21 June 2000 * Summer Solstice

On May 1 of this year, I finally got around to doing the top item on my long-term to-do list (a list I keep in my head rather than on paper, but no less important for that): I put the beautiful, expensive, vintage 1971 Fender P-bass that had been gathering dust in my bedroom to good use and started taking bass lessons.

By June 1, I had resumed my abandoned-for-the-winter efforts to improve as a golfer, and set a goal for myself to really learn how to use my woods (damn those divots, so prized with irons and so counterproductive with woods!). I started making dates with friends to go to the driving range, and I played my first 9-hole round of the season. I also started thinking about when I could get to North Carolina to play a round or two with my mom (my golfing role model).

Even with bass lessons and golf going on, however, I still had some free leisure time in my schedule. Lest I fill it up with work (as I have done in the past), I decided to move to the next item on my to-do list: learning to play ice hockey. In addition to being fun and exhilarating, it might actually end up helping me accomplish another goal of mine: since it will probably involve playing on a team (or at least playing in pickup games), it could lead to making friends outside of the office.

It was while I was at the hockey store buying skates that I declared this the Year of Learning New Things. I had only bass and hockey in mind at the time, but I think learning to use my woods and make new friends ought to count too. And since it's official now, I imagine that other New Things will be crawling out of the woodwork before long. I might even learn what I really want out of life.

In the meantime, I plan to chronicle the learning experience. We'll see where I am at the end of the year.

21 December 2000 * Winter Solstice

It seems fitting that I should end the Year of Learning New Things on the Winter Solstice, considering that I started it on the Summer Solstice. 6 months is a nice round figure.

So where am I? Hockey has really stuck: I'm playing in two leagues now. I don't skate as much on non-game nights (mostly because ice time is harder to find in the winter due to increased league play), but I love the sport, I'm improving steadily, and I'm having a great time. I'm also watching as many games as possible (Sharks, Wild, other Ice Oasis leagues) because watching makes me want to play even more.

Bass lessons *didn't* stick, mainly because of other activities that interfered with practice time, and because I wasn't having as much fun with it as I wanted to. I may restart lessons in the spring, or just continue to noodle and play along with Soul Coughing songs. I've got my practice amp in my cube at work, and I sometimes bring the bass in and take play breaks.

Interestingly, I stopped going to the driving range regularly as well, but I finally did click with my 5 wood on a random outing to the Mariner's Point range with Al. It felt so good that I've been thinking about going out again to see if it was a fluke, or whether the 5 wood and I have formed a team.

I've definitely made some friends outside the office in the past 6 months (not least Al, whom I started dating in October). Negin, who plays on both my Monday and Thursday hockey teams this season, threw a lovely holiday party earlier this month; I knew more than half of the people there, and not a single one of them was from work.

Finally, one other (major) New Thing happened in 2000 that I didn't anticipate: I bought a house. The closing's actually very early in 2001, but all the work to make it happen went on this year. It was a big step, and one I'm so thrilled about.

When I started this journal, it was as a sort of therapy. I wasn't very happy, and I'd come to a crisis point where I needed to reassess who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. I threw myself into some new activities to try to figure it all out, and I chronicled the learning process so that I could really have some time to analyze what made me feel good and what didn't.

I can honestly say that life is excellent now; I'm happy, I'm very comfortable with who I am and what I want, and everything's going my way. The happiness is not so much from the new stuff, but rather it's an indication of the cyclical nature of life. There are up times, and there are down times—you just have to figure out how to survive the latter and enjoy the former. I do think that the journaling helped me learn about myself, and when you know yourself, it's eminently easier to survive and enjoy. If you happen to be in survival mode, I highly recommend hockey! It won't be long before you'll be moving to enjoyment.

L