. When a university-level teaching job fell into my lap -- money we sorely needed and an opportunity many people invest years of their lives just to apply for -- I spent days and weeks and months just worrying, just hoping that I could survive. I just wanted to get through it, hopefully without drawing any attention to myself, and make it to December in one piece.

Oh humble yes, he said, but humble son of God!

There is so much more to David than the slinking thief, discreetly hemming his king's old cape. An heir is made not just to survive, but to reign. I've spent years hiding in my dirty cave, with nary an adversary on the plains below. Anointed and appointed, spending all my gracious charms on nervous getting by, when my role is so much greater. I should be capturing cities to swell my empire. I should be conquering to preserve my name, and to lift up the names of my sons. I've spent long enough as a shepherd, I should long since have become a king.

That failing is on me. The opportunities to rise up are always there -- served up to me on royal finery, and squandered in my timidity even as I proclaim that I'm trembling in fear of the Parable of the Talents. The Lord said to my governing intellect, "Come and sit by my side, and we'll make cautious reason our footstool, because there are far more interesting things going on than your boring old reality."

I can't wait to see my Jerusalem.

Journal Entry: September 23, 2009

On Monday I told a lot of people, "Oh, it's so much easier with the second baby. With Annabelle we were up all night, every night, startling awake at every tiny sound. With Alexander, we're a lot more relaxed. I'm actually getting a lot of sleep."

On Monday night, he proved me a liar. Bigtime.

So, as a result, I woke up late yesterday and I was dragging. I went in to work anyway, and stumbled through the morning's responsibilities, and then spent my lunch break grading papers, and then darted out to OC for my fourth week of class. I will, of course, tell that tale elsewhere.

I had several students hang around after class to talk with me, as I'll mention in my recap. That was awesome, in the sense of making a connection with my students, but it was draining in the sense described in detail in last week's link, Caring for Your Introvert. On top of that, everyone I interacted with at work all day wanted to talk about the baby (and, frankly, I did too...but it's still tiring). Then I got home to a full house -- T--, two babies, and two in-laws.

It's nothing but whining about blessings, but all that interaction got to me yesterday. After three weeks of getting crippled before my classes by anxiety -- for days on end -- I managed to get away with fewer than three hours of anxiety problems this week, and they could be gone altogether by the next time we meet for class. But my night was still shot just from interaction exhaustion.

T-- let me hold Alexander as soon as I got home, and I took him to the couch and AB came running up to see him, and I asked her all about her day. At the same time, T--'s mom and dad got home from some shopping they asked me all about my day, and it was all perfectly nice but for some reason I just wanted to cry.

So I handed the baby off to his Papa, and then when no one was looking I slipped off to the bedroom to hide in the dark.

Karla and John naturally picked up that something was wrong, and they know me well enough that they were able to guess what, and they said they'd be willing to head home early if I needed a little alone time before my family showed up this weekend. I replied to that with an emphatic no, because they're doing so much to make our lives easier. I really, really appreciate all their help. I've just got my own crazies, and the demands of the situation don't really allow for any good outlets. It's a pretty short-term problem, though, and one I've weathered countless times before. I'm not going to go turning away good help just because I'm feeling a little uncomfortable.

Anyway, there was bacon on the griddle and brisket in the crockpot, so I didn't stay in hiding for too terribly long. I came out for dinner and then took sanctuary behind my laptop for the rest of the evening hours, while we watched Word World and Lie to Me. Then, when the rest of the family had gone to bed, I stayed up a little longer in the still silence and finished off Newsradio. Such a great show.

Ah. I did have one actual problem yesterday. T--'s laptop is dying. It takes forever to boot into Windows (if it does at all, before locking up), and then when it loads it gives a complaint about accessing the user profile and loads a temporary profile instead. It seems pretty clear that it's a hard drive problem -- probably from AB knocking the laptop off an end-table last week while she was watching videos -- but there's a lot of photos and T--'s work stuff on that hard drive that we're going to be incredibly frustrated to lose. And, y'know, no laptop. I don't cherish the idea of sharing mine with T-- and AB. We all have very different ideas about what a computer should be doing, and how it should be handled.

So, y'know, that's going to be a mess. Probably an expensive one, but sometimes we're saved by hand-me-downs and free IT services from friends we're all-too-happy to take advantage of. So I'll let you know how that turns out.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Caring for Your Introvert

I found this article amusing, but it probably comes across as combative and haughty. Still, there's good information in there.

Journal Entry: September 14, 2009

Friday
Friday night T--'s parents came in from Wichita, and after unloading the newly refurbished dining table and chairs that John had brought down, we took them out to dinner at Mama Roja (of course). It was delicious. Other than that, it was just WoW.

Saturday
Saturday around noon we went to Mayfair Church of Christ for D--'s grandma's birthday party. It was about forty people, mostly D--'s family, and only a couple people I knew, but for some reason (and completely unexpectedly) that place hit my social anxiety something awful. We were there for two hours. The brisket was good.

Afterward we went home, and brought my niece Lola with us. We watched her for a couple hours, then when my sister came to pick her up, T-- and her family went up to Hobby Lobby for some fabric shopping.

John and I had talked about going out to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner to catch the OU game (since it was only showing on pay per view), but I still felt bad from the afternoon's activity so I stayed home and made us all chili instead. Then I played WoW for the rest of the night while John watched the race and the rest of us watched an episode of Lie to Me.

Sunday
Sunday morning I skipped church, and spent some time coming up with a list of adjectives to describe little Alexander. That...didn't turn out to be useful. I had fun with it, though.

T-- made barbecue sandwiches for lunch, then she and her parents headed to my sister's place for a baby shower while my brother-in-law brought his two girls over to play. They watched Word World with AB while Jeff and I talked for an hour or so. Then I took AB up to the shower.

Now, T-- had told me she wasn't expecting much of a turnout at the shower, since all of my family had all canceled and several of the ladies from church had said they wouldn't be there. So I was somewhat astonished to walk into my sister's house and find it packed full of people.

They had brought so many gifts, and while I was there the guests read out blessings for Alexander and T-- and me, that they'd written earlier. That was precious.

Afterward, we came home and said goodbyes to T--'s parents, then I played WoW and waited for D-- to become available. He called around six, and we both headed up to Edmond to watch the Cowboys game with K-- and N--.

It was an excellent game. I left at half time so I could watch some of the game with T-- (who'd been too exhausted to go with me). We enjoyed that so much that we watched the end of the Bears / Packers game, too.

Sort of an erratic weekend, and exhausting, but a lot of fun. And, y'know, the Cowboys won. Awesome.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: September 4, 2009

Big week for me, so yeah I should have been posting regularly. But, then, it was a big week for me, so I had other stuff to do.

Starting with getting sick.

Sunday
(Yes, I already did Sunday, just bear with me.)

Sunday morning I woke up with the sniffles and a severe, sinus-related headache -- harkening back to the Sunday only two weeks before, when I went through the same thing. That one was short-lived, though....

This one has lingered. And grown.

Monday
So, yeah, Monday morning I woke up feeling pretty out-of-it and miserable, but I just assumed (with my big first day of school looming) that it was a social anxiety thing. Every now and then I'd stop and think, "Wait, this feels more like a head cold than an anxiety attack," but then I'd just call myself silly because, after all, I had a big terrifying Event looming. Of course it was anxiety!

I went to work Monday, and then got home to an empty house because T-- had AB at the grocery store with her. D-- came over, and T-- brought a pizza home with her, and we all had a pleasant dinner. Then T-- took AB to go shopping with my little sister, and D-- drove me up to Full Circle Bookstore for social writing.

It was just the two of us this time, and we both got a lot done. We wrote about a thousand words each, in two hours at the coffee shop, then headed down to the restaurant for an hour of good conversation. I got home a little after ten, and went straight to bed.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning I went in to work, and spent most of my time there answering coworkers who started conversations with, "Today's the big day, huh? Are you ready?" And my answer was always, "Sure I'm ready! I've been doing this for seven years. All I have to do is show up, and start talking. I'll fill an hour like that!"

Noon rolled around, and I headed home. I took the afternoon off, so I wouldn't have to rush hither and thither on my first day of classes. Had lunch with T-- and AB, grabbed my laptop, and headed up to the school. I'll tell you all about my first class session in a separate post.

