Steve said there's refuge in corners...

...All my possessions in boxes.

So I'm home. With all my stuff. Have been for a couple days now.

I forgot what a process moving is. I hope "process" there had a sufficiently negative connotation. I wasn't really dreading it all as much as I apparently should've been.

I suppose more than anything else I was just happy to be getting back here permanently and I kinda forgot about what that would entail. I have a lot of things. And a room full of a lot of old things. And an excessively large bed.

I think it's going well, all things considered. I'm making daily progress, if nothing else. Plus my computer's finally hooked up to the internet and I'm on the verge of having TV in here too.

And it's nice. I like how things are looking. But in some ways it just all feels kinda ridiculous putting this kind of effort into something that's supposed to be fairly temporary. I guess we'll see...

A couple things, music-wise

So, about a week ago I picked up what was, at that point, probably my favorite EP of the year, Crescent Moon is in Big Trouble. Crescent Moon of Kill the Vultures and Roma di Luna fame, and Big Trouble who are made up of a bunch of current and former members of Heiruspecs. It's kinda a more jazz-y version of what Heiruspecs do, but the whole thing just comes together really well between the vocals and the instrumentals. The first two songs are easily among my favorite first two songs on an album in recent memory.

And then today I got Stay Positive by The Hold Steady. You had to know it was coming. So I bought it, I went out to my car, rolled my windows down and put it on. And I kid you not, I got chills. "Constructive Summer" is really good. I've still only made it through about half the album so I can't say for sure how I'll feel about the whole thing, but it's off to a damn good start.

I think my favorite thing about them is their reverence for a lot of the same things I admire. Like, when they mention "Double whiskey coke no ice" I know it's a Dillinger Four thing. When they bring in Ben Nichols from Lucero for their song about Memphis, I'm like "Yeah, that makes sense". And when they talk about "Saint Joe Strummer" I can totally see where they're coming from. I get them. They get me, at least as much as they can without knowing they're doing so. Plus Tad's guitar solos are just wicked sweet. For serious.

I have no legs

After coming home and taking a nap, I went out rollerblading for the first time this summer (sadly it was not in the Metrodome). I still maintain that the paths around here are easily the most awesome part of this city. There are just miles and miles of places to go without needing to really cross any major roads. I'd like to get back to the point I was at a few years ago when I was doing like 15 miles in an hour and a half or so. Today was maybe 8-10 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes. And I was dying by the end.

Well, more accurately, I was dying about 5 minutes in. I've been running every now and again, so I'm not in terrible shape, and the cardio side of things wasn't really the problem. But apparently I have lost all the leg muscles I used to have for going up hills. I hit that first hill and my legs were just dead. Every hill after that point was a battle. I don't know that I won, but I survived.

It's kinda funny, actually. My dad tends to come home hobbling every time he goes out golfing. He went this morning, so all night we were both barely walking. I imagine I'll be sore tomorrow too.

It was probably worth it though.

You know...

I never understood Yahtzee until tonight. For what it's worth.

It's official

I graduated.

I still haven't heard anything about when or where I'll get my diploma, but I decided to give my UW student page another looking over today just to check, and it finally lists my MA there. So apparently I got one.

So that's one thing out of the way.

I imagine...

If I had a pool in which I could exercise, I would probably do so approximately 700% more often.

Pools are awesome.