TRIPLE T, HARDCORE VERSION 2ND STAGE...
for all those who didnt catch the last post, this is the continuation of the post i had b4, about the trials, tribulations and triumps of the past wk (hence the triple t). Think the accounts of the movin in will be a bit abreviated, mostly cause everything seems to be a blur right bout now. But, there will be more good stuff, trust me, hehe.
Think i left off at around last wkend, where we had to get the old crapstreet (aka Dwight and Shattuck) place restored to its less crappier state (yea, ive been sayin that word a whole lot more... crapstreet, its jus a neat word, i guess). With most of our stuff outta the place, we proceeded to wipe away a good 8 months worth of filth, dust, debris, miscellaneous hairs and such off the tiles and hardwood floors. I was expecting the job to take about 4 hrs tops. And most of the apt did take a good 4 hrs, but 4 hrs can be pretty damn long when ur tryin to tackle this sort of mess...
Livin in that apt really did get me depressed to a certain degree. I would always joke around to ppl i knew that i was livin in my own filth. The sad thing bout it was that it didnt stray far from the truth. No matter how much times we tried to tackle those hardwood floors throughout the sem, it never seemed to get clean. All the traffic from the outside and the debris we carry inside might have been a large culprit in that. Anyway, clearing away all that filth really surprised me. I knew our place was pretty dirty... but damn. Dust bunnies were rampant, and hairs from every body part imaginable were strewn in nooks and corners unimaginable... it was pretty nasty. That wasnt the worst part. Next came the bathrooms....
Oh, the nastiness. The countertop around the sink wasnt too bad, w/ a bottle of KABOOM in hand at least. It was pretty strong, the stuff could eat away at ur hand... but it worked for the most part. (oh yea, forgot we took a trip to sears and bed/bath/beyond for a vacuum and cleanin accessories, plus a nice metal trash can). After a dozen paper towels and a 1/4 of a bottle of kaboom, i was about done w/ the countertop. I checked up on Vic cleanin the stove. That was heavy duty too, cause it took forever to get the grime and grease off the stovetops. Took as long as the bathrooms did... ooh man. Next came the toilet... and yes, nastiness abound. Jus had to get down and dirty there... When i was done w/ the toilet, the shower was screamin for a clean, laden w/ soap scum and rust stains. That was a pain as well, lotsa elbow grease for that one. Last was the floor, and that was the end of me. Couldnt take much more cleanin from then on. We hoped to finish then, but alas, it required one more day...
(side note: we got rid of the futon-of-death problem. It is out of mind and worry. From that point on, we disavow any knowledge toward the ownership of a futon-of-death)
That day finally came, when we could finally say "this is our last trip to the old place". Arranging the rest of our misc items in the middle of the old living room, Mark proceeded to take some pics, for posterity. The pics made the old place look quite decent. Sitting in the kitchen, i seriously wondered how we managed to live there... still boggles my mind. Now, all we had to do is look foward, to tasks yet to come and to tasks yet to be done. A neverending race, i guess.
Which pretty much leads up to today, a few days after the aftermath of moving. Now is the time to catch up and renew those things neglected in my life. Wushu is part of that. I have neglected it for a good long while, mostly due to my own laziness and some to sickness. Again, w/o sayin much, i have to devote more to something that has developed into a growin passion of mine. More importantly, i have to devote time to something i have really neglected: my faith and y i believe in God in the 1st place. I have my reasons is believing, livin in the way i do, and a huge part is attributed to my faith. Recent events of present have seen my faith growing thin, a truly sad state of affairs. Happy to say that ive remedied it a bit in the past wks. Goin to mass tonite was a big uplift, and with all honesty that one sermon clarified, brought into perspective all that which plagued me, angered me, annoyed me, burdened me. Life is ever-changin, and i for one should kno that well. My mood is as predictable as... the position of an electron in an atom (couldnt think of anything else... ehhh). Even tho i may not show it, i tend to hurt inside, resent which surrounds me, and be uplifted again. Its the natural state of affairs for me. In the low state that i was in, the priest at Newman taught me once again that the hardships i faced were similar, if not identical, to those faced by any human being. The most i got out of that sermon was to slow down which seems too fast to comprehend. Stop, reflect, immerse yourself in prayer, devote time to Him who devotes ever ounce of His being to you. That was the message that i heard.
I remember a koan (a Zen riddle of sorts which is designed to empty all those cluttering thoughts... to my understanding) from an old Japanese art class i had freshman yr. A man is tryin to catch a catfish in a gourd. The gourd is too slippery to catch the fish, so the fish easily escapes the grasp of the man. How do u catch the fish then? Tryin to solve this is like tryin to capture water within ur fist... it escapes ur grasp as well. All this is akin to tryin to do everything at once. Balance is sacrificed then... which goes counter to what im strivin to achieve. Stop, slow down, reflect, renew, and be revitalized. Mind and body as one, thought and action in unity. I cannot merely think about everything w/o action, and action w/o thought leads me astray. Fine tuning all of this is something i have to do continually, a lesson which i kno ill have to revisit. Hopefully i wont need it for a good long time. All in all, i need to give God much more time, and to act upon all that i say... or all ill be doin is... talkin. Well, really like the new apt, and seems my future seems a bit brighter, eh? Take care yall. More to come soon.