In brief, though, it didn't go well. And, on top of all that, I was sick. I still suspected at the time that it was a response to the stress of the day, but that certainly didn't lessen after class was over. I drove home, desperately glad I wasn't supposed to go back to work, and crashed on the couch, and did nothing else for the rest of the day. I did watch AB while T-- went grocery shopping, but that consisted mostly of stretching out on the couch, one arm over my eyes, and half-heartedly saying, "Don't make a mess" while she watched TV and played with her puzzles.

Wednesday
Wednesday morning I woke up early and went to work, then slipped out halfway through the morning to see my doctor for my annual physical. I haven't gotten any of the lab results back yet, but for the most part everything's good. He's got me back on Benicar for my blood pressure, but even that is much better than it was a year ago. He said if I can get my diastolic down by ten points, I can probably go off it altogether. So that's my six-month goal.

Anyway, after that I went right back to work. Mid-afternoon I was chatting with T-- and asked her about dinner plans and she reminded me that she was going out with Becca, and I was watching AB. So that was that.

I got home, and she left, and AB and I played in the living room for an hour or so before D-- showed up. Then the three of us ran up to Taco Bueno to grab some dinner. Afterward AB crawled up next to me on the couch while I was poking around on Facebook, and she jabbed a finger at the screen, at my little profile photo, and said, "That's you, Daddy!"

And I said, "It is!" and opened the photo up larger so she could see it. Then she started looking through all the little thumbnails on the screen, trying to spot people she recognized, and we played that game for fifteen minutes or so.

When she got bored of that, I set her up on T--'s laptop watching really, really old episodes of Sesame Street, and D-- and I played WoW. That carried us through to AB's bedtime.

Then D-- left and T-- and I watched some Lie to Me, and then it was tomorrow.

Thursday
My Tuesday-Thursday class is what we're calling a "hybrid online course," which means we're meeting in class on Tuesdays, and then on Thursdays the students go to the school's e-classroom website and watch a recorded lecture, get an assignment, and work on that over the weekend. Next Tuesday when we meet for class, we'll go over the assignment before I launch into my lecture.

Anyway, that meant I didn't have to go out to the school on Thursday, but I did have to get the online lecture put together. That...didn't end up happening, for technical reasons. I posted the assignment, and I put together a heavily-illustrated tutorial (How to Write a Business Letter) that I made available, and I sent them an email saying, "Sorry, but I'm having technical problems so your lecture won't be available until tomorrow. If you're in a hurry to get started, check out the tutorial posted online."

Not the best way to get started. In the process, though, I came up with a really great process for developing my online lectures. I was able to convert the illustrations in my tutorial directly into PowerPoint slides for the lecture, and use the text as a script for my voiceover. That lets me develop the lecture to my strengths (that is, tech writing), produce a useful lecture, and also have a well-made tutorial document left over when I'm done. That seems like a good thing all around.

Anyway, I took care of that yesterday, finishing it up in the early evening. T-- made sloppy joes for dinner, I played WoW, and after AB went to bed we watched the last episode of Lie to Me. It was intense.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: August 24, 2009

Friday
Friday afternoon I got home in a bad mood from work, walked into the kitchen to pour myself a Coke and after a quick, "Welcome home!" T-- told me a little about her day, and then said, "Oh, and I've got all my stuff ready."

And the words, "Ready for what?" died on my lips. She had a crop Friday night. I'd known about it for a month. I was not in any mood to watch AB, though.

I had about half an hour to change that. Luckily, AB woke up and ran to me with a big, "Daddddy!" that did a lot to make the transition easier. Then right after T-- headed to the church, D-- called and asked if I wanted a snowcone, so that (and his company for the evening) helped a lot, too.

Actually, it ended up being a pretty fun night. We went up to McDonalds so AB could play in the play area, then came back home and I set her up watching videos on T--'s laptop while D-- and I broke out the Rock Band. She'd periodically throw off the headphones to come dance to our music. That was fun.

Then around bedtime I played with her a bit, put her to sleep, and then got back to rocking with D-- until T-- got home. At that point I seriously considered going out and wrecking another weekend with poor decision-making, but somehow overwhelmed that impulse. I watched an episode of Lie to Me with T--, and then went to bed elevenish.

Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up late and mowed the lawn, and suddenly it was 1:00. I had some leftover barbecue and it was as good as new, then poked around on the computer for a few minutes, and then it was time to go.

"Time to go" because we had our second monthly Britton Road writer's group on Saturday. I threw in a bunch of modifiers there, because this was a sequel to our writer's group last month, not to the social writing at the coffee shop last Tuesday. The follow-up to that event takes place tonight, at Full Circle Bookstore, and will likely feature many of the same people who were at the thing on Saturday. I know it's confusing. I'll try to come up with clear distinctions of the two things (or convince both groups to merge them into a seamless whole), but for now, you'll have to wade through explanatory paragraphs like this one.

But, yeah, "time to go" because we had our second monthly Britton Road writer's group on Saturday. Courtney hosted again, and I showed up a few minutes after J. T., and Shawn showed up a few minutes later. We had German Iced Tea, and gave feedback on each others' submitted works. J. T. submitted a couple short-form poems, Courtney submitted a truly chilling short story, and Shawn submitted a one-act play that clocked in right around seven pages. Oh, and I submitted all 200-plus pages of Gods Tomorrow. Don't judge me. That's just who I am.

We had some great discussion, though. We talked about structured writing, and longhand drafts, and early efforts, and then spent about half our time on psychological disorders. We had an expert among us (of the "trained professional" variety, not simply "longtime sufferer"), and we ended up with some really great information.

We were done with that by 4:30, but T-- had taken AB over to my little sister's place, so I had some free time in the afternoon. I spent it playing Magic on the XBox, and pretty much stuck with that until T-- put AB down for bed. Then we watched a little TV, and she went to bed, and I stayed up to play a bunch more Magic on the XBox.

Sunday
Sunday morning T-- took AB to a special event (along with my little sister and her girls). Unwilling to face the adversity that is Christian fellowship without the protective barrier of my perfect little family, I decided to skip church. Around 11:30 I called D-- up, and we headed to Edmond to meet the girls at Jason's Deli for lunch. It was delicious.

Then D-- took me home, and I spent much of the afternoon playing Magic on the XBox. I finally had to put it away when T-- invited my sister's family over for dinner (she grilled hotdogs). While we were waiting for them to show up, I set up the Rock Band stuff, and after a quick dinner we sent the little ones to AB's room to play, and then we spent a couple hours rocking out. That was pretty fun.

After the guests left, T-- and I watched an episode of Psych, and discussed watching something else serious, but we weren't in the mood for serious. It was late, anyway, so we gave up and went to bed.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: August 10, 2009

I really only listen to music when I'm in my car, driving back and forth to work, so I've never developed very refined tastes. For the most part, I listen to hip hop stations. One thing you encounter with pop radio stations like that is a pretty small selection of music with heavy repeats. At any given time, there's probably a library of six to ten hip hop songs getting played on the radio. The turnover is pretty quick, but you're just not going to hear anything from the back catalog.

I've got the presets on my radio ordered by my preference (with the sixth and final preset dedicated to NPR). This morning on the drive in to work a commercial came on my number one station, and I punched all the way through to five before I found music playing. Five happens to be a country station that advertises its selection as "today's top country."

The song on the radio was Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee," which is a song I really liked back when it first came out seventeen years ago. That's today's top country. I guess they're ruling out Johnny Cash's old stuff, and anything by Hank Williams, Sr.

Still, after that song went off I got to hear one called "God is Great, Beer is Good, and People are Crazy." That one made me smile.

Friday
Last Friday I got off work a little bit early (as I often do on Fridays), so that left me a couple hours at home before I was supposed to head over to B-- and E--'s place. I spent it edging the yard.

See, we've only got an electric weed eater, and it's the cheap sort with the stupid flimsy plastic string that's constantly snapping and requiring field maintenance, so I really only edge the yard about once a year -- when the grass along the front curb is hanging majestically out over the street and providing willowy shade to cars that pass beneath. Then I gear up for an afternoon of edging, and spend forty-five minutes hacking through the trunks of the fescue.

