My what a draining week. Utter confusion and opportunity shaded in grayish-white sludge. The world I knew has accelerated and the edges of the scene are starting to blur. The metaphors run as deep as the snow drifts in my head. Look out folks, the boy is waxing poetic tonight!

The snow itself is a constant reminder to me of Karaoke night in Brooklyn, where I brave two rivers and three rail lines just to make it, and repeated the trip with an addition mile and a half long hike in the snow to end my night. Something about a “snow emergency” I had no idea was declared keeping the taxis in Hoboken off the roads. All well worth the effort to get out to the Carriage House. Don C & mad country Mike get much respect for organizing the event and then being brave enough to go through with it in the face of a foot plus of falling powder.

And things really haven’t stopped much since then, save for the Sunday drying-out period. The pre-spring cleaning continues in my little 600 square foot country, with file cabinets, DVD racks and dozens of backups CDs being the most recent recipients of my efforts. At this rate I may just find everything in it’s place before too long. I have much more of it planned for this weekend as I want to be in as sound of shape as possible by the start of the next week.

Why? Well come Monday I will be delivering a letter in one way or another that will change the course of my life, career wise. All those little cryptic bits have been leading up to this. Anyone want to bet how it all turns out?

Well, it was a long day — double digit hours — and my brain is all but gone. Nothing left to do but sit back, relax and enjoy the blackmail material Don & Mike took. I’ll contribute my own collection soon enough, and I’ve got longer video clips. ^_^

Earlier in the week I was complaining about the lack of accumulated snow in my general area — how winter just couldn’t be complete without a snowstorm of record. I mean it snowed on Wednesday when I was off seeing former coworker Andy’s band lifeScience play at Arlene’s Grocery, but still nothing noteworthy.

Well, as I write the white stuff is accumulating outside and if the news is to be believed we could be in for 10 to 15 inches of it here in the metro New York area. I got my wish and then some, huh?

Now the sensible thing would be to bed down and relax inside the relative comfort of my apartment, where I have food, warmth and entertainment of the video-based variety. Instead, I’m going to head across two rivers via mass transit to Brooklyn for karaoke. Fun times at the Carriage House again with some coworkers and friends — at least the brave ones. I’m less worried about getting there as I am in getting back, but that’s part of the adventure. Besides, I can relax and recover tomorrow while I wash the NFL Championship games. For the record I’m backing the Steelers and the Falcons, so if you gets a Pats/Eagles match-up, you know who to blame for jinxing things.

Well, time to start prepping for my trip. I guess it’s a good thing I like walking in snow. I also guess it’s a good thing I have plenty of layers to don for insulation.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Or at least that’s how it feels. My brain is wracked with conflicting ideas and my nerve dangles above the chasm on dental floss. Alas, seven more days at least will be needed to string these hints together.

What I can say is that I’ve found these last minute temptations always appear when some major choice is at hand. Is it the duality of the human soul at play — self preservation against self enlightenment? I’ve grown accustom to things. Comfortable. And in my case, too much comfort means too little ambition flowing in the systems. I got too much shit on my plate to be taking it easy.

Thinking big. For once, I’m allowing those ideas to take root more. Before was an experiment. That was a nice thing, but you didn’t know the rules. Now you’re back to play for real because you see the real starting line creeping up. The sprinters start to falter, but the long distance runners are just getting warmed up. Which do you want to be?

Oh, and the title here is both metaphorical and literal at the same time. When the temperature outside gets to 11°, these walls don’t hold back the chill as well as they do at 32.

At least the music is warm and friendly. Hi ho, hi ho, it’s back to work I go….