ink at the end of the tunnel

I’m beginning to feel like this last year’s incredible load of work, death, illness and mayhem may be closing out, finally.

I looked at a web site I built for the project I’ve been working in to see when we created it; I was thinking, five, six months ago. In fact it was just about one year almost exactly, which in my mind signifies the start of this whole thing; the day I started working on what was presented as a simple, short-duration project.

Best-laid-plans and all that crap.

I feel I should knock wood saying it, but it looks like the worst might be over. Though when I say knock wood, I mean it that way, since my superstition begins and ends with how many swallows of water cures hiccups.

Meanwhile, I look out at blue sky and try to re-learn the skill of concentration on one task at a time; something I find I’m doing poorly at still, as it’s taken me two hours of interruptions to finish typing this sentence.

It’s been, though, a brutally long year. My struggle now, both at work and in real life, is to try to back up and figure out all the things I’ve put off for months, and take care of them now, in the short window were there might be time. I’m ahead on some fronts; my motorcycle is running again, I finished my taxes on time (last year’s were completed just before the october deadline), and my bills are in some state you might call paid. I’ve gotten a significant amount of yard and house maintenance done since the weather turned nice.

On the other hand, I have a month’s worth of laundry to put away and will be lucky if I can get my garage ‘spring cleaning’ done before fall.

The thing is, these mundane tasks actually feel good; it’s been so long since I’ve felt like anything was actually finished in my life that just planting a new lemon tree in my yard or clearing my desk off feels like a victory.

Part of me wants to take this time to just do nothing; but I can’t yet. I can’t really rest yet. It’s like those first few days of a hawaiian vacation, when my nervous system can’t get off silicon valley time, and and I can’t just sit and watch an ocean or a sunset without thinking about what I will, should, or could do. I can’t stop twitching.

I’m still in that crush-time mindset; the list of things to do is still growing faster than I’m cutting it down; but I’m cutting it down in order of what I care about now, instead of in order of whomever screams first and loudest.

What this means is that my to-do list includes a tattoo; next week I go in to see orly at Humble Beginnings.

I found some good representations of what I’m getting – in concept and style anyway; take a look at the ‘Marquesan’ and ‘Polynesian’ links by Rob Deut of Indepedant Vision; anything with stylized faces gets you to the right territory. Sorry, it’s all behind a stupid flash interface so I can’t direct link; but damn, he’s a great artist; alas, he’s in the netherlands.

I’m working hard to get my head back together, and I can’t think of anything better for than than a little productive pain. I’m hoping this isn’t the last tattoo I actually start work on this year, even if it’s the last this summer (I try to avoid tattoos in teh summer; new tattoos tend not to like sun, sand, sea, and chlorine, which are (one hopes) part of my summers. BUyt as soon as this one’s done, I’m reasonably sure I’ll have my mind best to another, though I’m not sure if it’ll be on my back, or if it’s time to start on the legs again (or, for all I know, more work on my arm). BUt it’s been way too long, and I feel the need to continue.