So I did that last Friday. It was hot Friday, and I did this around four in the afternoon, so just all around poor planning. Still, the yard looks pretty good now.

After that I got cleaned up and headed over to B-- and E--'s place, where we discussed dinner plans and (far more important) drinking plans. I floated the idea of some O. G. Diddies (the same vodka, grape, lemonade drink that we all learned to rue last Poker Night), and B-- and E-- were game, so we stopped by the grocery store on our way to pick up the pizza.

The drinks were a hit, the pizza was delicious, and while we were enjoying both, B-- broke out the new Wii Sports Resort. I watched them play some (because I was ravenous), and then when E-- tried throwing a Frisbee, I just had to try it out. I did about as well at that as I would've done in real life (which is to say, very poorly), so that left me impressed with the hardware.

Then I tried out the Samurai Showdown mode of swordfighting, which has you charging into a horde of sword-wielding Miis who surround you and then politely attack you one at a time. In true Samurai-movie fashion, you get to mow them down en masse. So much fun. I wore myself out playing that.

Then I decided to try out the archery mode, and had a lot of fun with that, too. Then B-- challenged me to some pick-up basketball, and I did about as well as you'd expect. That is to say, I lost. Badly. I didn't score a single point. Yay.

After that we turned off the Wii and turned on Tropic Thunder because, even though B-- and E-- had already seen it, they'd always wanted to see it with me. How cool is that? Halfway through I started pointing out that it's really just a remake of The Three Amigos (and, at last, to audience familiar enough with The Three Amigos that they could actually get this), and of course that knowledge blew their minds. Fun stuff.

Anyway, after the movie we spent some time talking, so it was 2:15 before I got home. Somehow I managed not to be a complete idiot RE: consumption of alcohol, but I still didn't feel like going to sleep when I got home, so I stayed up for another hour or two playing Fallout.

Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up at 10:30 and mowed the lawn, which took about twice as long as expected because we've spent most of the last week with high temperatures and heavy rain, so the grass has flourished. Anyway, I got that done, got cleaned up, and somehow it was already time to head to Wichita. I packed in a hurry, cleaned up the house just a little bit so T-- wouldn't have to come home to total chaos, and then ran up to Edmond to pick up my brother-in-law.

I got to drive the new Vue, which was sweet.

On the way north, we listened to the Lonely Island CD, and then spent an hour and a half discussing the premise for Burn Jump, and just how much effort I was going to spend appeasing the fickle interests of general relativity, causation, and basic physics. Conclusion: not much.

We got to T--'s house just after four, and after a happy reunion with wives and baby daughters, we talked with Mom and Dad and the Charboneaus for a while, then headed to the church for "dinner and entertainment."

I rode with Mom and Dad, and we spent most of the drive there discussing social anxiety disorder and specific management techniques. Then we showed up and I almost immediately forgot everything we'd talked about. The fellowship hall was packed, and there were so many half-remembered faces in the crowd, and really all I wanted to do was leave.

Dinner was a catered spread featuring sliced brisket, and as I filed through the line to fill my plate, I talked to four or five old family friends. Then halfway down the table, with my back turned to the tables full of people, I was suddenly overcome. My head started spinning, I couldn't breathe, and I thought for sure I was going to pass out. I did as Dad had suggested, focusing on calming breaths while I made my way to the end of the line, and then discovered that Mom had picked out a table in the far back corner. So that helped a little. By the time I sat down, I felt almost normal again.

That was really the worst of it. Some friends stopped by our table to say hi, and a couple of them sat down with us, but with my sister's family and my parents, we had the table mostly full already. After dinner everyone headed to the auditorium for a special presentation of all the former ministers (which included my Dad). I stayed out in the foyer with my sister and brother-in-law for most of that, though, flipping through some photo albums they'd put out. Most of the pictures were of my time in the youth group, and they were rich with memories. Honestly, those thirty minutes looking through photos made the whole thing worthwhile.

I did finally join Mom and Dad in the auditorium in time for a poorly-conceived Westlink Church of Christ History Jeopardy, which was more entertaining by its floundering than by design. I don't mean that in a mean-spirited way, because the hosts took it all in stride, and Gary (the pulpit minister for as long as I've known Westlink) has always had a charming knack for laughing off little mistakes.

When we got in the car to head home Dad asked me about my experience, and I mentioned how much I'd enjoyed looking through the photos, because I have such a poor memory of my time in high school. On a whim, he offered to drive by the old school (it being just a mile out of the way). I'd done that a few times on my visits to the west side of town, but I'd never thought to actually turn onto the campus. Dad did, and by some strange fortune the gates were actually open so we could drive right up to the school.

As I've discussed social anxiety more and more recently, the question has often come up of when I first started struggling with it. And, as I've mentioned before, I don't have a good answer. That brief tour Saturday night, though, confirmed suspicion it was firmly in place by high school. As we approached the building, I remember thinking, "Oh, it's weird how familiar this all is!" And then as we got to the point where you'd actually turn toward the parking places, pick a spot, and then go in to classes, I was suddenly overwhelmed. Worse than when I was standing in line at church, I felt a crushing weight on my chest and my vision darkened. My heart started racing, as Dad casually swung past the parking spaces, up to the curb, and then turned back toward the exit.

Halfway there, after we'd left all the buildings behind, I finally found enough air to say weakly, "Oh, that was weird." I paused for a moment, collected my thoughts, and then tried to explain to them what it had felt like. Mom and Dad are both trained counselors now, so they were interested and able to offer insight. Dad said I'd encounter that other places, too, because physical places tended to have strong emotional memory associated with them. That was easily the worst I'd ever experienced, though.

Still, by the time we turned onto Tyler and left the campus behind, I felt fine.

Sunday
Sunday morning T-- woke up early and took AB up to church for the pre-class coffee and donuts, figuring that she should be there for that since she'd skipped dinner Saturday night. I stayed home, slept in, and went with the Charboneaus in time for service at 10:30.

The service was a pretty good one, with some fantastic song-leading and a true-to-form emotional sermon from Gary. Afterward they had a big balloon release in memory of the Westlink family members who had gone on before. We'd intended to skip that, slip away during the confusion and have a quiet little family lunch, but when my sister went to get the little ones out of kids' church, she got trapped in the crowd. And when I went in search of my errant sister, I did too. That turned out to be a lucky break, though, because I got to see Kelly Sullivan there. She's a Mackey now, and I keep track of her on Facebook, but it was still nice to see an old friend. I also spoke with Serena Dawson and Loni Jo Butler and Steve Hutchins on Saturday night, and that's pretty much it for other youth group alumni. Everybody else was family friends.

Anyway, after that we slipped away during the confusion, and had a quiet little family lunch at Carlos O'Kelly's. Then Mom and Dad headed home, and my sister and her family came back to OKC, and T-- and I ran to her parents' place to get packed up and then we followed shortly after. We got home around five, order a pizza, and spent the evening on the couch, getting caught up with work on our laptops while AB played with puzzles and watched Shrek for the first time.

It was a busy weekend. Good, though. Better than I expected.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: August 6, 2009

In both of my last two blog posts I commented on being mysteriously ill, without once considering that the symptoms matched up to precisely the things I was talking about in my Social Anxiety post on Monday. It took T-- to spot it. When I was complaining yesterday at lunch, she asked if I thought it had anything to do with the trip to Wichita this weekend. And I, of course, immediately felt dumb for not recognizing it.

Knowing what's wrong doesn't actually make me feel any better, but at least I can stop worrying that I've got the SARS.

Yesterday was a busy day. I met T-- and AB for lunch at Mazzio's, then after work I played Hi-Ho Cherry-Oh with AB and watched some PBS programming with her, and then my little sister showed up with her SUV so we could install AB's car seat in it.

Then we all went up to Subway for dinner, where we were met by D-- and K-- and N--. T-- and I both had the Philly Cheesesteak (which they now offer without peppers and onions, yee). It was delicious. Then I said goodbye to T-- and AB, they climbed in my sister's car, and five girls headed to Wichita to get an early start on things.

I took my brother-in-law home, and then went back to the house where D-- was waiting for me. We talked about our old fantasy project, resurrecting it from oblivion in a couple hours' discussion, and then we watched Iron Man, because that's a thing that must be done from time to time.

