I was starting with a puzzle that someone handed to me, completed in a certain fashion.  My task was to take it, rearrange the pieces and still make the picture work.  You stare and you ponder for quite some time before you move that first piece.  But one you start deconstructing, you get a sense of exhilaration that’s hard to match.  Only once you’ve finished with the reconstructing can you sit back and take in all the hard work to get a true sense of what has been accomplished.

Partially I speak of a nice little web site theme I whipped up for South — one of the bands we’re planning to work with as we start to push LimeSpot more into the public eye.  They handed me a PDF of some album cover artwork that I was able to pull apart in Illustrator and reconfigure in Photoshop with a pretty exciting result.  Whoever they tasked to make the artwork in the first place is friggin’ brilliant, I must say.  All I had to do was reach back into my past experience of playing with Colorforms to get all the guidance I needed for the design side of this work.

But I also speak on the puzzle that is my mental image.  As of yesterday, I’m done with my weekly visits to the therapist.  The last year and a half have certainly given me a sea change in the state of my mental health and the overall quality of my life, and I’m quite happy I put in the time I have.  But at least for now, it’s time for me to move on and work more in the field of practice than in the realm of theory.  I’ll probably check in every now and again, but it’s just mental maintenance.  I mean, you don’t have to rebuild the engine in a car every time its time to change the oil, right?

Three post a week average, huh? Maybe three a month is more realistic? Old habits die hard, I guess. Anyway….

Confused and Drunk: A sketch I had floating around in one of my sketch pads from Sept. ‘07. Photographed and Photoshopped into its current shape.

To say this year has been off to a raucous start for myself is an understatement. Now how interesting said raucousness is to anyone outside my circle of friends and family is up for debate. That said, I hereby inundate you all with the nuggets of detail.

Football Weather

The winter touch football league started up, with my team being 2-2 at the moment. Besides the soreness of a slightly rolled ankle from the first game, I’ve been lucky to avoid any major injuries — just enough aches and stiffness to remind me I’m out of shape and need to do this kind of stuff more often. Other on my team have not been so lucky, as we had one of the girls on our team come dangerously close to breaking her ankle in our last game. Even semi-casual league football is not for the timid.

Speaking of Football…

Not like it’s news at this point, but I just have to say it for posterities’ sake: the Giants are in the Super Bowl! Woo!!!

That’s a Negative on the New Digs

Late in ‘07 the apartment above mine had opened up and I had a tentative agreement with my landlord to take the place, which is at least 3 times as large as what I have now. Well, scratch that. Instead, he’s going to rent it out to the person who’s also taking over the restaurant space below my apartment. Sure as hell can’t say I’m surprised, but then again the new tenant is the one who’s going to have to deal with all the fixes that place needs (and believe me, there are a LOT of fixes needed).

No Idle Hands Here

Work wise, I’ve been busy (as always) and contented. There’s a ton of work that has to be done in the next two weeks — both print and web — well in advance of the Lime making their presence felt at this year’s SXSW Interactive. The best part about all of this in my eyes is the fact I’ll actually get to go to SXSW and see how all this hard work is received. Looks like Austin is slated to be the first city west of the Mississippi River I’ll get to visit.

And Out Go the Lights….

A good chunk of this month has also been involved with the courting of a lovely young woman. Good times out on the town. All but one, that is. I managed to get tangled in a netting of too much drink on a night out at an Antibalas concert, and tangled so badly I had trouble remembering the details of how the night ended. Sad doesn’t begin to describe me that night, and by sad I mean “pathetic”.

I told all of this to my therapist, who just the week before I told I was going to be ending sessions with at the end of the month. After my story so confronted me with the claim that I’m something of an alcoholic — at least by her clinical definition. I can see where she’s coming from, and it has certainly given me pause this past week, but i still doesn’t change my plans. For one, I need to be able to see that all I’ve discussed and discovered about myself in the past year plus can be put to good use, and for two, there had been many weeks I felt I was paying for the privilege to be a tech consultant.

For the Sake of Perspective

Historically, January has never been a very good month to me. So while there’s some bad with the good (and boy do I ever still feel like I’m reeling from the bad), I’d say the balance has certainly been more in my favor this time around. A portend of things to come for the rest of the year? We shall see….

The new year might have actually, factually began yesterday, but today is when the real meat and bones of ‘08 began. Everyone at the office was back from vacation and back at work in all their different states of rustiness, convening meetings and making goals for the next few weeks. But it felt good, damnit. All positive energy and refocused thinking. You never know just how much of that the holiday season takes out of you until it’s over and gone.

Into that mix I can add a touch of enjoyable social upheaval this past week; catching up with old friend, meeting new ones, and thrilled by both aspects. I’d love for both to continue well into the first month, but I think instead of just wishing on a star and hoping for the best, I’ll actually put some time and effort into those things and see what I can foster to grow in these cold January days.

So far, so good, 2008!