Am I Nuts?

Maybe so. Over the last six months, I’ve been spending a lot of time really thinking about what I want to do…what I want to accomplish in life. I’ve been reevaluating my personal goals, deleting some, adding others, and modifying my day-to-day routine to try to increase the probability of achieving the goals that I create for myself. This is a work in progress, and of course, pool is going to be a big part of the final solution, but I just wanted to share a few things that I’ve thought about or changed in my life recently:

No TV. For the last six months, I’ve watched no TV. None. What?!! Am I nuts? I didn’t really decide one day not to. It just happened. I got busy, moved to a new place, and never took time to setup the cable service. “One less bill to pay”, I told myself. I kept putting it off, and voila, 6 months later, I don’t miss it at all! I recently read that the average American adult male spends about 29 hours per week in front of the TV. Really? That’s almost like a full time job. I am choosing to spend that extra time at the pool table.

Dancing. I’ve started taking ballroom dancing classes. Yes, you read that correctly. And why not? With all the extra time that I’m gaining, there’s plenty of room for an extra activity or two. Anyway, could I really spend the entire extra 29 hours per week bent over a pool table? Even I would probably balk at that. I’m very much a beginner in the dance arena, but I’ve found that ballroom dancing is a lot of fun and a great way to meet new people.

Moving. Yep, it turns out, the pool hall that I frequent is only about a mile from my office, so why not just move closer and drastically cut down on travel time to both work and play? Done. Now, instead of fighting interstate rush hour traffic for an hour and a half daily, my commute looks like this: 2 miles to get to work, 1 mile to the pool hall after work, then 1.5 miles to home again, all on nearly deserted surface streets. Much less gas, less stress, and more time to spend doing other things, like shooting pool! The much shorter commute also helps in the event that I oversleep, which seems to be a chronic pool player malady.

Making a List. No, I’m not Santa Claus. I’ve decided to put together a list of things that I want to accomplish. You know, before I die. Wait, that’s sounds a little dark. Scratch that. Let’s call this list the “Things that I’ve always wanted to do, but I never did, so I’m gonna do it now” list. Yeah, that’s better. I’ll publish my list at some point in the future, but for now, here are some of the items that I’ve already put on my list: (1) learn to dance (doing it), (2) become a professional level pool player (working on it, but it’s a tough one!), (3) participate in a week long paleontological dig in Montana, and (4) watch a manned rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.