Then D-- went home, and I went to bed to not sleep.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Social Anxiety

I woke up this morning with grand plans for a blog post all about the role of vampires in fantasy literature. I spent much of the morning thinking about it, composing, and then over lunch something happened. As I was leaving the restaurant, a small group went out ahead of me: three grown men, and a young boy. He couldn't have been older than six, but as the four of them crossed the parking lot he was joking with the others, carrying on an effortless conversation in the most natural way.

As I got in my car, I realized with a shock that I could remember that. I'd been that boy, years and years and years ago.

Sometime in the last couple years, I've started using the phrase "social anxiety." It's become a tag for my blog posts, it's become an excuse for missing social events, and it's become a lot of misunderstanding. I imagine it's become a little tiresome, too. I've made an effort to be open and honest about it -- sharing as much of myself as I can to those people who've earned some explanation. The last time I tried, someone asked me if I could remember when it started, but my memory failed me. Seeing that little boy outside Buffalo Wild Wings reminded me of a life I'd lived before social anxiety, though. And then I realized that, even though very few of my friends have experienced life with social anxiety, I've experienced life without it. That gives me a touchstone, if nothing else.

I know a handful of extroverts, but the one who stands out most in my mind is Brent Lightsey, a fellow in our small group at church. He's so outgoing, so anxious to meet new people and make them feel at ease. It's clear anytime you're around him that he takes energy from that interaction and delights in everyone he meets. Social encounters really make his day.

I know a lot of introverts, too, and I'm certainly one myself. When it comes to introverts, social encounters are draining. It takes effort to be friendly, even with people you like, and when the social experience is over, an introvert needs a little time alone to get back up to speed. Then there's the person with social anxiety. When it comes to real anxiety, it's not just draining. It's not just uncomfortable. Social encounters make me feel like I'm dying.

That's not an exaggeration, not hyperbole to get your attention. If you want some corroboration, go look up the symptoms of an anxiety attack. They come in varying degrees of intensity, but even moderate anxiety attacks are often mistaken for heart attacks -- to the extent that a person's first anxiety attack almost always takes him to the emergency room. You can't catch your breath, and you feel like you're about to throw up. Tension builds in your chest until it aches, and often your heart races until you can feel your pulse pounding in your ears. Your limbs go weak without warning, and if it's bad enough you find yourself unable to focus your eyes, to maintain a train of thought.

That's not shyness. Shy doesn't send you to the hospital. That's not being an introvert. That's not antisocial, either, because it has nothing to do with your attitude, with your intentions, with how much you like the person you're talking to. It's a physical response, not an intellectual one.

That's not Asperger's, either. There are people who are incapable of normal human interaction, either because they fundamentally cannot understand other people or because they haven't developed basic social skills. That's not my problem. I'm not the most charismatic guy in the room, but I can play my part. I can make friends, I can charm, I can be the life of the party.* It's just that, for days beforehand and days after, I'm crippled by the physical toll of it.

If you've been reading this blog, you've probably noticed I've been talking a lot about Courtney in the last month. Courtney is arguably the first new friend I've made in seven years, and part of the reason that actually happened is because we have so much in common. Courtney and I are both writers. We've both been writers since high school. We're both long-time fans of the fantasy genre, and of sci-fi, and just basically both huge nerds. We're both multi-lingual, fascinated with linguistics, and interested in all the languages of Man. We both went through the same degree program at OC -- just a couple years apart. We were both in the Honors program. We both grew up in the same faith. We're both monarchists.

After our writer's group last month I stuck around to talk with Courtney some, to share stories about our lives. We've exchanged novels and shared fantastic feedback and discussion. We've compared music and movies and favorite authors, and we've read each other's blogs in all their verbose monstrosity. It's fair to say we're real friends at this point.

And then last Wednesday night, in the four-minute break between class and service, I caught Courtney to comment on her novel and borrow a book she'd recommended. We stood in the aisle between two rows of pews, and discussed some of the same sort of things we've exchanged (literally) hundreds of pages of digital communication on, and I spent the whole time feeling ill.

The topics were things I was perfectly comfortable with, so a sane part of my mind carried on the conversation, but at the same time another part of my brain was screaming in frantic panic, trying to figure out what to do. "What am I going to say when she stops talking? Am I going to sound like an idiot?"Neither one of those was a problem -- that other part of my brain was responding casually, easily, but the irrational fear was there anyway. "How long are we supposed to stand here talking? When is the bell going to ring? Are we in people's way? Should I be talking to Jeff? What about Nicki? I just got up and left them in the pew. How am I going to wrap up this conversation? What can I say to get out of it? Maybe I should just run away. I'd look like an idiot. But I look like an idiot now, right? What am I going to say? What am I going to do?" All of it a screaming fury that I had to pretend wasn't there.

And all of it absurd. Don't feel bad if you laughed at any of that, because it's ridiculous. The moment the bell rang and Courtney said, "Oh, I guess we should sit down," it was gone. All of that frantic panic. All of the thoughts that had gone with it. But it's not just the fleeting nature of the experience that tells me it's false. I can find the words, I can identify the specific fears, and I recognize them as totally baseless. I do know what to say next. I'm fairly confident I don't sound like an idiot (because people keep wanting to talk to me). I even know how to wrap up a conversation. To me, that frantic voice has to be a manufactured expression of something physical. Something more primitive, and outside of my reason.

It happens every time I talk to anyone, though. I described my encounter with Courtney so you could see the absurdity of it, because we have so much in common, and that social encounter was predicated entirely on the things we have in common. True, she's a new friend, but I feel the same thing when I find myself in a one-on-one conversation with Kris, or even Dan. I've been friends with Dan for as long as I've been me. I experience the same thing when I call up Trish to ask her if she could pick up some Dr Pepper while she's at the store, or anytime I walk into my boss's office to talk about work.

It's fleeting. Minutes after that conversation with Courtney I was better -- albeit a little bit ashamed -- and that's the way these things go. The physical symptoms that went with it were maybe a little difficulty breathing, maybe a little pain in my chest, but nothing you'd really be surprised by. The full anxiety attack usually grows out of big events: a long weekend spent with family, a Halloween party with our small groups, a writer's group where I'm going to do a lot of talking.

If I see it coming, that panic starts a long, long time before I ever lock eyes with anyone. It messes with my sleep schedule, sometimes for weeks. It messes up my appetite for days beforehand, and hits me with real nausea all day the day of. In the hours before the event, I often find myself wandering around aimlessly, unable to concentrate on anything at all. I'll usually lie down somewhere dark and quiet, and tell myself it's just an anxiety attack -- it'll be over soon enough -- and mostly I just try to breathe.

Then when it's over the let-down is almost as bad. There's almost always a severe headache from the sudden disappearance of all that stress. I can never sleep the night after, with the sickening rush of adrenaline still in my system, and usually I still feel sick to my stomach, too, after days of irregular appetite. The worst of it, though, is the real shame that comes from realizing how much of the last few days (and weeks, and months) I've spent agonizing over something so trivial.

That's social anxiety. In case you were curious.

* references available upon request

Journal Entry: July 20, 2009

Friday
As I mentioned on Friday, my parents came in Thursday night for a brief visit -- primarily to celebrate T--'s birthday, since they couldn't make it here next weekend. I had to work Friday, but they drove down my way to meet me for lunch at On the Border. Then shortly after I got home we headed up to Carino's for T--'s birthday dinner.

My little sister's family came to that, too, which made for quite a crowd. It was hectic, and afterward we went back to our house for ice cream cake and Madagascar. My parents had never seen it, and of course the little girls appreciated it.

They didn't make it all the way through the movie, but even so it was well after nine before my sister packed up her kids and took them home. Mom and Dad watched the rest of it, with many a hearty chuckle, and then they slipped away, too. T-- went to bed and I spend a while considering all the things I could get accomplished with a few hours of peace and quiet, but the pillow called to me. I was asleep by 10:30.

Saturday
Saturday morning T-- and Mom headed up to Edmond to meet my sister and N-- for pedicures, so Dad came over to watch AB with me. He played with her in the back yard while I took care of some stuff around the house, and then she came in to play with puzzles while Dad and I talked writing.

