AWESOME DIARY ENTRY #3

Dunedin, NZ
03 Jan, 08:00 PM
np: THE COMPLETE STAX/VOLT SINGLES, disc 6.

It's time to write some goals. Almost.

But first, to settle back in to my Dunedin flat. Calmly. One thing I am learning, or have decided, is that the Year of the Awesome is not about overloading on doing something CRA-ZY and EXTREME! every day. Doing a new adventure sport every day is not only expensive and unsustainable, but it obliterates a whole other class of subtle and free but equally awesome pleasures.

One of my favorite memories of Houston was a day when my roommate* Andy and I both came home on one of those days when the weather was turning fierce, and the humidity was approximately 100%. You could feel the storm coming. We got two cold Shiner Bocks out of the fridge, put on Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain", and sat on the porch, waiting for the rain to hit, watching as it did, until finally the wind was so fierce it was time to go inside.

It may lose something in the retelling, but it was instantly a moment that we'd never forget, unlike hundreds of other rainstorms in Houston I can't recall.

Today I sat in the Christchurch airport, waiting for my delayed flight. It was delayed because of lightning and hail. But I'd deliberately set up my flights so there was no stress on when I arrived (well, as long as it was tonight sometime.) So I alternately read from my current book and practiced taking pictures of the tarmac with the new camera. A non-awesome situation promptly had its non-awesomeness negated.

You can't do intrinsically awesome things all the time. But you can do a lot to increase the awesomeness of normal things.

Time to put on disc 7, make a salad, and write some goals.

*cultural difference: in NZ, this would be "flatmate", as we did not share a room. It's rather strange writing cross-culturally about past events. I have yet to determine the most awesome solution.