Sunday, August 2, 2015

Moving Forward: An Erstwhile Life Update

Meet "Jane".
I've been taking the last month to adjust to a new living situation. This might seem as a cop-out for not writing (which, to be fair, it is), but I've been readjusting a life that's completely shifted in several ways from what it was before. For example, it's now twice as far to my grocery store of choice as it was before, which makes for a longer and more comprehensive grocery trip when I take it. This is also impacted by the fact that I have no roommate to pick up groceries that are shared/communal...nor are there any shared/communal groceries. If I want food, I have to get it for myself.

Again, none of this is particularly new or life changing in and of itself, but there's a whole bunch of little things that have rocked my tiny world sphere:

- I have been living without Internet for the past month. This is in part because I'm still slightly recovering from six months of under-employment, but it's also a lifestyle choice. Without Internet, I've been forced to read more, to watch more of the hundreds of DVDs I own, and to go out and explore, live life, and discover new things about the area. That being said, when I want to check the Web beyond the means of my smartphone, I need to venture elsewhere. The good news is that there's an abundance of coffee shops nearby, and iced coffee is still relatively cheap.

- I'm removed from my usual haunts. This might not be such a bad thing - I don't really feel the need to go hang out at places like Murphy's or the Holiday Club like I used to, and literally removing myself from them being next door makes it far less likely for me to just hop over if I'm bored. This alternately saves me money and frees up more time for reading/writing/watching movies and shows I've been meaning to catch up on.

- I'm now realizing that if my apartment is a mess, it is completely my own fault. Again, this is an extrapolation of something I discovered before when living in my own apartment, but it's like I'm relearning what that means now that I'm living in a studio apartment.

- No Central Air/AC makes for a jolting experience during heat waves. Winter is a distant memory. My pile of blankets has apparently been all for naught. Send fans, quickly.

- I'm closer to the Halsted bus, which drops me right outside of my workplace. This isn't really a big change for getting to and from work, except that leaving work can now become a crowded situation. Planning accordingly is of higher importance. Also, it's harder to read on the way home, and the trip to work is short enough that we're only talking about a few pages at a time. Again, not complaining about how easy it is to get to and from work, but it's a change nonetheless.

So that's a bunch of small changes that add up to a new way of living in the day to day. Which has made it a bit harder to feel the urge to sit down and write out something new. However, after a month of living in minuscule upheaval, I'm feeling better about where I'm at, and am ready to get back to doing what I wanted to do in the first place - which is write.

Of course, some other updates were needed. I'm happy to say that I'm writing from a new laptop. For the longest time, I was picking up refurbished computers from Micro Center. There's nothing wrong with that, but older computers tend to run...well, slowly. They also tend to weigh a ton, which is muey no bueno when you're walking all over the city. The Old Lappy had also started to run at a snail's pace, which is frustrating when you're trying to get things done in a multi-tasking sense. So it was time for a new computer.

This would normally be hard, as I've been, well, broke for a while. Fortunately, the funds from my dear departed Uncle Jerry's will continue to produce dividends - this time in the form of an unexpected distribution. He was a strange man, and ultimately a very lonely person, but the money he left for me, my brother, and my cousins has helped me out enormously in the past year. It's been able to pay off my student loans completely, pay down my other debt (damn you credit cards), and to refurbish several aspects of my life - specifically allowing me to quit working at the restaurant, a job that was swiftly sucking all of the joy from my life. This time around, I deposited a great portion of this distribution into my savings account (more on that to come), and then paid down over 50% of the debt I racked up during my aforementioned under-employment.

From there, I narrowed down my needs to three specific things that were luxury purchases: a new dresser, something I've wanted for a while and will need for my new place; a new guitar, something I've been dreaming of getting since I moved back; and a new lappy. I was tempted to just go on a buying splurge at Reckless Records or Unabridged Books, but as I've grown older, I've learned some manner of restraint, and was able to stick to the mantra of getting things that I've wanted for a long while but have until now been unable to afford.

The dresser will come from IKEA sometime in the near future - not too worried about it, as the money exists, and the dressers there aren't going anywhere anytime soon. The guitar came from Guitar Center (just down the street!). She's an electric acoustic guitar with a beautiful blue finish and a nice, mellow tenor sound. As "Jane" by the Barenaked Ladies was playing when I purchased her, giving her a name was easy. You can see her at the top of this blog post. The lappy came at Best Buy, and has been everything I've needed and more. I splurged a little bit here because instead of going with the refurbished junk computers I'd been doing, I wanted a laptop that would last this time. The extra terabyte of hard drive space, the processing speed, and the capabilities on this laptop have impressed me greatly - for the time being, my yelling and shaking my fists in frustration are a thing of the past.

So that's my life to date. I'm starting work on the sixth draft of "The Woodsman" now, finally taking the feedback from the terrific staged reading a month ago and applying it. Each time I finish a draft, I feel good about what I've done, and I'm incredibly excited to start this next read - the feedback was straight, honest, and provided constructive criticisms that I think I can utilize to make this an even stronger piece than it was before.

In addition, I'm starting to take baby steps towards starting work on a new play. The recent controversy regarding the death of Cecil the Lion seems to directly feed into an idea about poaching that I've been turning over in my head for eight months now, and may have provided the spark I need to churn out a first draft of a new play. It might even be topical! Who knows?

For now, though, I'm enjoying life. I've joined a work softball team (which is alternately good and bad), and I'm currently 6-9 with a couple of RBIs, some runs, and a solid double to my credit. (I'm a slap hitter as ever, and feel no shame in hitting like Ichiro. At least, I tell myself that in my head.)

I've got enough things to keep me busy around town, and do not want for things to do. There's always ways that life could be better, but then again, there's always ways that life could be worse. For now, I'm just going to sit back, write some stuff, and maybe play a song or two with Jane as accompaniment. It's a beautiful day outside, not too hot, and there is plenty to see and do.

More iced coffee, please.