Of course, she wanted some attention, so she brought the puzzle over and sat down right between us while we talked, but that gave me an opportunity to show off how well she knows her letters (she only really gets confused between M and W, and Y and V), and even her right and left. Dad was suitably impressed.

We spent most of our time this weekend talking about his book. He's been about to finish it for the last three months or so. I read it right up to chapter sixteen, when everyone in town has hardened their hearts against our fair hero, and then he left me hanging. So I've been more a demanding fan than a mentoring coach ever since, trying to bully him into getting it done. It worked. While AB and I were doing puzzles, Dad pulled out his laptop and started writing.

T-- and Mom got home around 11:45, and I had to run out immediately because I had a haircut scheduled for noon. Under normal circumstances I'd have rescheduled, with my parents in town, but I had plans later in the afternoon for a writer's group -- which I found intimidating for reasons my regular reader will instantly understand -- and I always feel a little more confident right after a haircut. I mentioned that to Dad (who's quite familiar with my social anxiety), and he encouraged me to keep the appointment.

It wasn't that bad a plan anyway, because the rest of them were just going to spend that hour eating lunch, and under the circumstances there was no way I could have eaten. So I ran up to Memorial and Penn, got a chop, and then headed back home.

That left me most of an hour to chat with Mom while Dad busily hacked away at his keyboard. Then as two rolled closer, Mom started telling him to wrap it up and he lamented that he was so close to the end, but yeah, they had to get on the road. So he packed up his laptop, we all said goodbye, and then I headed out to writer's group at the same time they headed back to Little Rock.

I'll give a full accounting of writer's group in its own blog post. For now, suffice to say that even with the social anxiety going full strong, it was awesome. A great experience, and I'm looking forward to more.

At three T-- had her monthly crop up at the church, and N-- attended that, so while I was in writer's group I got a text message from K-- asking if he could bring Jason and hang out at my place. D-- was there watching AB, and at the time it seemed like we were about to break up, so I replied and said, "Sure," without any sort of explanation.

As it turned out, we were not about to break up. So K-- hung out at the house with D-- for a while, put Jason down for a nap in our room, then Jason woke up and K-- took him back up to the church, and all told it was 6:30 before I left Courtney's place. As I was walking out the door D-- messaged me to say AB was getting hungry, so I called K-- to convince him to come back to the house again, and then stopped and picked up food for all of us at McDonalds.

AB had missed most of her nap, but she was still a pretty good girl all evening. K-- and I tried to put some new remote control software on my HTPC while she watched Dora, but it was to no avail. I could fix the situation with an upgrade to Vista and a new $30 remote, but there's not a lot we can do with pure software solutions. We finally gave up on that when K-- had to leave to pick up N--.

Shortly after that AB went to bed, and D-- headed home, and I had the whole quiet house to myself. Once again I pondered all the useful things I could accomplish, and of them all I chose a stupid little computer game and spent the rest of the night doing that.

Oh! There was one interruption to it. Dad called me to let me know he'd finished his book on the drive home. Go Dad! I have it waiting in my email even now. I should have a strong review for him by the end of the day.

I ended up going to bed around eleven. T-- headed to a late Harry Potter after her long night at the crop, so I have no idea when she got home. She was still awake before me on Sunday morning, though.

Sunday
Sunday morning we all got up in time to make it to Bible class, but we didn't make it to Bible class. That just sort of happened. We ended up getting to the church halfway through, so we dropped AB in her class (two-year-olds don't judge), and then T-- and I slipped into the church library to pick a couple new books for AB and wait for classes to break. While we were there I told her all about our writer's group.

Then the bells rang and we headed to the auditorium. Courtney came over to say hi, and then I spent the service getting started on chapter four of Restraint. I like where it's going. I fear (like too much of this book so far) the chapter is going to be about half as long as it's supposed to be, but maybe this one will surprise me.

After that we had lunch at Jason's Deli with D-- and K-- and N--, then we all went our separate ways. AB took a nap, T-- and I watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and then T-- woke AB up to take her to small groups in Guthrie. I decided to skip that to spend some time with D--.

After four weeks of him suggesting we go see Transformers II and me saying I didn't want to, I suggested we go see Transformers II. It was not good. I don't regret seeing it, but it was not good. There was so much third grade humor in there that did nothing to improve the movie. You know me. I am not easily offended. But every bit of comedy in there felt childish, forced, and overdone -- and there was lots of it. The only line I laughed out loud at was, "We've got Jordanians!" which -- I assure you -- was not meant to be funny at all. That was actually supposed to be high drama.

Anyway, after that we grabbed dinner at Moe's, and then came back to the house to watch an episode of Dexter. That show is creepy. I cannot recommend it, but I'm having a hard time not watching the next episode. Creepy.

T-- got home with AB well after nine, we put her in bed, and D-- headed home. T-- and I watched a random episode of Newsradio, and then we went to bed.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.

Journal Suspension

I know you're all going to be heartbroken about this, but for the next month, I'm going to stop trying to post a daily record of events.

As my dad put it, I'm throwing a lot of irons into the fire, over the next five weeks, and the biggest one is enough to take up all my free time anyway. So posting here about days where I basically did nothing isn't a high priority on my list of available activities.

I'll still try to post if anything interesting happens, and I'll probably end up writing a bunch about my projects as I work on them, but I'm going to drop the pretense of doing this as a diary.

That said...I had a really good weekend. We got to visit B-- and E--'s place again last Thursday, then Friday night we went to a party with the young married couples from church, and it wasn't horrible. Saturday I helped K-- clean out his garage, then watched AB while T-- scrapped, and yesterday we spent most of the afternoon and evening with D-- and K-- and N--. It was a lot of fun.

Today, I'm skipping work because my cold has lingered, and though I'll probably be in good working condition by early afternoon, T-- was going to hire a babysitter for that time, so I'll just stay home all day and get some stuff accomplished.

Have a good November.

Journal Entry

Wednesday, October 17th
Last Wednesday I got sick.

Well, on my drive home from work, I got a call from K-- asking if I could help him try something out on D--'s 360 (which was temporarily sheltering at my house) when I got home. I did, and the long and the short of it is that he and I spent all evening playing Halo 3 over the network. That was a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, the minute I walked in the door T-- asked if she could just order pizza for dinner, and I met that suggestion with enthusiastic agreement, but as the night wore on she kept second-guessing herself and thinking something else might be tastier than pizza. I never disagreed, and in the end she so-kindly offered to go pick up some Braums for us both, and left me home with a sleeping AB, which also let me keep killing alien scum with K--.

She brought me a burger deal and a medium chocolate malt, and it was all (of course) delicious. She stole some of my fries, but by the time I was done I didn't much mind because I could tell I'd had way too much malt, anyway. I felt over full, and kinda queasy, and that didn't go away as T-- and I watched Heroes (or something of the sort). I stretched out on the floor, and as soon as the show was over, I went to bed.

Thursday, October 18th
That's weird, see, because it was relatively early and I didn't have to be up on time Thursday, because I had a doctor's appointment. Still, I felt sick, so I went to bed early assuming it would pass and I'd feel fine by the time I woke up. Somehow, though, I didn't. I woke up feeling worse than I had the night before. I was queasy, and my stomach hurt.

I got dressed around 8:30, and headed up to my doctor's office at 9:30. The appointment was just a follow-up to my annual exam that I got a month ago. He wanted to discuss my labs (fantastic), and see how the blood pressure medication was going (really good). It was definitely a positive review, but while I was there I mentioned the nausea and he noticed (and commented) that I was feverish, so he went ahead and prescribed a nausea medication for me, along with my BP refills.

The day just got worse from there. I spent the next eight hours in bed or in the bathroom. Around 6:30 I finally felt up to going out in the living room to lie on the couch for a couple hours, and I watched some of our Thursday night sitcoms with T--, then went back to bed by 9:30.

Friday, October 19th
Friday, I was back at work. I still felt a little off, but nothing like Thursday had been. I made it through the day at work, then went home to watch some TV with T--. I also did some of my homework for the week, and I worked on some music stuff on my computer while T-- was pushing AB in the backyard. Just a general sort of busy afternoon/evening, while we waited for T--'s parents to show up.

