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Merry Monday: This Relaxation Thang

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignright" width="300"]Image created using Bit Strips. Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption]

It's weird "relaxing". I'm interspersing it with getting things done around the house.

I've hung a bunch of things on my walls such as art, medals, and diplomas. I've learned not to trust any "damage less" hanging things. Everything I've hung up lately in that way fell off the walls on Saturday. It was really annoying. I felt like everything I had worked on had been pointless, but I switched to nails to fix it for good. Really, nails don't make large holes anyway. I've done almost all of my laundry and I'm working through the dishes.  I've planted peas, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, scallions, flowers, kale, dill, and basil. I've organized my guitar sheet music.

I've played hard too. I watched the Martian and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, it was the first new movie in a very long time that I wished hadn't ended. Conversely, I also watched the new Captain America and was bored and disappointed by what has been done to the character. I'm catching up on Bates Motel. Norman has finally cracked and I'm wondering when the next season will come to Netflix Canada. I've also been playing a variety of video games. The list includes Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360), Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3), and Final Fantasy X HD Remaster (PS3). I've enjoyed playing Uncharted the most. I'm not generally a first person shooter gamer. Indeed, I often prefer games like Mario, Lego Harry Potter, Little Big Planet, etc. Uncharted has a good amount of non-shooting play time and a great story that has me coming back to it. Confession: I actually like shooting games; I'm just terrible at aiming with a thumbstick. Take me back to the days of Duck Hunt and Virtua Cop where it was a gun pointed at the screen.

I've played guitar nearly every day. I'm going to start playing along with videos to ensure I can play what's already in my repertoire at the proper speed. I want to get an amp for my guitar and a case. The case I need before winter, so I can store it properly with a humidifier to prevent neck twist. I'm getting better at techniques like pull-ons and hammer-ons. They're fun.

I'm also working on my French learning again. I will speak that language. I'm more stubborn than it is difficult! I have too many French family members to give up. I've told myself that I need to remember I wasn't born speaking English fluently either.

On Sunday, my sensei pulled off a delicious BBQ despite the nobs melting off his BBQ. We cut mats (tameshigiri) with live bladed swords. I will remember to take my socks off in the future as they didn't provide me with the best footing on hardwood floors. That sword was either much lighter than those used in previous years, or I'm stronger than I used to be. I hit the floor once with it. I need to get better at stopping the blade.

I learned that while I seem to be able to eat most gluten-free foods OK now, cider is not my friend. I'm still ridding myself of a headache that drinking it brought on. Oh well, I'll just stick to vodka.

I'm already feeling the pull to work on my other novels. This relaxation thing seems to be hard for me. I'm spending a lot of time knocking other things off my to-do list. I suppose it's because I'm my father's daughter.

31 days to go.

Ciao,
R~

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