I am. Largely because I am excited about things starting again.
Martial arts training begins anew tomorrow, and I'm so happy to be getting back at it. With the whirlwind that was family visiting from overseas over the Christmas break, along with too many sweets, has made me feel rather like a sentient blob. I'm anxious to be getting back into martial arts training again. I've also used the week martial arts training begins again as the arbitrary beginning of my renewed attempts at improving myself.
This afternoon, I'll be back at attempting to give myself the strength to do a pull-up and chin-up. I'm hoping for the ability to do ten of each by the end of the year. To that purpose, I've finally splurged and bought myself some resistance bands. That way I'll be able to give my muscles the full motion (even if assisted), which I could not achieve before now. I was relying on dead hangs, shoulder/lat shrugs and negatives... none of which I was particularly good at.
I am determined. I even have a book in which I can record all of my workouts and exercises as I go, so I can track my progress and see if there is any improvement. It's so hard to judge improvement in strength if it's not tracked. Part of why I keep giving up is I feel like there is no improvement.
I'm doing the same for all of my stretching, because I really want to be able to touch my toes and do the splits by the end of the year as well, but I'm focusing on the pull-ups for now.
I've also started guitar again. So far I've relearnt Happy Birthday, acquired some finger exercises and started to develop the calluses again. I haven't practiced as much as I've wanted this past week, but I have plan to get into it now.
Streaming has once again started. I played the first three-ish hours of God of War: Ragnarok on Friday, and it was so much fun. It feel so lovely to connect with the characters again. The team behind this new God of War series have really done a fabulous job in creating depth of character that makes this game (and the one before it) and absolute joy to play. Also, I cried in the first 20-odd minutes. There is a sad death that made me well up. Hush. It was very sad.
Best of all, however, I've reentered the world of writing. I have been spending my lunch hours editing The Lioness of Shara Mountain. Rereading it now, I am really enjoying the characters and world (if I do say so myself), and I'm leaning heavily towards getting it published. I'm still undecided as to by what means, but I do want to see this one in print. There aren't an awful lot of stories about powerful, devoted platonic love. Maybe it'll find an audience on that alone. Once I'm done this round of edits, it'll be sent off to the last beta reader, one more round of edits, and then I have some serious decisions to make.
I'll keep you posted on that.
Speaking of editing, I should go do that. I'm off. Have yourselves a lovely week.
Ciao!