So my mac is still in the shop, waiting on a screen that is backordered. I'm currently on line intermittent between work and requesting "qualitiy time" on guru's laptop. Shesh. I decided not to drag my computer out of the store after the first week since I was out of town until Friday. There was a distinct possibility I would get charged for the screen if I couldn't produce the laptop within two days of the part coming. Figured it was not worth worrying about.

Which ended up being the case. I got off to FL with ipod in pocket and really enjoyed the trip. If you haven't gotten a mp3 player of some kind, I highly recommend it. I had about 145 songs to flip through and was quite pleased. I was able to drown out and block most attempts at plane conversation on my two jumps down and two jumps back north. It will be hard to travel with guru again, since it is technically his toy/present.

I spent my 30th birthday flying and having a quiet dinner with my parents and my 90-year old grandma. At the time I traveled those days becuase it happen to be their spring break and my routine was already disrupted with other obligations, what was one more? Family visit was good. Got presents out of the way within the first half hour. Also got our first go around about acme as well. That actually went pretty well. I'm hopeful.

The week was quiet. The trip back was quiet. I walked right back into rehearsal # 1 for a high school muiscal I'm playing pit for. Boy. Been a while since I played for that long. Today my back is a bit stiff. But it did illustrate a good point. A few weekends ago someone brought up the point that you need to be subtracting from your life as much as you add. I'm chronically burning the candle at both ends. So much so that I end up with days like this where I drop planned commitments out of sheer procrastination. Just can't *do* anything else. Today I was thinking that I need to probably subtract about 3 things to get to "equal" again and then work to *not* add. I've cleared my schedule before - but usually just long enough. Like a credit card. I'm good at not spending for like 3 months, and then I start wracking up small purchases of time. Eventually I'm carrying a balance again. I think that's why I'm not hopping up and down when new opportunities come up. I'm usually an emphatic "no" followed by a lingering "but maybe" and eventually sequing into "ok how do we solve this problem?" which enevitablly leads to "yes of course." Hrm. Back to the addition problem.

While all this stuff has been rolling around in my brain, I've been re-reading a Bujold book - Cordelia's Honor - and reading for the first time a new Shinn book - Angelica. The latter was getting interesting as I ran out of time to read it at my folks place. The former I finished last night. Though Bujold has not had great books all the time, Barrayar (second book in this two book set) is I think one of her better books. I think the book is great to read, because 1.) it's a whole cloth story -the story arc is ever present; and 2.) the book is her expression about her personal expereince - in this particular book, motherhood. And its not even the usually sappy-crap about motherhood. It's about the sacrifices and the challenges and the changes. I think it is a good book because it really does a work over of her personal truth. I wish I could write. I wish I could write because there are so many bad books out there that don't have this simple focus of truth and honesty. It's not the best book in the world, but if I were to write, I would want to tackle something in this manner.

But I don't write. I draw. Or at least, I can draw. I haven't in awhile. I am trying to decide if its something I want to make space for. Because I'm out of candle again.