Despite being insanely busy with nine-kajillion homework assignments lately, I have found some time to do the things I love. I play volleyball every Saturday morning at De Anza College, a community college just down the street from me. I'll be starting my Wednesday night outdoor games in two weeks as well. That's the best way to get sunshine, in my opinion. That and surfing and horseback riding. I may also join a Japanese league on Sundays if I can test in. You have to prove that you are above a certain level and get voted in. That could be a cool venue to meet people and get my game on.
Josh and I have been playing World of Warcraft. I've finally leveled my character up enough that Josh isn't totally humiliated to play in my group. I'm proud to say that I'm now a level 24 human priest. I just got a mana burn spell yesterday, so I want to duel Josh's mage and put up a shield then burn his mana like mad. He'll probably still beat me, but it'll be cool.
I've also had time to read several books. Since I spend so much time in the car driving to class, I've been listening to audiobooks on my iPod. I'm just polishing off the Narnia series. I also just finished Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. He's mega shocking at times, but funny as all get out.
In terms of books-you-hold-in-your-hands, I recently finished How to Be Good by Nick Hornby. This one has been on my shelf for like two years waiting to be read and I finally couldn't stand it any longer. Considering that I've loved other Hornby books, I knew I'd love this one too. This one was actually much better than I expected though. It was hilarious and also asked big questions about what it really means to be good in this world. Good read.
I'm currently reading Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players by Stefan Fatsis. This one is also a great read. Fatsis puts himself into the Scrabble world and starts competing and obsessing over it. As someone who has always rocked at living room Scrabble games, this was a big eye opener. I would pretty much stink at competitive Scrabble unless I got in on the bizarre behavior, word memorization, and the obsessive anagramming. Fascinating look at the world of Scrabble and Fatsis is a very good non-fiction writer to boot; the competitive Scrabble scene really comes to life.
I recognize now that my passtimes currently revolve around escapism. The things I do help me to be in another world - be it jumping in the strategy and athleticism of volleyball or being a character in WoW or seeing through someone else's eyes in a book. I suppose that my life is perhaps too stressfull to try to exist in my own life any more than I currently do. But, hey, I feel pretty healthy and happy and am getting through all of my coursework so I must be doing pretty well.
Oh, quick sidenote, a bunch of my drawings will be featured in the art gallery at the Krause Center for Innovation for the next month or so. It's my first art show out in California and, to be honest, I'm a little amazed I was able to squeeze that in around all of the chaos. Hopefully I'll have lots more time to create artwork after all of these classes are done. Here's one of the 17 drawings that will be in the show:
P.S. I just told Josh that the art featured in this show is "the most uninteresting art I've ever done." It's basically just drawings of stuff around my house because I was tired but knew I needed to keep making art. So, when you have no inspiration, you just draw the stuff around you. The above pic is of an old air compressor.
