the end of the week

The blogger website was down off-and-on for the last few days, seemingly whenever I actually wanted to post. Don't regard the lack of posts as evidence of my laziness. This will be a multi-layered post, with three parts: (a) the events of my week, (b) developing currents with the whole "girl" thing, and (c) news regarding some of my writing. If you're name is Blake, you'll probably just be interested in points (A) and (B), since you told me yourself, "I mainly just read about your daily events." So I'll go into detail just for you, Buddy.

Tuesday. Since I posted last Monday, I'm starting this off on Tuesday. I spent the morning/afternoon running a few errands, picked up some sunglasses, and played with Sky for a bit. I worked 2-9:00. Starbucks is doing their once-a-year "Frappuccino Happy Hour," which is really two hours (3-5:00) and not happy in the least (at least not for we who have to work it). It's essentially one step removed from hell (would that be purgatory)? J.J. noticed that my arms are looking bulkier. They'd better be, with all the exhausting workouts I've been doing over the past month or two. Even if it's not visible, I can tell the difference in the weights I lift. I've already increased five pounds, which is a pretty good leap forward. Next week it'll be 7 1/2 pounds since I started. Since I had to go in at 6:00 Wednesday, I went home, did some pilates, and went straight to bed.

Wednesday. Worked 6-12:00, a princess shift with a great crew. Jessica and I smoked before I headed home, and we joked about my "birthing hips", which are in actuality quite small (I'm a size 29-30, depending on the pants) but with bony "pelvic horns." I kinda feel like a pachycephalosaurus, which really isn't a bad feeling. They're bad-ass. Later in the day I hung out with Carly at her parents' house. We lounged around on the sofas for a while and then I left to enjoy Gyro Palace with the fantastic Dylan Yosick. It was a "last meal" that really isn't a "last meal," but we took pictures to make it look official. We went back to the house and we each took a shot of bourbon and sat on the front porch and smoked cigarettes. I climbed a tree and nearly fell out of it, scraping up my arm something awful. It still hurts. Here's the two of us enjoying our fantastic lamb gyros:

Thursday. After my 6:30-3:00 shift, I spent the day cleaning around the house, working out, playing with Sky. I went back to work to see Carly on her ten, and we sat on the patio and I smoked a cigarette and she drank her chai and we shared lots of laughs. I rushed home and went to bed.

Friday. Today's been pretty decent. Worked 6-2:30, then took a nap, and fixed dinner for the family. Grilled chicken sprinkled with olive oil and Italian herbs. Parmesan-encrusted roasted red potatoes (also with olive oil, along with some garlic seasoning and sea salt). I went by work to do some writing with free coffee and hung out with Carly and Mark (Abby's husband) on the patio, smoking our cigarettes and drinking our coffee. I'll miss these simple times. Storms are moving in and the temperatures are dropping. 

Okay, there's Part A. Now for Part B: developments regarding the whole "girl" situation. I've written about it on here a few times, and if you don't know about it, then scroll the fuck down and read it, because I don't want to go through it all again. There haven't really been any developments on the matter, as she's been pretty difficult to get a hold of. I don't know if she's avoiding me, feels awkward, or is just downright busy. I don't think she's ignoring me, as when I have seen her here-and-there, things have been quite friendly and good-natured. Nevertheless, the anxious little beast in my squirms for some sense of understanding, but I must be content to be left in the Void of Unknowing for the present moment. In time I'll know what's going on. Till then... Patience. Or something along those lines.

Now Part C. I've finished the first rough draft of "Re:framing Repentance." It's at 335 pages, and I've begun the tedious process of the second draft: going through it sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, page-by-page, screening the text for inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and bad grammar. The most difficult is weeding out passive voice. When writing fiction, I write almost entirely in active voice; but when writing non-fiction, some switch is flipped and everything comes out passive. It's frustrating. Nevertheless, I'm about 1/4 the way through it, and it's looking good so far. I've already gotten one person to look through the second draft (Carly, who loves editing, and gets excited whenever she can bring out that red pen), and I may be able to have my dad or Joe (an elder at Southwest) look through it, as well. I'm just going to go the self-publishing route with it, because I don't have the credentials to get it published commercially. I've already started piecing together in my mind my next "non-fiction" work, entitled "An Ecclesiasticus: the confessions of a stoic christian atheist." It should be interesting.