21 December 2002: Counting Down

Counting down to the end of the year; from here on it all piles up fast; the final ten squares of the calendar are full.  Yesterday was the end of my first year of college.  4.0 GPA so far.  New classes start in three weeks, in a new year promising to be even busier than this one.

I've let myself get out of shape in the past few months.  I'm skinny now; less muscle on me than I've had since recovering from my near-fatal bout of e. coli poisoning in late '96.  I kept myself fairly pumped up for years, because it made me feel more confident in both my safety and my physical attractiveness.  It was armor.  During the Trinity Lab, I stopped maintaining it.  And afterwards, I found that I just wasn't motivated to do so any longer, because I feel confident, safe, and attractive pretty much all the time now.  But in the new year, I'm going to get back in shape, get flexible again, and put all that muscle back on again anyway, even though I don't feel like I need it, because exercise is fun and because if I keep in shape now then I'll be less likely to fall apart when I'm dignified and old, which is something I'm planning to be someday.  It won't be armor now, it will just be more of me.

I put a couple of late nights in this week working on other parts of this site.  Most notably, there is now a new section, "Notes," for my nonfiction prose.  Five pieces up now, culled from my correspondence over the past year or so.  Most are slightly cleaned-up versions of Moot or Moot Zoo writings that have already been reprinted in this journal, although the first one, "On Aikido as Religion," is from private correspondence with Cormac and has never appeared in public before, and "On Finding Sane Lovers" has only been seen by those with the class and good sense to be members of the Moot Zoo.

Last night I went over to Stagewalker's new apartment, which he just moved into the day before and which is right across the street from Dobbs and Powerpuff's apartment, where I go many Tuesday nights to watch Buffy and to get some off-the-mat hangtime with Dobbs and Powerpuff and Foxfire.  I helped Stagewalker put together his new desk, and we caught up and reminisced and marvelled that in February we will have known each other for four years.  Then a bunch of other people showed up, and a housewarming party ensued.

Shit. I'd almost made it all the way through the year without using the word "ensue."

After I write this I'll take a shower and then go out and feast on Korean food with the Khan, Opsimath, Speaks Like Silence, Sister Sisyphus, Dragon Lady, Gemrise, and others.  Then we will all go see The Two Towers.

Tomorrow Dragon Lady flies to Dallas; I stay here and teach aikido.  Monday I go in to work take a band of the teenagers I work with to see The Two Towers.  Tuesday I fly to Dallas to join Dragon Lady.  We return on Friday night, and then next Sunday I teach my final aikido class of the year and my parents arrive.  And two days later it's the 31st, the final day of the year, and there will be the Third Annual Bone Council Brunch at my place (write if you need directions), and then the Long-Expected Party at Aleph's, and I hope I'll see you at both.