The key difference in my life after The Artist’s Way was that I had to buy a pocket calendar that I carry with me everywhere.  This small change has made my life infinitely better and has made me feel happier.  I can’t imagine my life without this small tool.

Why? Because I have to schedule my life around what I want to do.  I do not keep track of anything in this calendar except my leisure activities.  Work, responsibilities, requirements, chores, and anything else of the sort are not makred in my calendar.  Every weekend (or Monday if I’m lazy) I go online and decide what activities I will try to do in the upcoming week.

Marking something in my calendar doesn’t mean I’ll definitely do that activity.  I’m perfectly fine with crossing out an activity when the flow of life leads me to some other choice.  The bottom line is that my activities have become so important to me and I have so many, that I would not be able to keep track of them without the calendar.  No activity is too small or too unimportant to mark.  Yes, my calendar contains a list of terrible reality tv shows on MTV or VH1 that I hope to watch.  Since getting this calendar I have never fallen back on the excuses that I’m too busy or too poor to do what I really want to do.  Instead, I just go out and do it.

When I pick a jury for a trial, the judge always asks each potential juror what his or her hobbies are.  More often than not people say that they don’t have hobby or that their hobbies are work, their children, gambling, drinking alcohol, or fishing.  I’m not sure why everyone says fishing.  I think they’re just sheep in a herd who follow the leader.  Anyway, these answers make me really sad.  I always think that if I were called to jury duty, I’d have some good answers to that question.  I highly recommend a pocket calendar to everyone, if for no other reason than to be more interesting at jury duty. 

Just as an example, here’s my calendar for this week:

Monday:
18:00 Nap
22:00 Ms. Rap Supreme on Vh1
23:00 The Hills on MTV
23:30 The Paper on MTV

Tuesday:
18:00 Go to the Library
19:00 Work on My Altered Book
20:00 Write My Novel
21:00 Go to the Gym

Wednesday:
19:15 Buddhist Wishfulfilling Jewel Puja
22:00 South Park on Comedy Central

Thursday:
19:30 Introductory Buddhist Meditation Class
22:00 Write My Novel

Friday:
17:30 Buddhist Heart Jewel Puja
19:30 Violin Concert
22:00 Go to a Club?

Saturday:
15:30 Create Artist Trading Cards
19:30 Buddhist Red Tara Practice
22:00 Fetish Party

Sunday:
10:00 Buddhist Meditation and Prayers
12:00 Go to the Beach
16:00 Nap
19:00 Work on My Altered Book
20:00 Write My Novel
21:00 Gym
22:00 Viva Hollywood on Vh1

I always felt at a disadvantage because my mother never had to learn how to cook.  Her family always had cooks who did it all for them.  So I’ve had to figure out and adapt my own recipes from the Internet as opposed to having those handed-down family recipes.  Here’s my favorite sandwich adapted from an Internet recipe:

2 Slices of Pumpernickel/Rye Swirl Bread, Toasted
Smoked Cheddar Cheese
2 Slices of Soy Bacon
Cucumber Slices
Tomato (Optional)
Lemon Peel
Fresh Ground Pepper
Sea Salt
Guacamole
Alfalfa Sprouts
Romaine Lettuce

I just assmeble it in the order listed, and yum!  I’m feeling quite happy after eating one of these today.  Now I’m off to the beach.

I kinda wish I didn’t live in the part of South Florida that’s farthest away from any cool clubs.  I couldn’t even tell you the name of the club closest to where I live.  I love progressive house and trance music, and tonight I was on Napster listening to various things including Tiesto.  Makes me want to go to a club.  I just hate the way going to a club involves driving so far, struggling with parking, waiting in line, and then going to a place that’s overcrowded.  Also, I don’t drink and I don’t like the meat market aspect.  At one point I did like at least the meat market part, but now I feel old and tired.  And I feel not that available.

One of my favorite clubs a few years ago was a beautiful Eastern inspired paradise, abounding with Buddhist and Hindu statues and paper lanterns.  I understand it is now a neon hell.  For those of you familiar with Miami, I won’t name names, but I’m sure you can guess.  If I were going to go out, I’d have to find a new place.

Most of my friends are not the clubbing type, but my best guy friend (other than Manchester) definitely likes going out.  I think part of the reason that I never go out is because I don’t want to go alone, and I never plan in advance to go out with friends.  I am going to make it one of my goals to go out to a club again.  Just on Friday one of my clients who’s in his 30s was saying how young I am, but I imagine he goes out far more than I do.  I want to remember the feeling of having girlfriends who like going out.  The problem is when I think of the type of girls who frequent clubs, I’m reminded that they are the type of girls I really don’t like.  I feel really weird tonight.  I feel very old.  I don’t want to feel restless and tired anymore. 

Meet Trikiao, my new Neopet:

Being that he’s a Miami Grundo, I named him Trikiao, which is a slang Spanish word that means “tricked”.

I had quite a bad disaster with my computer today, but thanks to a loaner monitor from Manchester, I’m back. 

This is sooooo unbelieveable.  I was using an old version of WordPress, and then I renewed my hosting and domain.  Turns out my lack of CSS wasn’t Dreamhost’s fault at all.  I had talked to my brother who is the greatest computer genius that I know, and he said it looked like my header wasn’t loading.  So today I checked out the header and noticed that it was filled with garbage about getting drugs without prescriptions, credit card offers, debt solutions, and male sexual enhancers.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Blawgalicious was hacked.  I am hoping that this was a WordPress vulnerability that will not be a problem anymore since I upgraded to the latest version.

So I called Manchester to tell him my site got hacked.  He laughed because he couldn’t believe my site was “important enough” to get hacked.  Lol.

We’re back in business.

Also, a special thanks to Mike M. with Dreamhost’s support team.  He helped me diagnose the problem and get back on the right track.