June Becomes July

I find myself introspectively wandering over my thoughts this evening.... yeah, I know: pretentious and sickening, but if this whole blog started out as a writing exercise to get me actually writing again, sometimes you gotta let the self-indulgent nonsense rear it's head.

What that all is supposed to mean is just that I have a lot of things on my mind these days.

(1) My Adopted Little Sister is staying put. Sort of. I still have to give her up in some ways, but in more important ways I won't have to. And I say more important because these ways have more to do with her than with me. In case I'm not being cryptic enough. But things are as good as they could be for the time being, so we're all happy for the resolution she wound up with.

(2) I saw online today that the mighty Dream Theater's new album, "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" -- you may have read a mention or two on here -- became something of a career landmark for the band. The album debuted on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart at #6, marking the first time the band has ever had an album in the top 10. I could not be happier about it. Nice going, America. Good to see you're starting to catch up to me.

(3) I've seen my nephews quite a bit in the past week, with even more time promised with the upcoming holiday weekend. This is a good thing. Nephew #1 and his pal from down the street are fun to spend time or have dinner with -- friend from down the street seems to be a frequent dinner guest at my sister's, which makes me happy to see. Nephew #2 loves his pool so much he spent an hour swimming in it by himself while I sat nearby reading a book, and has his own good pal from a couple neighborhoods over, who lives within biking distance. He also had quite a ball game not long ago, making a good out, pitching a decent inning, and almost knocking one hard into the outfield... if only that kid on the black team hadn't been lucky and caught him out. Nephew #3 really seems to be outgrowing his grouchy years, mostly, and has his own NBF (Neighborhood Best Friend) from right across the street. With my sister engaged and happy, and all of the boys doing well, it just gives me some peace. At times I honestly feel like their collective happiness is more important to me than my own would be.

(4) I feel kind of cut off from SuperKyle, but I know from experience on the other side not to try and wedge myself in to what's going on any more than what I'm asked. It's about him and his family now. Not me.

(5) I'm enjoying the relaxation and peace and openness of the summer so far much more than I usually do, and it's making me lackadaisical about my days, which is a nice change. I haven't done much real writing since it's so easy to just let the summertime soak in, but I think I have finally found the project that I feel strongly enough about to work out. Today being July 1, I'm going to try hard to have some real progress behind it before August.

(6) I signed up for this year's Lazy Man Triathalon at the Y yesterday. It's a real triathalon in terms of activity and distance, the difference being that you get five weeks to complete everything. And I plan to!

(7) That summertime to-do list that always creates itself? It's starting to nudge at my peace...

Album of the Day, and this is kind of out of nowhere but also completely appropriate: the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Out of nowhere because it's orchestrated music compared to my usual rocking out. Appropriate because it just really fit the calm I'm living inside of today.