Roly poly ramblings

I keep thinking I’m blogging almost every day, but then I look at the actual blog and realize I’m only posting one day in three. I must be getting old, the way my sense of time is completely fluid. Or maybe I’m getting more eternal.

Anyway, I was thinking (I was going to say “musing” but that sounds rather pretentious, kind of like my editor’s note picture in my magazine :P) earlier today about introversion and extraversion. That’s all.

Just kidding. I’ve noticed that just today alone, I’ve flipped back and forth several times between being a chatty socializer (socialist? :P) and a please-just-leave-me-alone recluse. And with those changes, my social confidence waxes and wanes; at its apex, I’m on top of the world and could do almost anything, but as soon as it plummets to its Mariana depths, I curl up like a potato bug (pillbug/sowbug/roly poly) and all I want to do is retreat to my cave. And then I start mixing metaphors left and right.

I wasn’t planning on rewriting my “Into the Oven” play for class on Tuesday, but yesterday morning in the shower a new idea hit me and as soon as I got out I sat down and started writing, and just over an hour later I had a completely new play. And it’s a lot better than the first one. (Shudder.) (Which isn’t to say it’s brilliant or anything. It’s only a first draft.)

Since I’m rambling about odds and ends here (have I mentioned that I often feel like I’m losing my mind? No, seriously — I wouldn’t be at all surprised if dementia hit me in ten years or so, to be honest, but I do have an overactive imagination on speed, so I generally don’t trust rabid predictions like that, and I also wouldn’t be surprised if I went blind, but even that wouldn’t be such a big deal anymore, because I’ve been reading Jacques Lusseyran’s And There Was Light and he could still see even after he went blind, sort of like how Ivy Walker in The Village could see people’s colors), last night I finished the bulk of a major book design project that’s been weighing on me for months, so that’s good. And I’m designing the new ward directory. And this week I’ll start work on the next issue of the magazine. Did I mention that I’ve been working on a really short 3D animation? And I’m gearing up to write a short film. And and and…

Whoa, Ben. Can you tell that I’m hyperventilating? :P

It looks like I’m more tired than I realized. ~sigh~

I thought it was ‘roley poley.’

Hey dude… To use a crass metaphor, sometimes folks get emotionally ‘backed up’ and it all comes out in a sudden moment. Maybe that’s it? I don’t know. I’ll let you know when I’m perfect.

Sometimes I think we’re spritiual twins the way I identify with the weirdest and best of you.

Anyway, I posted this story on my blog quite a while ago, but I love telling it, so here it is:

While hiking Y Mountain in Provo a few summers ago, Michael and I overheard a young lady, very well acquainted with nature for a four-year-old, teaching a much younger lady the ways of the world. She said, “It’s a potato and it’s a bug. It’s a potato bug.” I felt that I had been privy to a great moment of wisdom, and I repeat it often to keep myself young.

sixline: Either way works by me. :) And I think there’s some truth to your crass metaphor, actually.

Bethany: Haha, glad to know I’m not alone in my insanity. :P And that’s an awesome story. I need to spend more time around kids…