The Adventures of Cowboy Hazel

There’s a Garth Brooks with the chorus, “Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you’re standing outside the fire.” I find that to be very true. I was going to elaborate on those lyrics and their relation to my week, but I don’t have the mental strength required to do so. I put in a solid twenty minutes trying to write out my thoughts on the subject, but the words just aren’t there. So, instead of anything deep and philosophical, let me just do a quick rundown of what’s been happening lately…

I put in 40 hours of work for Precision Prospects this week. It was so good to have that big a chunk of my time so nicely structured and productive. I finished up a big project and started a new, even bigger project that is quite a bit more advanced than my typical work there. It’s really stretching my brain but, so far, I haven’t run into any insurmountable hurdles. And, I’ve pretty much wrapped up the technically difficult aspects of the project already. Now, it’s just going back and writing all the code to connect everything together so that people other than me can understand and make use of the system.

Of course, this week was also the start of baseball season. How is that possible? I am totally weirded out by the fact that it is already April. Seriously, when did this happen?

I went to the Yankees game with Sareeka on Wednesday. They lost to Toronto 5-2. That sucked. The game was fun though. I love going to games with people who have never seen a baseball game before. I don’t know why, but I enjoy explaining the rules and all that. Plus, games are always a good excuse to hang out with friends that you haven’t seen in a while. In retaliation for the fact that Sareeka always calls me Buttercup, I gave her the nickname Bobby Abreu (they kept playing salsa when he came up to bat and Sareeka is big on the salsa). We’ll see if it sticks.

Then, last night, Diana came down from Westchester and we went to the game. We started drinking right after I picked her up from the train station and continued drinking heavily all night. (More on this later.) We had a blast at the game. The Yankees came back late to win and everyone was in a good mood. The subway seemed too hectic when we got outside so we went across the street and hung out at a bar for a bit. I pulled out my crazy drunken white boy dance moves and brightened the lives of all those that were there. There was subway construction on the way home and I got super frustrated about the fact that I couldn’t figure out why the 6 was going express. Diana wisely suggested that we just take a cab when we ended up at 86th Street. We got back to my place and had a couple more cocktails. We were completely smashed by the time the evening was over.

I woke up today at 8:00 feeling alright. It was strange — I had expected a big brutal hangover and it wasn’t there. Unfortunately, it decided to show up in full force about an hour later. I signed on and got some work done, but it was slow going. My mind was fuzzy. Still, I got some really good progress made on my project while Diana showered, napped, and tried to recover from her own hangover. Despite the fact that we clearly drank too much, it was great having Diana around. My apartment always seems so quiet after she leaves. It’s crazy that we’ve known each other for almost ten years now. I have trouble wrapping my head around that.

And now, as I write this, Josh is in flight on his way here from Miami. He gets in at midnight. I haven’t seen him since last June when I went down there for a weekend. He’s going to be here until Monday and we’re going to have a good time – I can sense it. We’re going to the Yankees game tomorrow. It’ll be strange, though, because we’re sitting out in the bleachers instead of in my usual seats. I hope he doesn’t want to do too much touristy stuff because I really don’t feel up to that. My sister’s visit used up all my patience for wandering around the city. Don’t get me wrong — it’s fun every once in a while, but I really don’t feel the need to go do that again two weeks after I did it the last time.

The bad thing about having all this activity at once is that it’s going to make the rest of the month seem lame. I mean, I will have gone to three Yankees games this week with three good friends. Counting my dinner party on Sunday, I will have had six friends up here at my place this week. I don’t know about you, but that’s a pretty good week for me. I love playing the host and being surrounded by the people that I care about. But then, after this exceptional week, going back to the monotony of my typical existence is going to be that much harder.

Why not just make every week as good as this week? Well, there’s a couple reasons. First, I haven’t gotten shit done. Sure, I got 40 hours for Precision in, but I did almost nothing to improve my own network, I haven’t been reading, and I only ran 8 miles all week. Second, my friends have their own shit to get done and don’t have the time to hang out more than they do. When did we all get so grown up and serious?

Okay, so let me end with a brief reflection on my March Resolutions. I achieved none of them. I only ran 83.2 miles — not 100. I’ve been drinking pretty much every day lately and got completely hammered last night. I’ve worked at least eight hours every Saturday and Sunday (this weekend will be the first that I’ve actually taken off). And, I stalled on reading. I’m in the middle of this web marketing book and it is taking me forever to finish because I can’t seem to make myself sit down and read it. So, what now? Do I just abandon the resolutions and move on? Or, should I try again in April?