I started writing this post a few days ago.  I figure I’ll just go ahead and append on the end of it with the understanding that, perhaps, my head space is a bit different than it was when I first began this ramble.

Not only do I feel the need to break up the utter and complete monotony of posting nothing but my workouts here, I also have a compulsion to simply talk about a few things.  Get some stuff out of my head and out there in the ether as it were.  As a result this may end up being an incoherent post at times, so I apologize in advance.

During one of my walking conversations with Krystalle recently I made the realization that I have essentially transferred the time I spent playing World of Warcraft to my daily exercise routine.  When you factor in everything I’m doing I’m generally averaging about 2-3 hours a day actively exercising, and that’s pretty close to what I was devoting to WoW (if anything it’s a bit less, but I didn’t have the commute to Brandon to factor in when I was playing, either).  I’m not disturbed by this revelation, as I (obviously) don’t think it’s a bad thing.  I’m the type of person who has a tendency to focus on only a few things at a time and put a lot of effort into them, so this pretty much goes along with my personality.

I have to admit, though, that having been out of the daily MMO commitment for several months now I really have no desire to get that deeply back into it again.  I made some absolutely amazing friendships that are going to last for the rest of my life during my time playing MMORPG’s, but I should have pulled back much sooner.  World of Warcraft became a major focus of my life instead of something I did as a pastime, and that’s a problem.   Perhaps some day I’ll find a game that I find compelling enough to play that won’t require me to devote so much of my life to in order to get ahead, but currently even though I’m excited about several games that are coming out in the future I’m not sure if I’ll actually play them.

We’ll see.  Right now my focus is on my health.  I’ve made some very impressive strides in the last few months and if I keep going the way that I am I may actually hit my lifetime goal at some point instead of simply continuing to hover at this “lost a lot of weight but still obese stage.”

Finances are kicking me in the ass recently.  Yeah, I know.  Join the club, right?  My take home pay is less than it was a year ago and, due to clerical errors, about to drop some more.  Even factoring that in I don’t understand how I was getting away with having so many extra expenses last year.  MMO subscriptions, smoking, Subway once a week….I just can’t see how I was paying for it all.  Oh, well…I know how.  I was putting it on my credit cards.  I took out a debt consolidation loan and paid down several of my credit cards, but I’ve already put almost $1k back on to one of them.  The truly sad thing is that a big chunk of that came only about a week after the loan went through (hooray, car repairs).

What really stinks is that my next two checks (after the one I get tomorrow) are going to be even LESS as they take out some of the FICA taxes that haven’t been taken out so far this year.  These are my last two checks before going to Gen Con, too.  Sooo…more suck.

Once the vacations are over with I’ll be able to focus back down on the bills a bit more and get things back under control, but that’s the cause of much of my anxiety right now.  The honest truth is that if it weren’t for the fact that promises have been made in regards to those trips I’d be seriously thinking of canceling them, but I’m glad that isn’t really an option.  I NEED a vacation.  As much as I love my job and my house and my family it’s been a rough year in many ways and I need to be able to just shut everything off for a few days and relax.  I need to spend some time with my family and friends laughing and having a good time and not worrying so much about everything.

I am, however, thinking of some ways to raise extra cash.  I think this weekend I need to start going through my “stuff” again and pick back up the “let’s have a big garage sale” plan.  I’m also going to set up a profile on Elance.com and see if maybe I can get some quick coding work on the side.  Auditions are also in full swing for the Jobsite 2009-2010 season, and hopefully I’ll be able to score some work there.

It would be nice if ShrinkGeek would start making money a lot faster than it is, but that process is frustratingly slow for a bunch of different reasons.

In family news Alex’s Mother and Step-Father have officially passed the final meltdown point in their relationship and are going through a divorce.  Alex is attempting to stay neutral and not be impacted by what is going on but I can tell it’s getting to him, and rightly so.  Bill has been in his life since he was a baby, and from all indications Bill is going to leave the state once the dust settles on all of this.  I’m sure in many ways Alex feels like he’s losing a Father.  I know he’s been a little more “clingy” with me as all of this has been going on and he’s been much faster to get annoyed, upset, argumentative in the last few months.  This is very rough on him.

End of old.  Beginning of new.

So we’ve been going through a bit of redecorating at the house this last week.  J moved out and we’ve been converting his old bedroom into an office for Krystalle.  It’s been a lot of work so far just getting the room ready to be redecorated but I’ve actually enjoyed doing it.  Despite my lazy/geek tendencies I really like working with my hands.  All things being good and well in the world we’ll be putting in a wood floor this weekend, at which point all we’ll need to do to finish up is put in the trim and hang some blinds.

Oh, yeah…and move stuff in there.

You can check out the photos of our progress here.

I’m back down beneath 250 pounds again and am getting back to the point where my belly sag isn’t QUITE as noticable when I’m wearing an XL shirt.   It’s still there, obviously, but it’s definitely smaller.  This is usually the time where I start to slack off, but I just got extra motivation in the mail yesterday.  I’ll be playing Sgt. Match in What The Butler Saw, and as part of that role I will be required to strip down to my underwear in front of an audience.  I haven’t done that since my Rocky Horror days (and, to be honest, I really shouldn’t have at the time….I’m sure it wasn’t a pretty sight).  I’m under no illusions that I’ll be anything resembling attractive in that state come January, but I’ll continue doing what I can to make myself LESS round and unseemly than I am right now.

Another vacation has popped into our radar during the month of August.  My Mom is getting a condo out on Treasure Island and taking us out there for a weekend.  We haven’t done this in YEARS.  I think the last time we did so I was still married.  I suspect part of the motivation was me pointing out that at some point I’d maybe like for us to be invited along for the annual trips up North with the kids.  In all the years that she’s been taking Alex she never asked if the rest of us wanted to go.  I’m not angry about that at all.  I honestly think that my expressing a desire to do so was a bit of shocker to her.  As the black sheep of our family I don’t think it occurs to the rest of my clan that, every once in a while, I really like just hanging out with them.   This weekend on the beach is going to be a great opportunity to do so and I’m looking forward to it.

We’re also going to see VNV Nation on Friday night.  Nothing really to comment on that other than “yay.”  VNV is  a band that has consistently put on a phenomenal show and I’d pay to see them anytime.  Mind you, Krys paid for this one but the sentiment is true!

The roomie situation has changed for GenCon.  Unfortunately due to finances Ross is unable to join us this year, but my friend Random is stepping in to take his place.  She had a reservation at a hotel near the airport in Indy that she’s going to cancel.  On Saturday her husband John is coming up and he’ll stay with us that night, too.  Should be fun.  Only three weeks from today!  Whoo!

Other than that?  Work has been crazy busy.  In fact, I have to cut this short to go to a budget meeting.  I miss the good old days when my budgets were small.  Proposing a budget for several hundred thousand dollars gives me hives.

Perhaps more later!