D-- and K-- and N-- went out to Kang's for sushi and karaoke for the night. They wanted me to come along. I kinda wish I could have, because I like spending time with all three of those people, but I don't like doing either of those other two things, so it wasn't too bad. We talked with T--'s parents for a couple hours, then everyone went to bed.

Oh! I also got a new game running sometime in there, and started playing Portal. It's awesome. I highly recommend it.

Saturday, October 20th
Saturday was supposed to be a Fall Festival at the park across the street from our house, and T-- had big plans for it, but when we finally got everyone ready to go and drove over there, we saw the sign indicating that the Festival was, in fact, next weekend. No good. So we went garage saling instead. We ended up splitting up, and John and I went down to the south end of town to check out a hobby shop while T-- and her mom went to the mall to buy some shoes.

Just as we got to the hobby shop, I got a call from Dad about his writing project. He'd hit his first big speedbump, and he was worrying about the implications of it. Luckily, the only reason he's hitting it now (instead of this time next month) is because I'd predicted that sort of thing could happen, and I set him an assignment to help him track it down now. That worked out even better than I expected.

Anyway, we talked for over half an hour, about writing and the writing process and what to expect. I loved that. I'm really excited about next month, and all the opportunities it implies, for connecting with Dad and Heather, on things we haven't really had in common in the past.

More than that, I'm excited about Dad and Heather and Gwyn all finally getting their novels finished. That is going to be awesome.

After the call, though, we headed back to the house to pick up D--, and took him with us over to K-- and N--'s to watch the OU game. It was a tense one, but we pulled it off. I don't need that level of drama, though. Ugh.

After that, we came back home and had enchiladas for supper, and then watched Evan Almighty. Frankly, better than I thought it would be. I think I said the same thing about Bruce Almighty, now that I think about it. Same reaction, really.

Sunday, October 21st
On Sunday, after church we went to Texas Roadhouse, because T--'s parents wanted to take me out for a birthday lunch. It was delicious, nevermind them making me get up on a saddle on a sawhorse so they could shout "Yeehaw" by way of "Happy Birthday." Forget about that. It was nothing. The steak...the steak was amazing.

Then I went over to K-- and N--'s a little late in the afternoon (after seeing off T--'s parents), to watch the Cowboys game. Not quite as bad as the OU game, but not a lot better, either. It was fun getting to see Adrian Peterson on the field, but when we got a real lead on the Vikings they had to pull him (for reasons made clear in an article I read last week), and then we just cleaned up. I'm not a fan of the trailing-for-the-whole-first-half strategy, even if we are usually pretty good about winning-out-in-the-fourth.

Anyway, we won, and T-- came over and K-- bought us some always-excellent barbecue from Steve's Rib, and you just can't beat an evening like that. T-- and I went home and talked about doing our homework, and watched some TV instead.

Monday, October 22nd
Yesterday was back to work, and my big deal for the day was coming up with a plan to restart the Remnant project as a web game. B-- made the mistake of asking me about that project, and I talked at him for like two hours. But, yeah, if you're interested feel free to ask. For now, suffice it to say that you can expect me to spend a lot of time in the near future complaining about having too many projects to work on. The Shepherd and Oberon's Dreams were already going to make that happen, but adding in a Sims version of an MMO that's web-playable isn't going to help the situation any.

I got home from work, checked the mail, sat down on the couch, and then B-- called and asked if we could come over. T-- was jumping up and down, she was so excited about the opportunity. So we went over to their place last night (they just got rid of the in-laws yesterday afternoon), and spent some time with the new parents giving our advice and (as aforementioned) regaling half of them on the nuances of a web interface for a highly-automated role-playing game.

We also had pizza, and ostensibly watched MNF, although we really only saw the kickoff. We had a great time, though. It was nice to get the invite, and great to see them.

Afterward, we came home and talked about doing our homework, but watched some TV instead.

Journal Entry

Ugh, I hate these long catch-up posts as much as you do, but part of my goal with the diary-style blog is to be able to look back a year in my life to see what was making daily news for me, and it helps with that for me to put in everything. I don't remember much terribly exciting apart from football games, though, so maybe this will be a short one.

Wednesday, October 10th
Oh, see, look how wrong I was! Oh, wait, never mind. But, yeah, something extraordinarily exciting happened last Wednesday, but I'm not going to tell the internet about it. Sorry, internet.

We skipped church for it, though, and ended up at the hospital, and it was awesome, so you can probably draw inferences. Congrats, guys.

Thursday, October 11th
Thursday, I took off work early because I was just ready to be gone. I had Friday off as an RDO, so I decided to get my weekend started at 2:30 instead of 4:30. Definitely a good call. I spent some time playing with T-- and the baby, then played on my computer some, and ended up making us some chili for supper. It was fantastic.

Then I suggested that we watch one of the Thursday night sit-coms, and save the rest for Friday (I had the whole day off, right?), but we ended up watching all three. It was a lot of fun, for a quiet evening.

Friday, October 12th
Friday really flew by. I slept late, I mowed, I went grocery shopping with T--, and...I dunno, one more thing useful. Oh! I helped her with a lot of preparation for her scrapping thing on Saturday. Apart from that, though, I spent most of the day playing Heroes. It was fun.

Saturday, October 13th
T-- had a scrapping thing with Rebecca down in Norman from 9-3 on Saturday, and I'd agreed to watch AB so she could do that. As I always do when I'm watching the baby, I sent out a rather general request for help, and D-- brought over his XBox and some breakfast at 9:30, and stayed around to help with the baby. While she was napping, we played Halo 3.

I'd invited K-- and N--, too, but K-- was stuck at work all weekend, out of town, and N-- had no vehicle because they'd had to drop her car off at the shop for some maintenance. So, noon-ish, D-- stayed with AB and I ran N-- up to the shop to pick up her car, then she came over and hung out, too. D-- got us all some lunch, and we watched the pilot of Chuck and a little bit of King Kong on his new HD-DVD player. King Kong was unimpressive, but the D was definitely H.

J-- called a couple times inviting me to go to the OU game with him, but I just couldn't figure out a way to make it work out timing-wise. T-- had a good suggestion when I mentioned it to her, but by then it was probably too late. It's a shame, though. The game was awesome.

Anyway, we went over to N--'s place to watch the OU game, and it was kinda sad that K-- couldn't be there. Working weekends sucks. The game was awesome, though. Fun stuff. T-- left partway through, to put AB in bed, and after the game D-- asked if I could go to the blues bar downtown with him. We did that, and it was a pretty good time. I got in late, though.

Sunday, October 14th
Sunday...ugh. It was second Sunday, so we had a pot luck fellowship lunch at church. D-- came with us, which was pretty cool, and I actually managed to find a full plate of good food that met my ridiculous demands, so that was a pleasant surprise. After lunch, N-- went to a parade downtown and we were planning on going, too, but T-- started feeling pretty bad (allergies), so we went home instead and she and AB took a nap.

D-- and I watched some TV, and when T-- woke up, we watched V for Vendetta on the HD-DVD player. Awesome, awesome. So awesome. I'd go so far as to call it boss.

All of this was while waiting to watch the Cowboys game. Ugh. It started at 3:15, but around 2:00 we started hearing rumors that K-- might be back in town 5-ish, so we all decided to wait to watch the game with him. Ugh. That game....

Anyway, so, we watched the movie and just sort of burned the afternoon, then met D--'s mom for dinner at Abuelo's (so good), and then D-- and I went over to K-- and N--'s place to watch the game.

Ugh. Y'know, it's not like college where, when OU lost a few weeks ago, it seemed like that had put them out for the season. An undefeated season in the NFL has only happened once, and I wasn't particularly expecting us to get one, but it was fun having that streak while we did. It's just...argh, I hate the Patriots so damn much. Why'd we have to lose to them (and let them keep their streak going)? Bah. Ugh. I went home with a bad mood.

Monday, October 15th
Yesterday...I dunno, I had a good day. Work went well, in some indefinable way. Afteward, T-- and I worked on our homework for our marriage seminar, and that was pretty unpleasant, but I think it was ultimately very productive. After that, we watched Heroes, and that was my night.

Journal Entry

Friday, October 5th
Friday night, I'd agreed to watch AB so that T-- could go do some scrapbooking with her friend. Said friend ended up changing plans a little, but T-- still went out to see a movie, and I had the baby for a few hours.

