It’s Christmas eve.  The company has all gone home for the night, and it’s just me and the ‘rents hanging out at the house.

For one solitary evening, I’m doing my best not to think about everything I’m naturally inclined to think about - and instead focusing on everything I have to be thankful for.  Great friends and wonderful family, good health, a good job that affords me financial security, and the knowledge that I’m fundamentally a good person, despite (or perhaps, in part, because of) my flaws.

I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful holiday season.

• The house painting is coming along nicely.  By the end of today most of the upstairs should be done.
• I spent about four hours at the climbing gym on Saturday and another two hours on Sunday.  My body hurts - a lot - but it’s a good hurt.  I’m going to take tonight off and head back tomorrow after work.
• My mother is coming down to visit in November.  I can’t wait to see her!
• I’m having strong second thoughts about selling my car and my motorcycle.  I can afford to keep both of them, and I really enjoy them … and the urge to “purge” is passing.  I think I’ll wait until at least the new year to make any decisions on that.

• Went to the gym on Saturday and did about two hours of climbing.  I was still pretty sore from climbing on Thursday and Friday so I stuck to the “easy” walls and the bouldering cave.  I also bought a book on climbing so I can start to figure out the “right” way to do this.
• Decided to paint the house myself.  I was going to hire a friend of mine to paint that inside, but she has a full plate with school and work and won’t be able to do it.  So fuck it - I’ll just go to Lowe’s myself and buy all the shit I need.  I’ll put the money I save towards one of those new sexy iMacs.
• Carolyn came by the house and picked up the last bits of her stuff.  It’s funny how we managed to divide up thousands of dollars of furniture in a matter of minutes, but we poured over DVD’s and CD’s for well over an hour.  But - it went well, and I even made her some food while she was “visiting” (is it visiting when you come to a house that you own but don’t live in anymore?)
• Carolyn brought Muskoka with her, and it was *great* to see him.  He was very happy to see his daddy, and we spent some time play fighting and wrestling.
• I gave Sydney a lot of attention this weekend, and maybe gave her one or two too many “bickies” for being a good girl.  She’s been a real trooper throughout this separation, and she’s given me a lot of reasons to keep my chin up and my head high.
• I decided that what I really need is a Volkswagen Eurovan camper.  I want to circumnavigate North America next spring - and wouldn’t it be way cool for me and Sydney to do that in a Volkswagen camper?  I just need to drum up the $20,000 that these things go for used.

Three hours at the climbing gym last night.

Things I can’t do this morning:

• Hold a pen or a pencil properly in my hand
• Type with more than two fingers on each hand
• Firmly grasp the gear shifter in my car
• Extract a wedgie without using both hands

That said, I had an awesome time climbing last night.  The group of people was fantastic, the gym was challenging, and the price was right.

I’m going to engage in some retail therapy at lunch today, and pick up a basic climbing harness and shoes so I don’t have to rent gear that’s been strapped around the collective crotches of Raleigh.

And the muscle burn feels great.  I slept like nobody’s business last night.

And the best part?  For three hours, I didn’t spend one second thinking about marriage, separation, or anything even remotely related to drama in my life.

OK, so the title sounds a bit lofty … but I found a group on meetup.com that does regular rock climbing events, and I’m going out tonight to do my first climb in over 6 years!

I did a few climbing courses at the University of Calgary when we were living in those parts, and it was a lot of fun.

I figure an added bonus is my recent weight loss.  Ducking in a few pounds shy of 190, I’m hoping that some physical exercise will help replace my lost body fat with muscle.