August began like any other weekday: Get up, mess around on the computer a bit (Silmarillion post), shower, dress, go to work. The fact that the gods had something else in mind was readily apparent when, barely out of the driveway, I came to the realization that I had a flat tire. Nonplussed, I pulled back into the driveway to change it (“4 minutes…time me!”). It was as I went to grab my spare from under the truck that I had one of those flashbacks that one gets sometimes in which I saw myself many months ago hauling donated furniture all over creation for work. At that time I removed my spare tire, which had been sitting in the bed of my truck, and left it at the group home which was our base of operations for the day. The manager there had been worried about the tire laying out so she stuck it in the back of the van, thus ensuring that it would remain ‘out of sight, out of mind’ once the day was over.
Fast forward to yesterday: no tire=no changing tire. A quick phone call got the assistant manager of the home driving across town to deliver my wayward tire. Once he had made his delivery I set to the task of changing the tire…only to remember that the last time I had a flat that my jack had appeared to break. Appearances were not deceiving, it was indeed out of commission. Thankfully I have cousins who live on the next street so I strolled over there to borrow their floor jack which I very noisily drug through the neighborhood streets back to my house. All set a good 30 minutes after the process began and before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’ in pig latin I had the tire changed. The fact that it was almost 90 degrees already by that time of day necessitated a return to the shower and thus I didn’t to work until about 2 hours later than normal. Yep, that’s a first class start to the month!
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It has been 2 months since I have done an update on the ol’ Uberlist. The reason has been simply to spare you the pain, but after yesterday I feel somewhat sadistic and so you are going to get it now. First, a little backstory.
I have come to the conclusion over the last year that I sort of suffer from seasonal affective disorder. For most people this is a light sensitive thing that happens in the fall/winter. For me it occurs around the end of June and generally lasts until late August or early September. Thinking back I realized that what generally happens are these are the most unproductive, least enjoyable months of the year for me. I despise them, mostly due to the heat. I recall how I usually come out of a fog at the end and wonder just what the hell has happened to the past two months and why I haven’t gotten anything done. It is a very real, very weird phenomenon. I determined when I did my Uberlist that I would not allow this to happen. Around the second week of July I noticed myself slipping into this mode and after a few days managed to get a hold of this feeling and push it out. I decided, with the help of one really beautiful, cloudy, cool day in the midst of 100+ temps, to use a little psychology on myself. I took out music that I normally consider fall music and started listening to it, I watched a little Lord of the Rings (always a November/December thing for me), and I read. As silly as this all sounds it actually worked.
One of my uberlist goals was to read 50 books this year, effectively doubling my normal reading total. Looking in my journals for the past 2 years I noticed that my reading habits completely die in the months of June through August. I finished no books in those months the last 2 years. This year I have finished 10 books from June 1st through July 31st, 2 of those being in July (32 books finished total for the year thus far). That is not even counting the many books I have started and am currently working on. I feel very, very good about this. One of the items on my Uberlist was to finally read the LOTR trilogy and I am currently half way through The Two Towers and am loving it! Pulling myself out of the normal summer funk has really helped…I still hate summer and wish it to be over but at least I am doing some things to enjoy the time. I have done much more with friends during this time than I normally do. Mary and Tori and I have spent much more time together. And I have gotten some things done.
The July bookshelf project with dad was an uberlist item. (I have to admit that it remains unstained as I’m currently suffering commitment phobia with the color…and I love the smell of fresh wood and have been reluctant to give that up. Soon!) Keeping up with house work so we don’t have to do massive cleaning is an uberlist item I have kept up with. There are other, more personal list items that I am keeping up with. All in all, though things have slowed down, I am very happy with my progress towards my goals.
And now I am getting ramped up to go on an uberlist binge in order to finish several things that I planned to have done before fall sets in. I look forward to soon being able to enjoy the outdoors again with family and friends.
I’m still fat in case you were wondering…that’s one uberlist goal that I have been working on in reverse!!!
Happy Wednesday everyone!
Oh man…cousin or no cousin that’s about the time I’d make the call to AAA.
Don’t feel like the lone ranger about the summer heat. Surely you have seen The Dark Crystal where the mean old Skekski’s drain the vital essence of the hapless Gelflings. I’m a depleted Gelfling until the fall weather kicks in.
I have been wondering how the uberlist was faring.
As to the housework, I have difficulty believing your family ever gets behind on that. Your house is always pristine when I visit. I have a complex about inviting your family to my house…I’m convinced there will be a white glove tucked in your pocket.
Man, that sounds like my day today and it’s only 10:22 AM.
Is that what you call “sadistic”?
Well done on everything. Every time I read about your list, I think I should do the same – and the guilt kicks in.
Hmm. Sadistic is right after all…
you’re so cute in your Lucky Brand t-shirt. Of course you know the t-shirt makes this post all the more funny.
I can relate with the seasonal disorder thing. My spell lasts from the end of august to late september/early October, when I have a creative explosion (which explains why it’s so easy for me to write a book each november). But how horrible that spell is! I think it started earlier this year…I’ve been in a funk since June!
I hadn’t even gotten the irony of the shirt in the picture and how it fits with the story. Thanks for pointing that out Janet…its really funny. I only picked this picture because I am addicted to putting something visual on every post and came across this looking through my files this morning.
Don’t feel guilty Anne…as I’ve said all along the list isn’t about guilt. There are things on my list that are way past the arbitrary deadlines I set for them but they are still there, are things I want to get done not things I feel someone is pushing me to do, and hopefully I’ll get to them before Uberlist ’07! 😉
Haven’t seen Dark Crystal in way too long Suzanne…need to put the special edition DVD on my Amazon wish list!
Sorry Jamie, I understand of course!
