hmm, it's been over a week since i wrote in here. a lot has happened, but i haven't felt too much like typing things out. in this time of year, with dark, cold weather, i seem to have a natural urge to rest and not do too much beyond what feels necessary. so i haven't been sharing much online or in general. i normally do those things a bit more frequently (making blog posts and newsletters and the like), but i'm trying to give myself a break and not feel pressured.
this journal isn't a place where i really feel pressure to write, but writing in here is like, an artifact of me mentally processing things. and weirdly right now i haven't felt like taking a ton of time to process. but it doesn't feel like things are pent up or building up. things just happen and they seem to leave less of a trace afterwards sometimes. i actually stopped journaling for a long time at one point because of this. anyway, i'm not abandoning this journal; i know it will still be here when i feel the need to write more again.
anyway, here are some updates on current events in my life. soon after my last entry, i picked up andrei from the airport and we went to a szechuan restaurant and then went to two different specialty grocery stores. one of them was a chinese grocery store and one was eastern european. we got a bunch of stuff for the house, including bulk goods and seasonings. i found a really good relaxing tea blend that claims to be "hypnotic." (i assume that they meant it makes you sleepy.)
last week, i got back into the swing of work post-thanksgiving-break, and managed to start getting to bed earlier again, and also went back to the gym for the first time since then. i've stopped doing the work trade at the yoga studio and started doing the free yoga class at the community center where my gym is. the quality of teaching isn't the same as it was at a dedicated studio, which is to be expected, but it is a much better option for right now when i'm not able to commit to the volunteer work each week. anyway, the sleep and exercise together resulted in me feeling good for most of the week. aside from a random episode of stomach cramps on thursday night, which i couldn't pinpoint the cause of.
on friday, andrei and i did some errands together. we went to my eye doctor and i picked up my glasses, which had been re-lensed with a stronger prescription. i'm still getting used to them; my vision is sharper, but the amount of difference between each eye is a bit disorienting. it's been less than a week, and i'm adapting more over time, so hopefully i'll be able to adjust to them, and start using my right eye slightly more.
over the weekend, i did a bunch of house chores, played video games, and worked on a new piece of furniture for the living room (a baltic birch plywood cabinet with a dual purpose of redirecting the hot air from the vent so it doesn't blow directly at the heads of people sitting on the couch). i glued and assembled it with screws over the weekend, and then applied water-based polyurethane on monday morning so it could dry while i was at work.
yesterday was tuesday, and we did a visiting artist workshop for our friend anna's video performance class at hamilton college in upstate new york. we had to leave at 7am to get there to set things up, since it was over 4 hours away, so it was a long day. she also asked me to talk to the students about the fediverse, personal websites, and decentralized platforms in general. some of the students were very tired from studying for their finals, but they still seemed to enjoy exploring the analog video equipment we set up. in the evening, we went out to dinner with anna and jason, another friend who teaches russian at hamilton.
so this morning, we set out on the long drive home, which was delayed and slowed by a veritable blizzard. after taking refuge for a while in crazy otto's diner in herkimer, ny, we slowly made our way east, towards the coast and away from the weather systems of the great lakes, until the roads cleared up enough that we could drive at a normal speed again. now we are about an hour away from home, and i'm looking forward to that.
so, that's it for now. more... later? i'm not sure when, but as i alluded to at the beginning of this post, i might take a bit of a break from more regular updates.
