This Week: 4/23/2002

This is my attempt to put creativity on a schedule. Odd you say, to force yourself to do something that you should enjoy? True, I enjoy my feeble attempts to create, but I find that I rarely have the time to do it. My thinking is that maybe if I make time for it then I will do it. O.K., maybe I’m not explaining myself well, but at this point I don’t care. No one is likely to read this anyway so what difference does it make if some nonexistent reader understands my rationale. I’m writing it. I’m the only one reading it. It works for me. Everyone else can just go on with their normal lives and continue not reading this.

I figure I’ll try to update the site with a new installment every Wednesday, reporting on the events that occurred the previous Wednesday through Tuesday. I figure this will work the best for a writing week. Most things happen in my life on the weekend. Since things are happening I have less time to write about them. However, I do work full time, Monday through Friday. Putting this thing off until Wednesday gives me some time to get it all in. Why not put it off even longer, say Thursday or Friday? Well, I’m glad you were not around to ask.

Wednesday of last week was an unusual opportunity to go to court in Clearwater. Let’s see, Clearwater court = get out early, last Thursday and Friday = days off, two days off = eureka! Thursday and Friday I did as little as possible, mostly hanging out with my sister and her husband who were in town for Lisa’s wedding. I’ve learned the value in doing nothing in particular with your free time. After all, if you make a lot of plans then your time is no longer free.

The wedding was great. It began with the preparations at my parents house. Lisa doing her thing and the rest of us mostly hanging out. The photographer took some posed pictures of the preparation and we were out the door, not to return until much later that day. Beth was supposed to be the flower girl, but her duties went largely unfulfilled. First, she was hesitant to walk down the isle solo, so I agreed to accompany her. Then, about half way down the isle she announces in a louder than conversational tone, “daddy, I don’t want to carry this any more.” She was talking about her basket of flowers which she was trying to hand to me. Feeling that this was not the place to argue, I took the basket and we continued to walk. Does a girl walking down the isle with her daddy sans flowers still count as a flower girl? In any case, Beth was a hit, and made the wedding memorable for me if no one else. The reception at Innisbrook was a refreshing change of pace from the other wedding receptions I’ve experienced. The most notable welcome change? No dancing. No Chicken dance. No conga line. If you wanted to fall asleep in your chair no one was going to stop you. Cheryl did not enjoy the reception quite as much as I did, largely because she felt Beth was being difficult. I didn’t notice so much, but then I was off taking pictures more often. Oh well.

Perhaps the best part of all was the trip to Epcot on Sunday. Me, Cheryl, Beth, my parents, Christy and Mike met Mike’s family in Orlando for an Epcot encounter. The trip was one of the best I’ve had to the park. Outwardly, I’m sure I projected not nearly so glowing a reception of the park. I had this persistent monster of a headache that I just couldn’t shake for much of the day, so I’m sure I didn’t look enthused. However, I still left the park with an overall feeling of joy. Any trip that can overcome that kind of pain must have been pretty good. Further, I think it was just about the most fun that I’ve had with Beth at an amusement park. It was the first time that we all could do the same things together. There was no waiving and waiting while Beth went on another kiddie ride. There were no fits of impatience while Beth waited for a grown up to get off a “big person’s ride.”

Tuesday was notable in that it was an interesting day in court. Most of the folks in court had been wading in the shallow end of the gene pool. As my coworker noted, the missing link has been found! It was just one of those forehead smacking kind of days.

Anyway, that’s about it. I know that this isn’t much. It’s probably boring as sin (assuming that anyone actually suffered through this), but I hope I’ll get better with practice. Why I would think this is anyone’s guess. It certainly isn’t based on real world experience.