Day Two

I had a voice mail waiting for me when I got into work this morning. They've cancelled—well, modified—the running class that was supposed to start Thursday. There weren't enough sign-ups, so instead of beginners, intermediate, etc. groups running outside, they're going to conduct a single group inside. They're also not charging me for the class, so I'll give it a shot, and if it doesn't work out, I'll fall back to the Couch-to-5K Running Plan I tried to start a couple of years ago. (With decent running shoes this time, maybe I won't bench myself with an injury three runs in.) 3.25 miles this morning including a contiguous quarter-mile jog without walking. I wish the treadmill had a metric display.

Then I realized that the Spanish dictionary I'd been carrying around in my backpack was actually my Spanish dictionary, not my translating dictionary. Oops. I read some late in the day, probably hitting 30% comprehension without the aid, but I lost track of what was going on just after the introduction. I'll find the other dictionary and continue. I sense a breakthrough on this stuff soon—I've been fiddling with it for years—so excitement is still high.

I did get my art supplies gathered or built, except for masking tape, which should be pretty easy to find in a quick run to the grocery store around the corner. Oh, and the "nonpermanent marker". I suspect a dry-erase marker is what's needed, and it's hard to imagine it matters if it's green or something, so I'll burn that bridge when I get there. Tomorrow, if I can find 90 minutes of uninterrupted time, I'm going to do the "before" pictures. I don't expect it to be pleasant. I really, really hate doing things I'm not good at.

I drew lots and lots of straight lines today for penmanship exercises. I can still see room for improvement, but it's getting there. I was even starting to think it would be good enough... Until I tried the next pair of exercises. They weren't labeled as such, but they were long connected strings of capital Ns and Us, and when I drew them, they were ugly. Picture that last dirty, battered half-gallon of milk left in the back of that ambitiously named "cooler" in the seediest, onliest convenience store for miles. Yeah. Not quite that nice. But that's my handwriting, and that's why I'm doing this one.

I need to ask the Boy if he has a keyboard I can mess with. I'm amped about the Music Theory, but I really do need something I can use for audible output if I'm going to understand anything I'm reading. I'm sure there are good free keyboard emulators out there. Maybe a lot of 'em. But I'd also guess there are about a million others with fewer features, poorer interfaces, higher actual prices, and better SEOs getting in the way of my finding them.

Math tomorrow, I think. And definitely Spanish. But Drawing first if I can find the block(s) of time. I should probably plan to work on those Ms and Us, too, if I don't want nightmares of angry nuns.