I figured it was you Mosker who had asked about the Uberlist. More than anything I haven’t posted about it because everytime I go to post I have something I want to talk about more. And who needs a white glove…I can spot dust from a mile away! Just kidding, I honestly don’t notice when someone’s house is dirty unless they feel self conscious and point it out. And we just hide our dirt/clutter well…look at the basement! Or rather, don’t! 😉
Its been a funky summer VW, it really has. Here’s hoping we all come out of it early this year!!!
congrats on finally getting the tire fixed. so if this beauty of a start is any indication, August will be a month of learning life’s little lessons. 1. “out of sight – out of mind” is just that. you’re extremely lucky that after “many months” you still found the tire. 2. “don’t put off today…” well you get the picture. useful things that break should be replaced sooner than when you need them and probably right away so you don’t forget.
anyway, thanks for the life lessons, i will cherish them – though i refuse to read your Silmarillion post as i didn’t make it through that book. i know it proves Tolkien’s genious, in more ways than one, but it also proves the blindness of both genious and marketing execs.
happy humpday!
Anything I can do to help Mysfit!
Now you have me curious. How does Silmarillion prove the blindness of marketing execs? It was a best seller when it came out and still sells well today so from a marketing standpoint I would think the companies that own the rights are very, very happy with the results.
I’m also curious about your Tolkien comment…you can’t leave me hanging like this! 😉 I was going to say that Silmarillion doesn’t prove Tolkien’s genius but then I realized that it actually does. He wrote an intricate, detailed history of a world from creation to the dawning of the age of man for a world that doesn’t exist (or maybe it does…don’t want to get anyone riled up!!!) and it reads like a true history.
Help me out here Mysfit!
I’ve just had free M&M’s delivered to my office…today is a good day. Thanks Jamie.
Nice pic!
I am working on 3 big projects at the moment. 1. get my bills & paperwork all organized and filed neatly (almost done). 2. paint living room ceiling, living room, office & bedroom (living room ceiling is done – mostly thanks to Mike). 3. take all my give-a-way clothes to charity (been working on this awhile – 1/2 way done).
Of course, there are always a million other things to do but once the above is done, I will feel much better.
Congrats on your 32 books. I haven’t read that many since grade school.
In reply to your comments on my site…
No, I am not offended by being compared to a comic artist. I’m a huge fan of comics and Graphic novels. (Transmetropolitan is my all-time favorite).
As for the second painting, the person there is myself, so it is definitely not a man. Thanks for the major ego-crushing.
Thanks for checking out my work and giving me feedback. 🙂 I love hearing what people think of this stuff. Mostly, though, I just love playing in paint! 🙂
I’ve seen some of the pics of you on your site TN and I have to say that although the painting itself is well done…which I mentioned in my comments…I don’t see you in it at all.
Glad you’re back at it and glad you’re a fellow comics fan. Haven’t read Transmetropolitan myself but am a fan of other Vertigo books.
Abby…so we’re gonna be smelling paint fumes Friday night, eh? Look forward to seeing it.
What is funny about reading 32 books thus far is that there are others whose blogs I read that would consider that absolutely nothing because they tear through books so fast.
k – so maybe the remark about the marketing execs was a little too off-the cuff and probably isn’t strickly true. however, as for the comment about genius (however it is spelled), you hit it on the head. as laborous and tedious the book itself is (like reading geneology – which is ok, if that’s your thing) told a story a great story, actually a sci-fi (and perhaps fantastical) history of our world before history. before the age of man and he detailed the history of that world (time) in such a way that it reads like the bible. he was genius and this book should never have been published.
Are you saying should never have been published in the sense that in today’s world it wouldn’t get published or that Tolkien shouldn’t have bothered and should have kept all this stuff to himself?
And you’re right in that Simillarion really does have to be something you are in the mood to read, it has to be your thing, at least for the moment you are reading it, to really get into it. I am always in a LOTR frame of mind but even for me I waited until it was just the right moment and then I practically devoured the thing. I myself don’t see it as laborious or tedeous at all simply because it doesn’t read like a geneaology, it reads like history (hence my comparisons to those chapters in the Bible that only list names but make me curious vs. this which actually expounds on what many of these characters did in the time before the Third Age). I do respect however that it isn’t for everyone. I’m not sure I could get into the Histories books as I think you have to be an uber-LOTR geek AND really interested in the intricacies of Tolkien’s creative process to like those. I may give them a try in the future but I’m not sure.
Hurray for the Uberlist! Isn’t it nice during this horribly hot summer to see the progress you have made toward your goals? I am very proud of you, honey!
Just an fyi, I copied over Mysfit and my Silmarillion comments to the Silmarillion post so if anyone has any comments on those comments please go to the Silmarillion post to do so! That’s the end of this PSA.
Thanks Mary, it is nice to see progress.
One of these days I will have time for my own personal projects. I am jealous Carl. My personal projects for now are my husband and kids. The five of them keep me extremely busy! Not to mention my house which is never as clean as yours no matter how hard I try.
Unfortunately, school starts soon, but maybe that will enable me to have some time to myself this fall.
James is a piece of work alright!….oops, did I say that out loud? 😉
You may be the only parent I know that ever said “Unfortunately school starts soon”!
I have an infinite amount of school supplies to purchase along with other misc. things. I have to be ready the day after we get back from Colorado. I dread Wal-Mart’s school supply section.
I felt very nostalgic and a little envious that you’re reading LOTR. That was such a wonderful time and wonderful place to live in for awhile. I’m also sure I must have read them during cooler weather.
you copied the comments over – dammit, that means i’m going to have to read that post too…
no, you can skip it Mysfit…I give you permission! 😉
Just wanted the Tolkien comments in the Tolkien post for posterity…or for my posterior.