Hiatus Status

I am, as previously stated, on hiatus from work, due simply to the fact that I've got a comfortable cushion of savings in the bank account and no desire to go to work at the moment. Rather than spending my time noodling with terribly interesting and smart people as I'd previously imagined I would, however, I've been mostly lumping around the apartment with the windows open (it's been beautifully spring-like here in Virginia), sneezing and coughing constantly because of my allergies.

I suppose that if you consider lying on the couch watching 3 seasons of Sons of Anarchy or repeatedly listening to side A of the old DJ R.A.W. Hellborn* mix tape or catching up on the last season of Dexter to be productive, then I've been a veritable Viking of efficacy, but otherwise, not so much.

I suppose that's not quite accurate. I've actually done stuff the past few weeks. Terribly productive stuff, in fact, like completing crossword puzzles (mostly) without cheating, writing, reading, and finishing a programming project I've been working on for the past 5 years. But mostly I feel as though I haven't done squat, I suppose because I haven't taken any gloriously long motorcycle trips or met any avant-garde intellectuals to drink a good chocolate stout with while we muse on the inner workings of the human mind or quantum physics. This is, of course, how I envisioned spending my hiatus - like one big renaissance of the mind and body that would inspire me to finish all of the writing and music projects I had ever started.

Of course, this whole concept was duly thwarted from day one by the fact that my seasonal allergies kicked in full force a week ago, and have subsequently led to me catching an insufferable cold, complete with a fever. This seems to happen every year. My body, quickly reacting to the THREAT of FLOWERS POLLENATING protects me by immediately and persistently creating the urge to sneeze, replete with the production of mounds of mucous and redness and itchiness from my eyes through to the bottom of my throat, all of which culminates after a week and gathers in my sinus cavity, which is apparently the catalyst for my immune system promptly giving in and succumbing to whatever biological weapons have been cast towards me from my neighbors the few times I ventured out to the grocery store.

It's incredibly hard to be productive when your body threatens to collapse from weakness every time you stand up.

So I've given up, at least for this week. Even as I am feeling better today, the storms are moving in, and will be hovering out there for the next few days, looking gloomily threatening and having the potential to create some more Southern hail, which would be disastrous were someone unfortunate enough to be out riding a motorcycle. Looks like I will be missing Bike Week in the Outer Banks this year.

Oh well, there's always next year.

Then again, this is what hiatus' are for, aren't they? They are for nothingness. Therefore I will embrace the Zen of my hiatus, and relish in the accomplishments I have made, rather than yearn for the productivity that my allergies and mental energy (or lack thereof) seem to be conspiring against me having at the moment.

And it is good.

Next week I will finish the next Great American Novel and publish a CD of original music, but this week I've got the rest of season 5 of Dexter to plow through.

And that couch isn't going to hold itself down.

*Interesting side note: Hellborn (currently playing as I write) runs at ALMOST the exact same B.P.M.  as my washing machine. Wonderful when they are synchronized, not so much when they fall off.