New year.

I’m 9 days into the new year and I’ve done yoga on four of them. That’s a new record for me. My previous record was zero. Progress, right?

I put a big calendar on the wall and I have blue stars for taking a walk, gold stars for doing a 30-minute yoga practice, and silver stars for going a whole day without eating any junk food. So far I have four blue stars, four gold stars, and one silver star. It’s a start. I like the accountability of it, looking at a calendar. As though the human construct of time is telling me to put the fucking cookies down.

I have a lot going on. Big brand refresh for Caribou Lodge is rolling out soon, I’m running the World YoYo Contest again this year, nervous is doing good work for big ass clients, and Bindlewood just keeps on growing. All good things. Can’t complain.

I’ll be 48 next month and I’ve given myself until my 50th birthday to get back into good health. I’m not worried about being skinny and pretty, I just want to be strong and fast again and I feel like I can get there. Skinny might show up if strong and fast do, which would be a nice bonus, but mostly I want to be able to run a mile flat without stopping, I want to be able to carry boxes in and out of the basement without getting immediately winded, and I want to feel physically capable again, which has eluded me for a while. Even when I was rail fuckin’ thin I was strong and I miss that and I want it back.

The kids are all good. Happy, healthy, have everything they need. The oldest are struggling with impending Real Life™ and the youngest are struggling with remembering to do the thing I just told them to do 10 seconds ago, so we’re pretty on-track with everything there.

I’m playing bass again regularly for the first time in….15 years? Wild how much ability you can lose. Learning some setup and maintenance stuff that I just never got around to before, working on proper technique in ways I never gave a shit about before, and just generally enjoying the hell out of myself. I am absolute dogshit, let’s not gild the lily here, but I am enjoying being an amateur at something after several decades of always being expected to be the professional at everything I was doing.

I’ve got a bit of a chip on my shoulder these days and it doesn’t seem to be helping me do much so I think I’m gonna get rid of it. I have a lot that I want to do, I have a lot of good and interesting and worthwhile and fun things lined up, and forever being disappointed in people isn’t helping me with any of those things so I think I’m just gonna stop expecting anything at all. That might be defeatist, or it might be Buddhist. I have no idea but I do know that the more I expect of the world the more handily it lets me down so maybe it’s just time to just stop.

I made a new playlist. I’m feeling fast and surly and a little aggro right now but kinda in a good way, so I hope that vibe comes through.

Onwards and upwards.