Marching to the beat of a different mandolin

Painting my own house sucks. It's much easier to do someone else's. I'm sure there's lots of psychology theory behind that. But anyway after 2.5 days of intermittent work, we're done with the two small bedrooms. That leaves the hallway and the master bedroom to do, which I really don't wanna. The master has vaulted ceilings and is HUGE, so I know it's gonna take forever, and also it's only just now occuring to me that I don't have a ladder tall enough, so unless I can borrow one tomorrow, I can't really do it anyway. I guess I could also buy one. It wouldn't be the worst thing to have an extension ladder. But they're spendy and I don't think I could get it home from the store in my Prius.

Uber did a driver incentive thing for this weekend, so I went out driving last night for a few hours. I almost never do night time driving, and usually only log in long enough to do three or four rides, then call it good and go home. But I wanted to take advantage of the incentives and I was feeling good, so I did. Altogether I made about $30/hour, which is definitely a good wage, but also it felt like such a grind. It felt like I was out there much longer than I was, and when I came home, I wasn't tired enough to go to sleep, so I was up until 3am, and then tired all day today, and just blah. But I've got nothing better to do tonight, so I'll go back out for a little while and see how it goes. It's crazy how many people I was picking up at midnight last night to take TO their evening plans. Like, most nights, midnight is the latest I would even dream of staying out. But these folks were just getting started. Damn.

Taborgrass is back in session for the fall, and so far I'm keeping up well enough with the intermediate class. I practiced really hard all week and was really pleased at how much I was able to improve on the one tune I've been working on. When I first looked at the music, it was a "yeah...haha, no" situation, but after breaking it down and gradually building up to it, I had it more or less figured out in a week. The next song is harder still, though, so we'll see. I'm still loving my instrument, though.

I am busy. I think it's good for me to be busy. It can be overwhelming and I still have lots of sadness lingering, but I am doing things that are good for me.

I listed a property yesterday and I already have 3 offers. I'm psyched because this one is way out in the far 'burbs and I wasn't sure how quickly it would move. So that's a weight off, knowing I'll get paid at least once more this year. I've also had airbnb people pretty regularly at my place for the last few months, with reservations continuing through November, so that's a nice supplement, and motivation to keep my house sort of tidy.

I volunteered to coach YMCA basketball this fall. Actually, I sent an email asking about it, and then today I got an email with a roster of little girls and practice and game times telling me this is my team. Well then! Luckily the time commitments don't interfere too much with what's already on my schedule, so I can go ahead and take on this team, but the first game is while I'm away for the Ragnar race in California. Hopefully I can work that out. If any locals want to co-coach with me, let me know. Definitely looking for someone who can at least sub that first weekend.

This morning I went to the pumpkin patch with Shanon and her kids. All the pumpkins there were kind of rotten and gross, so we didn't get any, but we had a fun time playing on the farm, and then I bought some Halloween decorations at their shop. I'd like to do a pumpkin carving thing in a couple weeks, maybe, if some friends would be into that. I'm pretty terrible at this sort of thing, but it could be fun anyway. I'm proud of myself though because my house looks kind of festive. I planted mums in the toilet in the back yard, and I strung some lights back there. The inside of the house is coming along slowly, too. I'm definitely no housekeeper, but for some reason Shanon likes to do this sort of thing, so she's been helping me get things cleaner around here.

Mandolin is going really well. I've been taking private lessons once a week and also attending a beginning bluegrass class called Taborgrass for 3 hours each Saturday. It's all kinds of instruments (though 3/4 of the room is guitars -- there are also a couple other mandos, some fiddles, dobros, banjos, and a bass) and the format is very easy to follow. It feels like we're actually making real music in there, and that's empowering. It encourages me to keep at it, anyway. Emily came down from Vancouver and did a class with me last weekend with her guitar. It was great.

All these activities and positives help balance out the very difficult things I've been going through, too. I hope this isn't one of those things where I make myself so busy that I can't process the hard stuff and then I eventually collapse under the strain of it all and have a real meltdown...I don't *feel* like that's coming, but I'm on guard, anyway.