The Shape is in a Trance

Man, this week flew by. I got back into a regular running routine, doing three 5-milers. I also played hockey Wednesday night for the first time in three weeks. Unfortunately, it was also game 1 of the World Series, so most of the guys stayed home. We ended up with four-on-four with no subs the whole night; I was dying out there. Good skate, though. I had a goal and four assists, although I think I had six or seven breakaways that were foiled.

Yesterday, my company held its annual Halloween event for employees' kids, so the girls were able to break out their costumes early and brought home a ton of candy. I believe for the first time in the 10 years or so that I've been there, I didn't wear a costume. I tried to think of something at the last minute, but nothing really jumped out at me. Driving to work this morning, I decided on a whim to go cold turkey on the candy and soda for a while. I certainly picked a tough time of year to do that, especially with all the candy floating around at work and in the house today. But I managed to survive for one day, anyway.

Another crazy thing I decided to do was participate in the National Novel Writing Month, which challenges participants to write a 50,000-word novel from November 1-30. One reason it's nuts for me to attempt is that I haven't done any real fiction writing since college; another is I have hardly any time as it is to fit all my interests in. I fully expect not to get 50,000 words (the equivalent of 175 pages) done next month, but I'm gonna try, dammit. The coolest part of NaNoWriMo is it forces you to just write; the organizers really stress quantity, not quality. So we'll see what happens. I already have the bare bones of an idea that I started working up several months ago, so I'll try to set aside some time every day to plug away at it. I don't have any grand designs other than to write something; I may be the only person who ever reads it. But that's okay with me.

I added a new collection of links (La Musica de la Rock) in the righthand column for bands/artists I know and love, so check 'em out. Included is the new Myspace page I created for Bea Arthur's Revenge, a band that was formed to play a single gig at my buddy Bob's house back in early 1999. There are also links for Doobs, who recently posted some great new music he recorded on his own; The Toastmen, Briggy's old Keene State College band that has been rehearsing for a few reunion shows in the hopefully near future; Me and Boris the Bull, which is the musical alter ego of Mark Campbell; and The Molenes, my friend Andrew's excellent alt-country act out of Portsmouth. Dig it!

Fantastic Voyage

We're baaaaaaaaack. We got home about three hours ago from Florida, after our second full day of driving in a week. Needless to say, I'm friggin' exhausted. A quick recap before I go catch some well-needed Z's.

We left last Friday, hitting the road at 9 a.m. Everything went pretty smoothly until we got past DC around 6 p.m. and hit some serious bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic. It took us three hours to work our way through that mess. For some reason, every time I was behind the wheel, the conditions worsened considerably. First it was the aforementioned rush hour, then later during the overnight, it was a thunderstorm. Whatever the case, we got to the condo in Orlando at around noon after taking a break to grab some breakfast along the way. We met up with my bro-in-law Matt and his family, whose condo we were sharing and Matt's brother-in-law Mike and his family, who were staying next door. We took the kids down to one of the pools and hung out for a while. But from Sunday through Thursday, we got up early and hit a different Disney theme park: MGM, the Magic Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom and Epcot. The kids had a blast and we were wiped out by the heat and all the walking by the end of each day, but it was definitely worth it. We kept things economical by eating breakfast and dinner at the condo most days and bringing sandwiches to eat in the park, thereby avoiding the expensive food. All we paid for was parking, beverages and the occasional ice cream or popsicle. We went on some good rides: Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Expedition Everest, Runaway Train. The kids met a lot of their favorite characters and had fun just being with each other.

The weather was typical Florida: 90s and humid every day, but broken up by a thunderstorm almost every day. I got three morning runs in around the golf course at our condo (didn't play any golf, though), but nothing too strenuous. On Thursday night, Deb's mom looked after the kids while we went out with Matt and Tricia. We went to MGM for dinner and then the Boardwalk for a beer, but we were so tired we got back to the condo by 11. Friday, we took it easy in the morning and then hit some of the Disney stores in the afternoon before heading over to MGM in the late afternoon to catch a few more rides. We went to the Fantasmic show in the evening, which was a combination animation/fireworks/lightshow/character performance that we all enjoyed, although the kids were up waaaaay past their bedtimes.

Yesterday, we hit the road around 9 again and made much better time, benefiting from it not being a workday. We hit some nasty rain along the way, but for the most part it was pretty decent. We actually met up with Matt and his family on the North Carolina-Virginia border and had dinner at an Applebee's before getting back on the road again. Deb drove more this time around than the last, but I got my third wind to drive from the end of the New Jersey Turnpike to the Massachusetts border. We got home and unpacked and are in the process of unwinding, which means I've gotta go lie down right now. And then it's back to the grind tomorrow. Hooray.

P.S. Mucho congrats to my good buddy Briggy and his wife Beth, who had a baby girl named Amelia on the 29th. Amelia joins forces with the mighty Owen, who was born just after Hannah back in '02. Well done, folks!