It's been 2 weeks since I started my new job. Got my first paycheck today (most of which is already gone, go figure). We finally got our car so I don't have to necessarily walk to and from work now. Of course, go figure, one of the stipulations on getting it was that Herbgurl had to go visit her family. I wish that she could have waited till I had a day off to do it, but she's always been a spur of the moment kind of girl, so I guess it was anticipated (sort of). I still have Mark and Jess to fall back on for a ride to work and (hopefully) a co-worker to get me back home.
Now, all we have to do is get the bills under control. Not too hard and will be easier now that we have a car to get her around to fill out job applications. She's a cook, so online applications are kind of hard to do. Restaurants don't usually do that, or at least none around here anyway that we've seen. I hope that she can get something going job-wise soon. The faster she starts getting paid, the sooner we can get out form under this debt and get to the "good life". I'm not really sure what that is 100%, but it sounds good, so that's what were shooting for. Hell, I'd be happy just to be able to afford a new pair of boots and some socks that don't fall down every 15 minutes. Well, that and a bag of weed, but that's a horse of a different color...

I've noticed that time is a funny thing. Sometimes it flies by (usually when you don't want it to). Sometimes it crawls (also, usually when you don't want it to). I noticed when I walked up to my local pharmacy that the trip up there seemed to take longer than the trip back. It's the same distance both ways, so why is it that it felt longer getting there than getting back. That seems to be the way it always works for me. The return from my destination always seems to take less time than the trip to my destination...
When you're busy, time flies by. When you're bored time drags on forever. A watched pot never boils as they say. Time waits for no man. Etc, etc, etc... I'm obsessed with time and I have a habit of watching the clock on a regular basis, especially when I know that a certain time is approaching (like time for work, especially). I tend to look up at the clock every five or so minutes and I need to have a clock visible at all times (It's OCD, I know, but what can I do?). Not that time has ever really been a friend of mine, but I still have a habit of keeping track of it in detail. I can't help it.
Minutes drag, but months and years fly by. Why is that? I wish I knew.

So, I start work tonight at my new job as an overnight stocker at my local Shop N Save. Not too worried about it as this isn't the first job I've had in this arena. The thing that gets me, though, is that here I am just over 35 and working at a grocery store. I know that work is work and money is money, but it just seems a little "slacker-ish" to me. This is the kind of job that you tend to think of pimply-faced teenagers doing, not a full grown man. Maybe it's just me...
I guess I really shouldn't complain though. Finally, I'm working again and will be making that all important dollar to pay the bills with. It will be good to get those taken care of and out from over our heads (well, at least till the next month's bills get here anyway...). The only real problem is that we don't have a car right now [link] , so I have to get a ride at night from a friend of mine (no real issue there) and walk back from work in the morning (that's the part that sucks because it's a 4.5 mile walk home). I had to walk up there and back this morning to fill out all my tax paperwork and get put into the computer system. Holy crap! An 9 mile hike just to sign my name a half dozen or so times is bullshit. Hopefully we get our "new" car soon and it won't be an issue. Until then, I'll just grin and bear it. Ultimately, I'm happy about it all and refuse to complain about the small stuff too much. I guess, if nothing else, the walk will do me good. Exercise is a good thing, isn't it? Sucks having to walk that far after an 8 hour shift, but luckily the work won't be too hard and the walk will make for a good excuse to go to bed once I get home. Oh well, life continues and struggle and sacrifice is a big part of life, so I'll do it all with a smile on my face.

I have recently gotten (back) into coloring. Not that I'm using crayons. Shit, I don't even own so much as the crappy 4 pack of red, green, blue, and yellow that they hand out to unruly children at Denny's with those damned crappy placemats. No, I color my pictures digitally, in Photoshop. Some of the pictures I've been coloring I found here on dA (like this -----> [link] ) and others came from somewhere else (like this -----> [link] ), but they've all been fun to do. It brings back a certain wonder that I haven't felt since I was 5. Amazing how that simplest level of creativity can make you feel that good, even if it's just a guily pleasuer and you don't want anyone to know that you still get joy from something that mostly kindergarteners do. Personally, I don't care. I'm immature enough to enjoy it and mature enough to admit it.
I'll be posting more as I get them done. Hopefully the people who create the ones I find here will be more than happy to let me post them up here for all to see, but you know how that can go...

I am getting to be a fan of various forms of wordplay... I have always been a fan of words and the power that lies within them, but recently I have discovered a few new games I can play with my words. It started with palindromes (which I still do not have the talent to write), then progressed very recently to lipograms [link] , and now I have found rhopalic verse.

For those ho might not know what these things are... Palindromes are anything that spells the same way backwards as it does forwards (A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!). Lipograms are any portion of text that where the writer uses one less character from the alphabet, like not using 'e' in my link example above. A rhopalic is a writing where each word have one more syllable than the one before it and is mostly used in poetry with each line starting the count over again.

I have yet to write any rhopalic verses, but I am pretty interested in it as it will be a really good practice example for me. That lipogram was difficult and I'm not 100% happy with it, mostly because it doesn't flow as easily off the tongue as I would have liked. Admittedly, it's not one of my best works, but it made for a good training exercise. I can't write palindromes. I've tried. I gave up after the T-shirt didn't fit anymore...

I'm trying to increase my potential for writing these days with various exercises and things to try to hone my thoughts and words into the edge that they can be. I encourage anyone who reads this to try the same. Keep a thesaurus handy for those lipograms, though. Till later...