This is me today

[aadler]

9:50PM Central Afghan Time

Okay, current activities.

I’m exercising again. I’ll have to check my run time (I was going for calorie burn today), but I believe I’m already at passing level for the Army physical fitness test, and it’s just a matter of how much better I can make myself. I’m also working on weight loss. I did not, fortunately, gain as much as I was afraid I might have during my slack months.

I’m about to start Disk 3 of Alias Season 4. Not really as enthusiastic as I was when I first began viewing the series DVDs, but we’ll see how that goes.

I watched two movies the last couple of days. The first — the Producers — was a huge disappointment. I’ve seen and enjoyed other Mel Brooks movies, but this one was just too broad and obvious. Despite my having picked it up on the recommendation of someone I respect (honorh), I’ll have to give it a decided thumbs-down. The second was Bride and Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha’s Hollywood/Bollywood rendition of the Jane Austen tale. It was fun, captivating, and unforgettable, so much so that I’ve already ordered more of her movies.

We may go back to the States as early as the beginning of April, or as late as the middle of May. Either way, we’re on the downhill slope now, and I need to begin making plans for what I’ll do when I return. WriterCon II, of course, heads the list.

It was fairly chilly while I was at Tarin Kowt, but I’m back in a warmer section of Afghanistan, and we’re probably at the peak of winter right now, so it’ll just continue to get warmer. With luck, we’ll leave right about the time it begins to really heat up.

I got a confirmation on my leave dates. I already know the place in Germany I plan to visit, so I’ll need to look at making reservations as soon as I get a bit more info. (Wish there was some way I could call on selenak, but that would be presumptuous of me as well as logistically difficult.) I definitely will be making the acquaintance of certain quantities of beer. When I was in Iraq, you could buy liquor from eight-year-old kids by the side of the road; here, conditions are more stringent and the Army is more serious about enforcing its rules, so — except for a sip of wine at morning Mass — I haven’t had alcohol of any type since June. Without going overboard (I have no desire to spend my entire leave hung over), I plan to relax a bit.

And, finally and most hearteningly: it took me awhile to get back into the rhythm, but I’m writing again. I added a couple of thousand words to the story I started three weeks ago; it’s at 14,000 words right now, and it doesn’t look like it’ll go much past 20,000 (if that). That will make seven stories I’ve done in-theater, most of the way to my goal of turning out at least nine.

Feeling pretty good.