Spent the First Day of a New Year Behind Screen, at Gym, and with Puzzle

I don't get distracted by television. Maybe I should, but I'm crazy. Books grab my attention, words, and now this puzzle obsession. Tunga and I bought Casey's kids a set of 8 puzzles and we did the one on Christmas Eve-Eve. Tunga wanted to take the one of houses on a cliff because it reminded him of Sorento, Italy - "the most beautiful place on earth," he says.

Sadly, I only have a tiny picture of what the larger puzzle should look like, as we left that photograph in the box in Manlius. There are 500 pieces, and the details of the homes, the rocks, the skies, and the water are minuscule. I managed to get the frame a few nights ago, but now Tunga and I walk by and try to piece the booger together one shape at a time. It drives my eyes buggy, and it definitely triggers my OCD.

I spent 30 minutes or so on it last night, procrastinating another project and too soon to go to bed.

He bought tickets to a Jets/Bills game and headed to Jersey with friends he went to Italy with. I sat at home, wrote, read, walked the dog, cleaned some, went to the gym, and then got distracted by the dang puzzle.

Today, I need to hunker down and get a couple major projects completed. It's all mental work and I've enjoyed the last week where I haven't had to grade, plan, compose, extinguish fires, and worry. All that needs to return, as January is beyond frantic with Martin Luther King events, writing conferences for youth, proposals, grants, a new semester, and the dossier. Of course, moving Chitunga to Syracuse for the spring semester is also on the radar.

The point? I will be living behind my screen, using the keyboard piano and "piecing" together the spring, summer, and fall. At the gym, I dreamed I actually planned a vacation away from it all where I simply could have sand in my toes and waves to be hypnotized by.

Not for a while....it's about to get really C r A z Y.