from the anchor (II)

I'm at The Anchor on a rainy day, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. The last few days have been spent studying life in New England during the 1600s, and as thrilling as that might be, I have to keep myself from "leaping ahead." Nevertheless, I've spent a considerable amount of time rereading essays and articles on the causes leading up to the American Revolution. That's the stuff that gets my pulse quickening, and it's more of an incentive to buckle down and stay the course: by the end of February it should be time to delve into the events between 1763 and 1775, fleshing them out with all their intricate details. It'll be on par with dissecting some beast you've known but want to know more intimately; books be the carcass, and my mind the scalpel.

I talked over my new proposed Master's route with my parents and sister, and they all think it's a better way to go. Mom works at a school and pointed out one of the teachers who did exactly what I'm doing. It worked out well for him, why not give it a shot? My eye is currently on Liberty University: a two-year online program, and I've got my Master's and a teacher's certificate at the end of it. I'm hoping 2013 is a year of change, a year of movement, a break from the stagnation and a foot--more like a stomp--forward.

On that note, Amos and I are attempting the whole "quitting smoking" thing again. Amos and I talked about the difficulty of quitting smoking while, ironically, smoking cigarettes in the early morning chill outside 600 Vine. I've smoked for so many years that I can't imagine life without smoking. Sure, the vast majority of my life was lived absent cigarettes: but those days are all but dead and gone, if not surviving only in memory, and quitting smoking is essentially like relearning life. There's a kick-ass website out there, I forget the name, but it's all about that: relearning life in a non-smoking world. It sounds ridiculous to those who don't smoke, but the barrier seems insurmountable. Thankfully I've known several people who've smoked as much if not more than I have, and who quit cold turkey and survived, emerging through the addictive hellhole out onto the other shore. Tomorrow--Monday--is my first day "absent cigarettes," and I've got a regimen of fake cigarettes and nicorette to keep me plowing along in the hardest moments. May my spine be strengthened and my resolve cemented!

As a reward to myself, the money saved not buying cigarettes goes to the purchase of books. Ams said the money should go to savings, and it should; but what kind of incentive is that? 

It's almost 6:00 and I'm going to head over to the Loth House to see John, Brandy, and Amos for a little bit. The rest of my night will hopefully involve a McFlurry from McDonald's and lots of The West Wing.