in the last ten years, what is your biggest accomplishment?

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that question today interrupted my fortnightly cleaning, mail responding, and general filing adventures that i call “sundays at home”. i’ve been making an effort to use my sabbaths for something different than my usual “unscheduled time” – no sleeping in until noon, and no getting up and frittering away my morning on surfing random websites, watching tv, or playing video games. cooking, cleaning, working on bikes, going outside, playing the didj, reading a motherfucking book, even writing in my blog.

but that question brought me pause even in the midst of my light-to-no organization. it stared back at me from the questionnaire attached to the invitation to my 10th year high school reunion, surrounded by such mundane details as married (nope!), kids (nope!), and contact information.

what is my biggest accomplishment in the last ten years. the past decade! what have i done with myself? i briefly pondered what my classmates might have answered to this peculiar test question: graduating college, getting married, landing a big job, climbing a mountain, buying a house? what adventures of mine go beyond mere braggary and into the realm of accomplishment?

after giving it some consideration, i came up with this list of biggest accomplishments:

staying alive, getting some degrees, growing a kickass goatee.

that of course is just an abbreviated list, the full list exceeded the length provided. here is the current list, to be amended later as i accomplish more:

staying alive, getting some degrees, growing a kickass goatee, learning how to cook, learning how to love, having my heart broken, learning how to drink a shot, learning how to make people laugh, learning how to ride a bike, learning how to drive a car, learning how to program in c, camping in the mountains, going to greece, going to canada, moving to seattle, learning how to fix a toilet, paying my own rent, getting a job, quitting a job, taking a summer off, making out while sitting on the porch on a warm summer’s evening, watching movies in foreign languages, speaking a little german, making tiny huge mistakes, taking the train, spending a summer in fresno, playing d&d with the same folks for over a decade, switching to os x, being the first of my friends to have only a cell phone, living in a big house full of guys and making it work, living with a married couple and their insane cat, building a bicycle, building a computer, building a workbench, swimming in two oceans and several lakes and rivers, living.

it’s too hot to sleep.

i can’t remember the last time i sat around sweating so profusely, yawning from being tired yet too overheated to do more than toss and turn. i’ve got the windows around the house cranked open but the air outside is so still, there’s scarcely a breeze. it’s as if the city itself is too restless and agitated to cool down for a minute and take a load off.

as for me, i’ve come to the realization that i’ve been in a bit of a rut, and perhaps a subsequent funk. or maybe a funk worn rutted. regardless, i’m making an effort to recognize that and choose away from it, to be engaged and involved rather than passive and critical.

i’m not quite sure what that’s going to look like in the long term, but tonight it looked like a couple of big time brewery pints and some programming followed up with macaroni and cheese for dinner and an episode of brisco.

perhaps there is something to this attitude of living one day at a time.

this weekend i loaded up the long haul trucker and headed up to south whidbey state park for some camping with my nerdcrew. while sitting on the ferry at mukilteo, who should i run into but loren and guenna? and what should they say to me other than “you never update your blog!”.

games night in the woods was pretty fun. basically a smorgasborg of food, drinking, and games with a couple 3-4 mile hikes up into the woods and down to the beach intermingled. the bicycle and bucket panniers got alot of interest, as did the hennessy hammock. several folks took naps in the hammock and everyone was quite envious of the comfort. i didn’t have the best options for where to setup, but it worked out alright. state parks are probably the worst environment for hammock camping, because they thin out most of the medium-sized trees and the natural clearings with thin underbrush of the forest give way to trails and manicured campsites.

on the way home on sunday i added a little american flag to my rear rack. i theorized that it might get me some more respect from the drivers of whidbey island, and while i didn’t do any serious data collection, i did have a pretty pleasant ride back to the ferry. riding on highway 99 through lynnwood however, was a different story. i was reminded of the peculiar patriotism of the places nobody cares about. a young gentleman in a lowered honda civic yelled at me as i rolled up to a stopsign: “america don’t want you!” doubly interesting was that this america, the america laid out as an endless line of strip malls, tobacco and gun stores, car dealerships and minimarts with giant parking lots wasn’t an america i wanted either. so in a sense we were in perfect agreement.