I don’t know how long I will keep this up. It’s late in the afternoon now and I have had a somewhat productive day so far. Meditation, bicycling, breakfasting, coffee making and coffee drinking, making a silly reel for instagram, picking my boy up from school, grabbing lunch at Panda Express (my only mistake of the day), listening to bizarre prog rock with my son, feeding the dog a chewy stick so she would shut up, and then settling down to compose a little daily reflection–with which, I don’t know how much longer I can keep up.
As my wife’s first piano lesson is about ready to walk through the doors, I’m thinking about taking the dog for a walk–because, otherwise, when René’s teaching piano, I have to lock myself up in the study with the dogs so that they don’t harass the students. If I have a project to work on, that’s not an issue because I can sequester with the dogs and get something done–but if I don’t, piano lesson time feels a little bit like a punishment. Sure, I could put them in the study and just close the door on them, but they whine and start pawing at the woodwork of the door frame and the door and they’ve absolutely ruined the finish by now. The big dog is whining as I type this–even after all her needs have been met (fed, treated, petted, and watered). She just lies around and whines. I keep saying, what do you want? Use your words. But she just whines. A walk will do her and me some good. Two rounds of exercise in a single day!
This morning I learned that if a reel created for Instagram is too long, you can speed it up, chipmunk style, to get it in under the allotted time. In iMovie, you can do a similar thing, but in iMovie, the pitch doesn’t shift–only the pacing. Go figure. I decided I was more amused by the chipmunk version of myself, so that’s what I posted for a little rant I was doing about the overused and meaningless phrases “I can’t even,” or “I’m so over it,” or “I’m so done.” This pet peeve of mine inspired a song, the release of which is scheduled for tomorrow, January 5th, on all the music streaming services (or most of them). If you’d like to have a listen, look for Project MA and give our songs “Hard Pill” and “Can’t Even” a stream. Just for giggles, here’s the instagram post for your amusement.
I imagine there might be more to say about this most current musical project in the days to come, so I’ll just go ahead and start gearing up for that.
Back from the dog walk, sequestered in the study, I turn back now to Ross Gay and The Book of (More) Delights to see what kind of delights might be in store for this rainy, cloudy, already dark afternoon on January 4 in the Pacific Northwest.
The fourth day without alcohol.
The first day without a nap.
I will try to check in again tomorrow, but as I’ve said . . . what did I say again?
michael jarmer 