D-- came over to help out, and brought his new XBox. B-- and E-- came by, and mostly they watched me set up the XBox, because I didn't have the necessary cables in place and my TV is a monster. So, I'm sure that was a lot of fun for them. It was fun having them around, too.

We tried to convince K-- to come join us, but N--'s family was in town, and he chose to be a good husband. Good for him! The bastard....

Anyway, D-- and I played for several hours, which was a lot of fun, then he left to go visit his grandma in...I dunno, starts with "Chick," but I'm not sure how it's spelled after that. Some place boring, anyway.

Saturday, October 6th
Saturday, of course, was the OU/Texas game. N--'s visiting family happened to be from Texas, and big Texas fans, so that added some drama to the day. We went over there to watch the game, and they made a big party of it. K-- cooked up some awesome hamburgers and hotdogs. T-- provided some bacon-wrapped cheese-stuffed jalapenos that, by all accounts, were delicious. Everyone brought something, and everybody had a good time.

Of course, the Sooners trounced. Fun times.

Then we all split up for the evening, and I was doing some work in my office when I got a call from D-- saying that USC had lost its game, and LSU was looking questionable. That was almost as exciting as the OU game, because it put them back into contention for the national title. Whoop! OU is now ranked four spots above USC, if I remember correctly.

Seriously. I hate those guys!

Sunday, October 7th
Sunday afternoon, we met with my high school friends Joe and Liz. I got back in touch with Joe through MySpace, and then learned that Liz was living down here in OKC. Anyway, Joe was down for a birthday party this weekend, so we got together. AB's schedule kept it from being overly long, but it was still nice to get together and get caught up some.

Some of you think I'm lying right now, because I'm not the social guy. Oh, and we met at the park near our house, so that just seals it, because I'm really not the outdoors guy. But it was good. Definitely good.

Anyway, after that we watched the first couple episodes of Chuck (fantastic show, by the way -- you must watch it), and then went over to K-- and N--'s for leftover burgers and hotdogs, and to watch Stargate Atlantis. That was fun. We got home late-ish, and T-- and the baby went to bed. I stayed up late playing Heroes, because Monday was a federal holiday.

Monday, October 8th
Of course, I'd agreed to spend Monday watching AB so T-- could go to Tulsa for work, so I ended up severely regretting that decision.

On the whole, AB was good, but do you remember what I was saying last Friday about turn-based games? Watching a baby is exactly like that. There so many things you have to get done, and their schedule is so rigidly defined, that you're just constantly completing some strategy and making arrangements to complete another one, and before you know it, nine hours have disappeared.

That was basically my day. I did finish a ton of homework for our class, mostly while the baby was crawling around the kitchen floor, and watched Knocked Up, which is an awesome movie. Just incredibly raunchy, but awesome. It's like Keeping the Faith for the married people.

Oh, I also did four loads of laundry.

Then T-- got home around 6:00 and brought a pizza with her, and I spent an hour catching her up on everything AB had done during the day before heading over to K-- and N--'s to watch the Cowboys game. At the last minute, B-- called to invite me to watch it with them, and I so wish I could have, but I felt like I'd already made a commitment.

And, of course, knowing what I know now (sorry, B--), there's no way in hell I would've done that. The game was not at all what we expected, going into it. If you care at all, you've probably already heard, and I'm not going to go into the details here, but it was the most exciting last two minutes I've ever seen in a football game.

B--'s DVR stopped recording with 6 minutes left in the game. Poor guy. I can't even imagine the rage.

Anyway, yeah, awesome game. Unbelievable, and a really good time in spite of all our mistakes. It was fun. I got home around midnight, and crashed.

Tuesday, October 9th
Last night, then, was considerably quieter. After a long day of work, T-- made me a quick sandwich before we headed off to our marriage seminar. Class went pretty well, we had excellent snacks (peanut-butter-infused fudge brownies and home-made vanilla ice cream), and then K-- and N-- came over to watch Heroes with us.

At the house, D--'s mom and grandma were there, visiting. And they were at our house, as you probably know, because D-- was watching the baby. They told us what a doll she'd been and we all visited for a while, then they headed out and we watched that Heroes episode.

That's enough to catch us up to today. Sounds like we'll probably be paying a visit to B-- and E-- tonight, assuming we're invited, but other than that I don't see it being a very dramatic evening. We'll probably watch the third episode of Chuck. I might mow. We'll just have to see where the evening takes us.

Journal Entry

It was a really busy week, last week. Some of the highlights have shown up already on T--'s and N--'s blogs, but I feel like I've got to fill out the form, anyway.

Tuesday, September 18th
Tuesday morning I had a doctor's appointment. I've been getting high blood pressure readings for about a year now (ever since I learned about AB, really), and it got to the point where people were threatening me with sad faces if I didn't go get checked out.

So I told my boss I needed the morning off, and that I'd maybe take the whole day. My appointment wasn't until 9:00, though, so I was looking forward to sleeping in. At 6:30, T-- came crashing through the bedroom door with a screaming AB and said, "Here, hold her for me while I get a rag."

I sat up, grabbed the baby, and noticed all the blood pouring out of her mouth. She had fallen while playing in the living room, and somehow ripped that bit of skin connecting the upper lip to the gums, and it was bleeding like crazy. I got her to calm down while I was holding her, and then T-- got her cleaned up, but she spent all day going through that cycle. She'd chew on a toy or suck on a pacifier and it would start bleeding again, and she'd start crying and make a huge mess, and then we'd calm her down and try to get the bleeding to stop.

Really, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was a lot of work, for both of us. So, yeah, I ended up taking the whole day off. I did go in for my appointment, though, which happened to be during the worst time for T--. But, y'know, what can you do?

Doc said I looked good apart from the blood pressure, and gave me a month's worth of samples for a BP medicine that he said (and N-- confirmed) is a really good one. I'll probably be on it for a couple years, if not for life, but it's supposed to be really helpful.

And, while we're dealing with AB troubles all day, we also know we've got the marriage class to go to that evening. Last week's was a tough one, discussing all the things each of us do that hurt the other. Not fun to discuss, not even fun to think about. We both had a lot of trouble getting motivated to do the homework, and we'd kind of put it all off to do during the day Tuesday. Instead, we spent the day chasing the baby, so we were really unprepared for class.

Anyway, right around 5:00, K-- and N-- called and offered to bring over dinner. That was fun, and brightened up my afternoon considerably. We had fajitas from Taco Cabana, and chilled for a few, then headed up to the church when D-- showed up to watch the baby.

I had an uncomfortable experience in class that night, over some confusion as to how "voluntary" the sharing portion of the class was. Turns out, it's not voluntary, but by the time I learned that, I was in a pretty embarrassing situation, with a big ol' spotlight on me. That sucked. Anyway, at least now I know for future classes.

I'm glad we went to that class, though. Out of all of them, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most valuable one we do, because it was good to hear everybody talking about the difficulty they had with the homework, and discussing such things. That was definitely worth being there for.

Wednesday, September 19th
Wednesday night, K-- and D-- and I went to the movies. We'd talked about going to see Dragon Wars and/or Shoot 'em Up. Then we learned that Dragon Wars was a Korean-made, low-budget cheese fest, and decided to save our eight bucks (which probably is code for "go see it when D--'s not around to make fun of us"). So, Shoot 'em Up it was.

B-- and E-- should get it and watch it on DVD, when it comes out (unless they have a strong desire to see it apart from my recommendation). As for everyone else...I can't think of another human being I could recommend that movie to. K-- and D-- both enjoyed it, but....yeah. It's ludicrous. It's absurd, and probably the most violent movie I've ever seen. Crass, out the ass. But it was fun.

After the movie, around 9:30, we came out of the mall to find K--'s driver-side window smashed out. Someone was probably trying to go for the GPS unit mounted on his windshield, and spooked when his car alarm went off, because there was nothing missing from the car. But, yeah, whoever did it won't be caught, so K-- is stuck with a $150 glass bill. The security guard who filled out the paperwork on it said he'd had a lot of windows broken out, in his time, and recommended a particular repair crew. K-- got them out to his place Thursday night, and got that taken care of. Ugh.

