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Friday, November 10, 2006

Are You There Blog? It's Me, swiley

I could, as I seem to always do, start by go into unnecessary apology-for-not-posting mode. But not this time.

I just want to check in, and explain a little. Because I always feel as though I have to make excuses for myself in front of my extended family - they care, and thankfully never (or at least rarely) make me feel ashamed, but I feel awkward talking about some things. I'm just at a loss for words why I seem to be ignoring their advice.

They think I should go on to grad school, and find hobbies. I agree, I should. I even think I ought to try to work another job to help me save up. But there's just no room in my life for all that right now. Will there ever be?

Here's a breakdown of my day (which should explain the tumbleweeds rolling by on this blog):

6:00 ~ 6:30 a.m. Wake up, etc.
6:30 ~ 7:00 a.m. Arrive at work (a blissfully brief commute, I must admit)
I work 8.5 hours, often a bit more if required
So I usually get back home around 4:00 or 4:30. So that leaves plenty of time for night classes, hobbies and stuff, right? Maybe a little blogging?

Well, since this past summer and until the next, my girlfriend Nicole and I have been saddled with (look, a pun!) the responsibilty of taking care of (grooming, riding, photographing, etc.) her sister's two horses while she's away at school. We are also in the midst of training Nicole's two-year old horse, which is possibly even more important.

So I guess that's my hobby, or call it a second job, if you will.

Usually we get back to Nicole’s house by 7:00 or 8:00. At least we get to spend a fun evening together – we have some time to look at photos we took, watch a DVD, and read (I know my description of “fun” might sound boring to most, but it’s Nicole who really matters to me, and I just try to enjoy what we have.) And eat dinner... most days.

I stay until Nicole’s asleep (I try my best to help her relax and rest) or 11:30, whichever’s sooner. Home by midnight, I try to hit the sack as soon as I can so I can get some sleep before the whole thing repeats in 6 hours or so.

It took a few weeks of this schedule, for me at least, to adjust to it, and accept it, really. But I think I speak for both of us in saying that day-in, day-out, it can be rather exhausting. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for Nicole, who has a demanding job of her own and has to do the real work at the barn (she also teaches three hours of lessons on Saturday, and another one on Monday). I just want to do my best to assist in these hard days, really looking forward to a time when we can more regularly choose how we want to spend our time. I just hope we can stay with it until then.

posted by Steve 11/10/2006 12:23:00 PM

1 comments

1 Comments:

Come back SWiley's Blog! Brooks Xmas Radio will be returning soon and we need your support! By the way, do you remember if I started that in 2001 or 2002? I tried checking your blog archives but they only go back to 2002. Archive.org wasn't of much help either. I can track it back to 2002 so I think thats when it was but I feel like maybe I did start in 2001. Oh well.

By Anonymous, at November 21, 2006 1:32 AM