7 books that have stuck with me

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien – read this about once a year.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis – Read all 7 books in Chronicles of Narnia every 2 years or so. So much packed into such a short book.

The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss – Best book I have read since Lord of the Rings.

Ulysses, James Joyce – toughest book to read, want to read it again. Maybe will not take as long the next time around.

Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac – 1st Kerouac I read thanks to my college roommate. another college friend and I quote it still over 20 years later.

Paper Towns, John Green – related to main character who is a lot like me but he has balls to do things I only keep in my head and never actually do.

Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury – For me, it is essential summer reading. memoir/scifi/fantasy(?) perhaps.

Monday Storytime 

Realized last week it has been 25 years since I left home to go to college. In someways it certainly does not feel that long ago and in other ways it feels like lifetimes ago. And in many ways it has been. I was going to be an actor. Went to a Junior College to get my grades up and was going to transfer to a senior college to pursue acting after receiving my associates degree.Someday I would be on Broadway. Or at least off-off-Broadway.

I have not been onstage since Spring of 1991. "Big River" was the last show I did. I had a great time acting but it all feels bittersweet now. I left for the wrong reason.

A girl. It is always a girl.

She did not like the idea of me being a romantic lead in a show, not that I had ever been one up to that point. I played the supporting characters that helped drive the story, never the main actor in anything I was in.Yet, she fretted over the possibility that at some point it would happen. We had several arguments over it. Really it was one of a series of arguments we had starting about 6 months after we started dating. The next 2 1/2 years would be mostly arguments. Both of us afraid of being alone. Ended up at times being more alone by staying in a relationship that lasted years too long.

Lost contact with her 3 years after I graduated college.

Monday Storytime

In April of 2001 I went to see Billy Joel and Elton John in Greensboro. I have been fan of Billy Joel since I was a kid and while not as big a fan of Elton John I knew it was still an opportunity to see one of the greats.

I was supposed to meet some friends at a local bar before the show but left work late and by the time I arrived at Greensboro Coliseum I was running way late. I made my way to where I thought my seats were (had little to no help from the ushers) and there were people in the seats. being by myself I decided not to bother anyone and eventually made my way all the way to the back of the coliseum to the furthest row sitting in a folding chair against the cement wall of the building. It was also behind the stage. I thought I would at least be able to hear the music and did not mind that I would not see either one of the performers.

I was wrong.

The band was directly below me so I could see them perform as they warmed up before Elton John took the stage. That is when I realized that there was a piano directly below me in direct line of sight from my seat. I knew then I would at least see either Billy or Elton perform. Lights went down and out came Elton and he sat the piano in front of me. Amazing. And while I do not remember what either Billy Joel or Elton John played, I remember watching his hands carve that piano. It was nothing like I have ever seen.

There is another reason I do not remember what Elton John played. I was perhaps in the middle of the row. Directly on my right was a large group of people who were about 10 years older than me at the time. And they had been drinking. Probably for hours before the doors opened. One of them apparently was a Billy Joel fan as he yelled, directly into my ear: "BILLY JOEL!!! BILLY JOEL!! We want fucking BILLY JOEL!!" throughout Elton's performance. The first few times it was funny but 20 minutes later it was annoying. Elton was fantastic. And soon he was walking offstage much to the delight of BILLY JOEL yelling man.

Intermission started, lights came up. I am not sure if there was music playing during this time over the speakers but that is my guess. Soon the lights came back up and Billy Joel walked onto the stage and sat down at the piano on the other end of the stage. He begin to play. But no shouts of his name came from the right of me.

BILL JOEL yelling man had passed out.

Slept through 3/4 of Billy Joel's performance. He woke and I noticed he was talking to what was his girlfriend/wife. He came down the aisle and apologized to everyone within yelling distance. He apologized to me at least twice as I was the one closest to him.

I accepted his apology with a big smile knowing I would have a story to tell. 

Expect Greatness. Get Disappointment

I gave myself an "unofficial" goal of hiking 60 miles this year. I did close to 50 all of last year missing a large portion because I tend to get lazy. And the state park I go to was close for a few months after tornadoes destroyed several hundred trees one afternoon. But really it was all on me.

Anyway, I hiked 7.5 miles on Saturday which put me at 64.5 miles for the year and we are only 5 months into the year, not even halfway through the year. So, who knows how far I will go before the end of 2014.

I do not post here much. I tried but it does not happen. Just like I have tried to write in a journal. It just does not happen. Even when I give myself incentives to do it, they are not enough to get me to do this regularly.

So here is my infrequent post.

