
In which our heroine acquires a new dangerous hobby.*
I am, I will confess, scared sick by heights of any significant distance. Let's say, ten metres up? Yeah, that's plenty high enough for the drop to kill you.
This is why, of course, that having attained, or nearly attained, completion on essay#2, I betook myself to the Climbing Club's Tuesday session, and after twice nearly (I say nearly: I could smell it, damn it) reaching the top of the easiest wall and falling (banging my elbow a good one in the process), signed myself up - and paid in advance - for the belaying-and-minimal-competency lesson on Saturday afternoon. Once I have that, they'll give me a licence, and then I can go cripple myself in the company of a partner pretty much any time I feel like it.
Bear, please don't hurt me. It's too much damn fun to give it up.
After essay#3, I can go back to karate on Sundays. And after essay#4, I can take up judo/ju jutsu on Saturday mornings.
Yeah, my personal reward system involves getting up to go do hard physical exercise. It's kind of weird, but so far, it seems to be working.
(If I attain Schols, or even a nice little exam exemption, I'm taking up fencing in Trinity Term. But that's rather putting the cart before the horse.)
I'm looking forward to the week where I'm sufficiently on top of things that I can hit the gym three times, too. I have hopes that it'll be next week. High hopes.
(Which reminds me, I should look into the gym's holiday opening hours. They have a swimming pool**, and if I don't have a lecture to run for or an immediate train to catch, it'd be rather nice to have a dip.)
Things've been rather quiet on the writing front. I promised myself I wouldn't beat myself up about not writing while I was aiming for Schols, and so far, not so much with the guilt. But I broke a long dry spell at the weekend when I started something new, and in the wake of that, I've finally figured out one of the things that I keep stalling on in the duellist book.
It might be a good idea if I manage to give both my main POV characters different arcs. Rather than have the one clinging onto the other like a limpet.
As soon as I figure out how, precisely, I should do that, I'll give it another shot.
Progress on essay#2, once I realised what I needed to do, has been gratifyingly rapid. Hopefully this streak of good luck will hold true for essay#3, which is also a presentation, and needs to be done by Monday.
Damnit, but I love my work. Love. I've found my vocation, and while it'll never make me rich, studying, reading, discussing, learning: it makes me happy. Which is altogether the preferable thing.
Also, adrenaline from falling off walls. But the fact remains.
Now if I could only finish a novel, my small, personal world would overflow with joy. :P
*Previous (current, as soon as I climb Essay Hill) dangerous hobbies include karate and scuba diving.
**Yes, it's a sad thing. Gyms with swimming pools are usually rarefied animals, in my experience. Not right there! In my college! For me!