Daily writing? BAH!

Clearly I haven't been meeting my objective of writing daily. Some days it's a problem of finding time to write. I do have free time daily, mostly in the evenings, but I am rarely alone. Since for now I am keeping this blog completely private and not telling anyone I know about it, that makes it difficult. In addition, I don't want to write from work for the same reason - not wanting anyone to know about it. So I need to find time when I'm home alone, or at least the last one up after everyone else has gone to bed.

The quest continues.

Sunday Night Jazz

start writing stopwatch: 10:24 P.M.

I'm sitting here kind of late on a Sunday evening. I need to be in bed and trying to go to sleep, but I know it will be useless. I visited the neighborhood coffeehouse this evening and had 2 cups of coffee. In the past, this would have not caused any interruption to my schedule whatsoever. But tonight it is. I guess it's just another sign I'm getting old. Though I typically stay up later on Sunday night than Monday - Thursday night, primarily because I've caught up on my rest over the weekend, this has to have something to do with the coffee. Oh well. I'm getting in my writing exercise that I've missed the last couple of days.

I'm sitting here listening to The Dave Brubeck Quartet on my iPod while I'm writing this. Also drinking a Paulaner and completely enjoying the experience.

I was looking over the music list on my iPod today with a friend, noticing how varied it is. Some might even call it eclectic. But since there's no accounting for taste, especially in music, I'll refrain from using that word.

I have on the iPod the following (among many others):
The Beatles
Glen Miller
George Clinton & the P-Funk All-Stars
Bad Company
Foreigner (See the Urgent post below)
They Might Be Giants
Lyle Lovett
Ladysmith Black Mambazo (not the stuff with Paul Simon)
Dwight Yoakam
and so on...

I like music. I like variety. I like different music to match different moods. And for some reason, a large variety of music has caught my interest. Some may think this is weird. But I like it.

Stop writing stopwatch: 10:37 P.M.

Urgent

start writing stopwatch: 9:56 P.M.

You’re not shy, you get around
You wanna fly, don’t want your feet on the ground
You stay up, you won’t come down
You wanna live, you wanna move to the sound

Got fire in your veins
Burnin’ hot but you don’t feel the pain
Your desire is insane
You can’t stop until you do it again

But sometimes I wonder as I look in your eyes
Maybe you’re thinking of some other guy
But I know, yes I know, how to treat you right
That’s why you call me in the middle of the night

I spent some time watching the Olympics last night. It was the first time I'd spent any time watching the Olympics, other than the opening ceremony, since they started last Friday.

I was doing some stuff on my laptop while watching so I was only paying partial attention to them. There was some women's downhill skiing going on, and later on some mogul competition. The mogul competition, along with a commercial I saw during it, made me recall an experience from high school when I was on a ski trip.

Every year my high school church youth group went on a long weekend ski trip. It was great fun. I loved skiing. I wasn't great, but I wasn't bad either. I really loved the snow and the feeling of flying down the mountain.

One year I decided to step up my skiing a bit and go all the way to the top of the mountain. I had looked at the maps and had found blue trails all the way to the bottom. Blues I could handle. Blacks I wasn't ready for, but blues I could handle.

I found a couple of other guys in the youth group that wanted to go along with me. We all rode the ski lift to the top, and took off down the first trail. I was the last in the group going down, and near the end of the first trail I wiped out. I wasn't hurt or anything, but it took me a few minutes to get up and get reset and ready to go.

You say it’s urgent
So urgent, so oh oh urgent
Just wait and see
How urgent my love can be
It’s urgent

In the mean time the other guys had gone on down the hill on the next trail. As I tried to catch up I obviously missed a sign somewhere and found myself at the top of a double black diamond mogul run. Not near enough to the top to turn and avoid it. I was already part way down the trail, right at the point the moguls started.

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive. I thought about trying it but there was so much traffic on the trail I figured I'd just be in someone's way. I proceeded to remove my skis, hoist them over my shoulder, and walk down the side of the trail until I found a blue trail where I could resume my skiing down the mountain.

You play tricks on my mind
You’re everywhere but you’re so hard to find
You’re not warm or sentimental
You’re so extreme, you can be so temperamental

But I’m not looking for a love that will last
I know what I need and I need it fast
Yeah, there’s one thing in common that we both share
That’s a need for for each other anytime, anywhere

Since it had been late in the afternoon and we had caught the end of the lift line on the way up the mountain, when I finally got down everyone else was waiting for me so we could leave. When we were on the way back to the lodge in the van, a couple of the guys mentioned seeing someone that they thought looked like me walking down the mountain carrying skis. They asked if it was me. I denied it. I don't know why. I don't think there was any reason I needed to deny it. It was just a reflex reaction. I think they believed me.

It gets so urgent
So urgent
You know it’s urgent
I wanna tell you it’s the same for me
So oh oh urgent
Just you wait and see
How urgent our love can be
It’s urgent

Last night during the mogul competition there was a commercial for a cell phone and/or service provider. They showed a guy holding his phone, listening to Foreigner's song Urgent.

That song was still a hit when I took that ski trip. Or in heavy rotation, or whatever you want to call it. They were still playing it at our high school dances and still playing it on the AM radio station in my small hometown.

You say it’s urgent
Make it fast, make it urgent
Do it quick, do it urgent
Gotta rush, make it urgent
Want it quick
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
So urgent, emergency

I hadn't thought about the high school ski trip story in years. At least 10 years or more. When I saw that commercial during the Olympics it brought the trip to memory. Those trips were some of the most fun I had in high school.

stop writing stopwatch: 10:23 P.M.
I made my 10 minutes! Let's see how long this lasts.

The rumors of my death...

...have been greatly exaggerated.

[Insert obligatory self-flagellation post here about not keeping up the blog.]

I really, really, really want to improve my writing. The thing I can't seem to drill into my head is that I actually need to write in order to improve. Maybe it's sinking in now.

Over on Wil Wheaton's blog (what, you don't read Wil? I thought everyone read Wil) he discusses a daily writing exercise. Write 10 minutes a day, no matter what. I discussed a similar thing in a previous post. I guess I'm going to have to start doing that.

Be prepared for even worse crap than that which has appeared here before.