Firstly, I'm generally not one to share the negative aspects of my life, or the tough times. Especially not over social media. Which is actually a pet peeve of mine. We've all seen people post public status updates that are obviously emotional arrows aimed at one person in particular. That is what I consider the worst kind of “dirty laundry.” What's dirty laundry? It's the aspects of your life that are best kept private between you and the target of your “arrow,” it does no one else any good to see them or hear about them.
Oh, I've been tempted this month. And I think I did make a couple emo posts, that I tried really hard to resist—and failed. But I worked hard to keep them as generic and unspecific as possible. But trust me, I kept from posting a lot more, LOL.
But that being said, I do still feel like I owe you some small explanation. Some way to share some things without giving any specific details. So that's what I'll try to do, and then get on to the specifics of the good things that happened this month—such as I can remember them.
Long story short, my personal life was rocked in two different areas. As I said, no specifics about any persons, or the types situations. The first area was from an area of neglect, and not wanting to rock the boat. Basically there were some problems that were a long time brewing. But working on them was put off, and put off... and put off. Simply because it was easier for everyone involved to focus on all the good things instead of the bad. Unfortunately that was no longer enough. Things have gotten rougher over the last three months, and really came to a head mid-December. I don't know how things will turn out here, but I have cautious hope, and see some progress being made.
The other area is a much shorter time frame. The situation had no issues, quite the contrary, and was a very positive aspect of my life. Unfortunately is proving not to last, and I was caught quite off-guard. I don't think things here will work out as I want, but I have a fools hope.
Had it just been one or the other, I think I would have done as best I could. Unfortunately with both seeming to fall on me at the same time, the first half of this month was an extremely difficult time for me. I was able to reach out to a few close friends, and get support. And I'm feeling much better now. The problems haven't gone away or been fixed, but I'm in a much better emotional state about them. “The Shape I'm In” has pretty much become my un-official theme song this month. The lyrics don't match me, but the refrain of melancholy hopefulness does.
So I'm choosing to focus on me as much as possible. I'm moving my diet to as close to paleo as I can. For those who don't know the paleo diet is basically modeling your diet off what we believe paleolithic man would have eaten. Hungers and gatherers. Which means no processed foods (bread, crackers, pasta, etc), no dairy. I'm not going strict, just trying to get close. I'll still eat some farmed vegetables (beans, corn, etc), but I try to avoid ones like potatoes.
Also, I've started back up with guitar lessons. I picked up a guitar about four years ago, and took lessons two years ago for a month or two. Then the hours were cut back at work, so discretionary spending like that went by the wayside. It was then that I learned that I did not yet know enough to teach myself. So I didn't really get anywhere. But now I've started back up, and I'm really enjoying it. Not anywhere near good at anything yet, but it's fun. And I hope to have a few songs within a month or two.
Also the CrossFit games are starting up in March. They've changed the format this year for the first round. One workout will be posted each week for six weeks. You simply need to do each workout at your gym and submit video of it. So I'm looking forward to this. My only concern is some nagging soreness in my rotator cuffs that I've had for a while now. Yeah, yeah, I should get them looked at. :: sheepish grin ::
So, what did I do in January?
Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid. We rang the New Years in at my house with a small crew. Amy, Jeff, Heather, Jessica, Chaz, Greta, Chelsea, and Megan. Who'd have thought so much fun could be had with a Spartan helmet and raspberry schnapps? And of course the next morning we had to start the New Years off right with mimosas.
Only other big thing was a mutual friend of Brennan and mine, Ben was in town. He just got back from being deployed in the sandbox. He had about a month in town before being stationed in Kentucky. So we hung out a lot. Hit the Common Market—of course—had a few parties. Even celebrated his birthday one night.
So What About Tortugas?
Well, things look very hopeful this year. I don't know if we have any contracts signed yet for the Blue Team, but I know we have a lot of festivals that we're talking to. Crossing my fingers that we'll be back out there again soon.
To be fair, Jon and Jimmae have already been “out there.” They performed, along with Jef, at the Florida Renaissane Festival. Did you hear that? Florida! In January! Lucky bastards.
I know that Jon is leaving this week to head out to Arizona. He's going to be working as a boothie, so I wish him safe travels, and I can't wait to see him again soon.
Well, that's about it. I hope you can forgive my cryptic description above. So tough trying to balance privacy, openness, access, and appropriateness. I hope I hit the right tone and message.
Take care, and be safe.
