My Year of Meaningful (2011)

...but I could do with a little more cheese.  Seriously, what is making this all worth it?  Another Masters degree? Even MORE projects at work?  Hiring yet another person who I'M going to have to manage? Getting so busy that we don't even take holidays anymore?  Ugh, fer cryin' out loud.  Ugh.

I am so busy at the moment that I'm starting to get headaches and random spells of the blues, AND waves of narcolepsy, and just all around discontentment.  Luckily I am married to Super Unbelievably Fantastic Man who is currently on the up-and-up and has boundless energy and the ability to pick up my slack where I'm leaving it, AND give me big cuddles and the whole "It'll All Work Out" speech when I need it, to bring me coffee when I have to wake up at the buttass crack of dawn to study, or to say "let's have a glass of wine!" at night when I'm about to throw the baby in the bin.... and I just love him to bits and pieces.  ~sigh~  Cue "You're Keeping me Alive":

They say that love was a thing of the past
That these days nothing ever lasts
This whole world is movin' too fast

Well sometimes, we ride around
She plays the radio up load
If I was sad, well I'm happy now

And it feels so good to know
I got you where you belong
Here in my heart
Right by my side
Honey you're gettin' me by
Yeah you're keepin' me alive

I got a job, I work hard
These days money don't go very far
It's hard enough keepin' gas in the car

But sometimes, we ride around
She plays the radio up load
If I was sad, well I'm happy now

Yeah and it feels so good to know
I got you where you belong
Here in my heart
Right by my side
Honey you're gettin' me by
Yeah you're keepin' me alive

Is it just me, or is there a Tom Petty song for everything?  Honestly after watching that Bogdanovich documentary on TP & the HBs (Runnin' Down a Dream), I am indeed in agreement with (whoever it was) that said in the interviews segment that he is a very underappreciated poet as well as rock n roll star.  Rarely is any word in any lyric in any song of is superfulous or gratuitous.  Kind of like Mike Campbell's guitar playing, in fact,  like Guitar World said about Mike, "there are only a handful of guitarists who can claim to have never wasted a note. Mike Campbell is certainly one of them" well it just goes to explain what a perfect match those two are for each other then because I reckon Tom has never wastes words.  His songs are just simple and yet dense at the same time.  Anyway, I've been obsessing over this fantastic 4-hour documentary, like I said.  I have even been emotionally drained wondering about and mourning the breakup of his 22-year marriage (which happened over 10 years ago, by the way, so is completely a moot point).  I mean who sticks out 22 years of marriage and an arson attack and the 70s and 2 kids and Hollywood and endless touring and what-what-what, and then calls it all off after 2 decades?  What could've happened?  I hate that there's no information about that out there.  Hell in the world of Google and shit there should sure as there's feathers on a chicken be SOME kinda story or tell-all out there, but there's not!  All I know now is that he's married to some pretty young chick who no one knows the age of (she looks 30) who he met at one of his shows. And Little Richard married them.  Whatever.  22 years, man.... WTF!?
 
So yes, anyway, back to the problem.  I missed the deadline for the draft of this assignment I have to write, and luckily my tutor gave me a 10-day extention, so I've gotta seriously get on that crap this weekend.  But of course that means that this weekend is gonna be hella damn busy, which is a good thing... lots of fun shyte to do which takes the edge off my current belief that i'm living in a dead-end cow town with no fun people or fun things to do unless you LEAVE and spend a bunch of money getting OUT of here.   This weekend will be a bday party for the Swedes little kid, plus the Animal Peeps walk-a-thon, plus GREEK NIGHT!!!!!  plus the Hash, and so on and so forth.  But then plus... studying.  and plus.... trying to finish that &%$* newsletter. 
 
OK so we've established I'm too busy.  So what to do about it?  Ohhhh ummmmm how about.... signing up for ANOTHER thing!??  Of course!  But what else would I expect from myself!!!  Naturally I have just agreed to start a Mindfulness Course at the yoga center - I know, I know, I know.  WTF.  But I believe I'm doing it for my own good.  My mind is starting to get so cluttered that even when I'm ACTUALLY doing meditation I'm porking it all up with brain chatter, aggro, pissyness, and mental poop.  So this is just a short 8-week course on Thursday evenings which is going to transform the way I'm living because I will be able to refine my ability to ground myself in the present.  And the present is our only reality, which I need to accept... it isn't this coming Christmas break, it isn't my next holiday to the USA, it isn't finishing this damn project that I hate or putting this damn MSc to bed, or the end of the JuJu Lady's Great Teething Extravaganza. My aim is to transport mindfulness and meditation from the familiar territory of the yoga class or the once-a-blue-moon tranquility time where everything is zen and blissfully perfect - into the nitty-gritty drama of my everyday chaotic wayward affairs.  Specifically my increased potential for shouting, road rage, and poor sleeping habits, which have proven to be directly proportional to my stress levels.  In a nutshell, I'm going to beat this thing by adding something else to the mix.  Come back to me in 8 weeks and we'll talk.

OH and the youngling's passport is getting done this week!  PRAISE THE LORD!  I feel a re-enactment of Dr. Evil's version of the Macarena coming on...