Two Hour Window

As some of you know, I took last week off of work. Going into work today was met with a deep-rooted, gnawing dread that was completely justified as it turns out...

And as all of you, when I take a week off I tend to set some lofty goals for myself which I never seem to be able to accomplish. Notice I didn't do that this time around. The only goal I set for myself was to think a bit about life the universe and everything.

A good portion of the week was spent with Laroo, and that's always good. I managed to meet some of her family and made a good impression, some of her co-workers (and likewise) and actually helped her in her dramatic endeavors. That didn't turn out so well but I blame false advertising on that. Anyone want ten walkie-talkies cheap?

There were a couple of job interviews. Well maybe "interview" is too strong a word. One was a "getting to know you" session with a recruiter (which went well) and one was a recruitment for an RRSP pyramid scheme (which went well considering the pretenses I was offered and there was not a lot of blood shed afterwards).

Add a "boys night out" with the bros as we re-lived our violent childhood by playing board games; accusing each other at cheating, rules lawyering and all around poor sportsmanship, more time with Laroo, another interview for the writing group and various trips to the airport, it sums up to a busy week.

But I did engage the brain. What I engaged it with was some thought on routine.

I am very much a routine kinda guy. But getting into that routine takes some effort as I am also a lazy kinda guy. Two things I need to get into a routine: working out and writing. And they both take a considerable amount a of time given my schedule.

Consider: on a good day I get home at 5:30 PM (today, not so much....). After whatever I call dinner and the cleanup it's about 6:30 or 7. Which leaves me about 2 hours of energy left before I spend the night listening the elephant stomping around upstairs (not as much metaphor there as you think or as I wish).

The gym is two hours fifteen minutes from out the door to back at home.

The goal is to write 1000 words a day. Which takes me about two hours. And also scares the hell out of me.

So I can't do both. Not every day (maybe on weekends, but from now until April 1, all my weeks are belong to Laroo).

So I'm going for either/or. Either I go to the gym and do a full work out or I write or do writing-related stuff for two hours. Yes, I will include this blog (practice) and the writing blog (more practice). I'm also including reading about writing as that's educational and if it's all like Stephen King's "On Writing" it's also a treat.

How many words is that? 511... Okay back to Mr. King! 517...