Girls Who Read

T-Shirt Tuesday

Several times throughout my life I have tried to keep a handwritten journal. tried in high school, stopped after a few months. tried many times, perhaps twice a year to keep one in college. I did successfully when I was taking a creative writing class and it lasted awhile afterwards but finally stopped. And again after my college relationship ended really bad about 6 months after I graduated college. it was mostly poetry, some better than others but I stopped sometime after as well. Tried the at the start of each of the past two years and yet again, it has not stuck. I do not even do regular updates on here except T-Shirt Tuesday posts but do they really count. I received a really nice journal from a good friend of mine for Christmas and the entries lasted regularly through most of January and slowed off in February and have all but stopped now in March. Maybe I should try one of those apps that make learning a habit into a game like HabitRPG . Cannot hurt to try it I guess.

My mother's cancer came back. Same type as before. She started chemo on Monday. She has it for 2 straight days then off a month then back for two days. He doctor says it will not be as harsh as last time. We shall see. So far no side effects have showed up but it is early.

Waiting for Spring to arrive. Ice or snow or cold rain on average once a week since January. We have had some 70s but few and far between. All that said, I have hiked 30 miles since the beginning of the year.

Am on Twitter if interested to follow me. @JonathanHutch12 (@JonathanHutch13 was taken for those that know me well.)

T-shirt Tuesday (a day late)

New t-shirts for T-Shirt Tuesday (but on a Thursday)

T-shirt Tuesday. And I am actually wearing this one today.

T-Shirt Tuesday

I checked and I started this blog February 7,  2005 mostly so I could respond to a blog a friend had started. I think he had some photos of where he grew up and some from high school but I am not sure. That blog is long gone.

Many years ago I used to do a thing called T-Shirt Tuesday where I would post pictures of the t-shirts I have. Today I start doing that again but will not limit it to ones I already have. I will also post ones I would like to have or ones that my friends have.

First one is for all my friends in education.

Hiked just over 9 miles last weekend. Hurt my should this past Saturday so did not hike.

Still working on the 3 Words for 2014.

Persistance is hard. I knew it would be. Things get in the way and so many times it is easier to put things off till later or just give up on it altogether.

Preparation - Have been doing the 52 Week Savings Challenge. It is where you start with $1 into saving and then the next week you put in $2 and then next you put in $3 and so on. Am at week 7 so have $28 saved so far. By the end of the year will have almost $1400 saved up. Not going to be easy in those last weeks of the year but think will be doable.

Fearlessness - the hardest of the three. Some things are better left unsaid. Do I need some big upheaval in my life at this time or for that matter at anytime in my life? If I do not go for it sometimes I will continue to live the woulda/coulda/shoulda life I have lived so far.

Changes and updates to the blog. The quote is from A.J Leon. It is on a coffee mug I got from them. See picture below. The quote is on the other side but wanted to focus on the image for this picture.

Trying to be more positive in everything I do, say and feel. It is more difficult than I thought it would be. So, got rid of the old title about being angry and aging(both true by the way) and went back to the original title of the blog. It just hit me, I am getting close to 10 years writing here, on and off: mostly off since 2008 but never did hit the delete button. Perhaps, blogs will be the way to immortality.

3 Words 2014

3 Words 2014

I started doing this last year after reading C.C. Chapman's post about his three words. To be honest I am not sure I followed those three words the entire year and/or remembered to put the things in action I said I would Nonetheless I am doing it again this year. 

Persistence - I tend to not follow through on things that I want to do for myself whether it is reading or photography or hiking. The "I am tired" excuse is lame. Sometimes 5 minutes is more than enough time to accomplish something and it ends up being less time spent than coming up with reasons not to do it.

On the work side of things, I block progress of ideas/project/improvements I would like to see implemented (see fearless section below).  The more people that hear the ideas the more likely things are to be adopted. 

Preparation - I spend hours/days/weeks planning for a game session that may last 24 hours over a weekend BUT I spend hardly any time planning for my life: the future, let alone the daily. I want to change that and I know it may take a lot of time to do. After 40+ years of not doing, it will take some getting used to doing.

I have found that I do not reflect on the year that just ended as much as I remember the bad things and the things I see as failures. Reflecting means adding in the good things but it took lots of time to get some of those in my head and onto paper. 

Fearless - I have lived most of my life in fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of being afraid. It is cyclical. So many times my memory is some variation of  "woulda coulda shoulda" instead of I am glad I did that or I am glad I said that. I want to change but I at a loss as to how. After 40+ years of doing things this way I feel stuck in a groove that is very deep and I see no ladder to climb out or shovels to dig with.

But all journeys start with the first step or in the least: 3 Words.