Thursday, September 20th
Thursday night we had the church picnic. They claim to do one every month in the summer, but I don't think it actually happens that often. Anyway, T-- heard about this one and I didn't have any good excuses to get out of it, so we went out to a private park across town around 6:30, and had some pot luck. T-- was kind enough to make me a sandwich beforehand, so I wasn't entirely at the mercy of the old church ladies' cooking.

In addition to pot luck, the theme for the dinner was "Pie Contest!" (The exclamation mark is part of the title, not my own.) T-- baked two apple crumble pies for the event (blogged on her MySpace), and they were amazingly delicious. I'm not a constant fan of fruit pies of any sort, but this one was awesome. It could be the massive quantity of brown sugar melted over the top that won me over. I'm no food critic, but that strikes me as a winning combination.

Anyway, I tried about seven pies. Everybody voted, and they said we'd learn the results on Sunday. So, for narrative reasons, I'll save that information until I write about Sunday. HaHA! Building a little suspense in the ol' blog, I am. A writer practices good writing techniques, always. That's the rule. But, yeah, anyone who's read T--'s MySpace already knows the answer. And pretty much anyone who knows her.

Friday, September 21st
For reasons inexplicable, Friday night was the OU game. I know, I know, they're a college team, but yeah...they played on Friday night. Against Tulsa, who was supposed to have a pretty good passing offense. Nobody was worried, but we'd heard things, y'know?

We had dinner with K-- and N-- at Freddy's (always a good time), and then I went over to their place to watch the game. Tulsa scored first, and in the first six minutes game-time, Tulsa put up 14 points. That was a little alarming. Of course, they also used up all of their timeouts for the half, to do that. K-- pointed out that they probably had to do that to get their offense some rest, which was a point well made. It was clear they were pulling out all the stops to make a statement early, but once the timeouts were gone, our guys just rolled over them. OU's final score was in the sixties. Fun.

Afterward, I hung around and watched a couple episodes of Dr Who with K--, who's trying to get into the series. It's a good show. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Saturday, September 22nd
Saturday I'd offered to spend at home, with T--. We'd had a wildly busy week, and we were planning to watch two games on Sunday, so it seemed wise to just set aside some home time. I mowed in the morning, and then we went grocery shopping together. We spent most of the afternoon working on homework for our marriage seminar, and I'm glad we did. We covered a lot of material, and even though this was pretty sensitive stuff, it was nothing compared with the week before, so we were able to talk pretty freely. That was a good experience.

In the evening, most of our work done, we watched a little TV, and then I decided to run up to Lowe's and grab some storage stuff to help organize the garage, and my office closet. I've mentioned a lot of work on the garage recently, and there was really one last major change I wanted to make, rearranging some stuff to make more room for car doors to open. To do that, we needed a new place for T-- to keep her catalogs and other work stuff, and she'd been wanting a closing cabinet for that for a while. I've also been wanting a set of stacking drawers to organize the cables and connectors and computer parts crammed in my office closet, pretty much since we moved into the house.

So, I ran out and bought all that stuff. If you haven't shopped for storage solutions, you'd probably be surprised how much they cost. I managed to find what I wanted, though, and brought it home to put together. After that...well, I get a little manic when I'm working on a project, wanting to get it done, so I got the cabinet built, and then I took it out to the garage (and it's probably 9:00 at that point), and then I spent some time rearranging things out there, and I finally made myself stop working on that to come inside and watch some TV with T--.

Then I ended up, a couple hours later, setting up the drawers in my office closet and working on that until one in the morning. It's just who I am. Don't judge me.

Anyway, Saturday was a lot of work, but I'm impressed how much I got accomplished. The improvements in the garage and the closet were awesome, and like I said, I'm really glad we got the homework done.

Sunday, September 23rd
Sunday morning, after church, we went to K-- and N--'s to watch the Vikings/Chiefs game with a bunch of friends. B-- is a long-time Vikings fan, and as I mentioned back in preseason, our old hero Adrian Peterson is now starting running back for the Vikings, so we were all interested in watching it. They also invited my sister's family over, because J-- is a big Chiefs fan (and, y'know, just for the opportunity to hang out).

Early in the game, the Vikings were rocking on the Chiefs. Enough so that B-- started cheering for the Chiefs because he felt sorry for J--. Unfortunately, about twenty minutes after J-- left (S-- had a photoshoot to get to, and needed J-- to watch the kids), the Chiefs turned it around and tore up. It was an exciting game. Adrian Peterson was amazing (the commentators kept saying he was carrying the rest of the team).

K-- grilled hotdogs for lunch, and they were awesome. T-- brought some leftover apple pie, and it was just a big ol' party. Everyone had a good time.

After that, I borrowed K--'s distribution spreader and took a bag of grass seed he'd picked up for me, and headed home. In church Sunday morning, they'd said that the pie contest winner would be announced Sunday night. So, T-- really wanted to go to that, but I had so much stuff I still needed to get done before the weekend ended (and that necessarily meant "before the Cowboys game started"). So I dropped her off at church, then went home to seed my yard.

The new spreader worked way better than the old drop spreader I'd used, and I was able to seed the whole back yard in about ten minutes. I then broke out some insect control stuff that's also supposed to be spread like that (which I never used, because the old spreader took so long), and put that out, front and back. D-- came over early in that process, asking me if I wanted to hit Best Buy, but I told him I was busy. So he pulled out his laptop and read some webcomics on my couch while I did yard work.

Anyway, got all the poison down and set up a sprinkler, and then grabbed a quick shower, and was able to pick up T-- just a few minutes after church ended. That was a lot accomplished in one hour.

And when I showed up to pick her up, she was proudly brandishing her silver spatula! She got second prize in the contest, which was much deserved. If you haven't already, send her a congratulations for that.

We dropped her off at the house, then D-- and I ran up to the barbecue place next to Blockbuster and grabbed a small family deal to go. Chopped brisket and hot links, which was enough for all of us to have heaping plates, and still enough for my lunch on Monday. Awesome stuff.

Then K-- called to say he couldn't make it over, so D-- and I watched the game together. It was an incredible game. Both teams were playing really well (Dallas vs. Chicago). In the second half, though, Romo just laid it down. I think we won 34-10. Woot woot.

Monday, September 24th
So, anyway, Monday after I got home from work, I went to Best Buy with D--. He'd finished Bioshock and the anime series he was watching, and needed something new for entertainment. We looked through all the games, but the only one that really tempted was Madden '08 for the Wii. Then we went and looked at high-end TVs instead. That was a lot of fun. He's still needing to make the upgrade to HD, and his small apartment (and bachelor lifestyle) makes a big ol' wall-mount LCD the perfect choice.

Anyway, we were there for a while, then came home and T-- made us some chicken crescent squares that are just awesome. It's a recipe she started on just after we got married, and I always love it. Yumm. After dinner, it was already 8:00-ish. We watched the season premier of How I Met Your Mother, and an episode of Rules of Engagement which is another show in the same vein, but it's got David Spade. Then we watched the season premier of Heroes, which didn't really disappoint.

Then D-- went home, and I did the last little bit of homework I had to fill out, and then it was bedtime.

Tuesday, September 25th
Yesterday, I found a chunk of free time in the afternoon, and spent a lot of it typing up the many pages of Royal Holiday that I had handwritten (and I'm starting to think it's going to have to switch back to "Royal Holiday," which is a shame, because I was looking forward to trying to push the short-format novel). I'm nearly caught up on the typing part, and the longhand part is nearly done, so that's the sort of news that appeals to my manic drive to complete a project. Wahaa!

Around 4:00, I got a call from T-- saying she'd just heard from the people leading our marriage seminar with a reminder that we were supposed to provide the snacks this week. Ack! I suggested chips and salsa, because I knew we had the stuff handy, and it feeds a crowd. She ran up to the store and got some extra chips, and the stuff to make guacamole. It was a real rush to get everything done before the class started at 6:30, but she managed. And she made some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches for D-- and me. She's the whole package.

So, we left AB with D--, and went to class for two hours. Our snacks were a huge hit. I think everyone there complimented either the salsa or the guacamole, if not both. So, y'know, good for us. Woohoo.

I got home, and I was feeling too socialized, so I retreated to my office for some video games. I played Heroes for a couple hours, and made it to bed around 10:30.

And, amazingly enough, I'm finally finished with that update.