I woke around nine this morning. As usual, I had some very odd dreams, so I laid around in the bed a bit and thought about them, tried to keep them fresh in my memory. I feel I’ll have to start writing them down when I can – they would be excellent creative fodder for my fiction. Anywho. Got up, showered, dressed, cleaned somewhat (I still have a great deal of organizing/un-messing of this apartment to attend to), did some necessary browsing of certain music websites (disquiet.com is my new love), and then headed off to work. Walked to the train. Took the red line down to North & Clybourn. Stopped at Starbucks before heading in to work.
“Hello. I’ll have an iced venti soy latte.” Sad to say, those were the first words I spoke all day.
When I was a child I remember a superstitious sort of thing my brother encouraged us to do. I don’t recall why, or even if I particularly cared about it. On the first day of some month (April, May, March for all I know – maybe it was even every month?) it was supposed to be good luck to say “rabbit” first thing in the morning when you woke up, before speaking any other word. I had all morning to say rabbit, but instead I asked for an iced soy latte.

For most of the workday, I had the word “focus!” scrawled on my left forearm. I tried to think of an easy way to repeatedly remind myself to not get distracted, to stay focussed on the task at hand, to be more observant of things. I don’t develop habits very easily, so it is somewhat out of the question to just remind myself to stay focussed constantly, or try to train myself to think of the word repeatedly throughout the day. So I wrote it on my arm, figuring I’d just see it and it would help. Which is sort of silly, as I need to focus more when not at work – it’s my personal goals and creativity that need me to devote clear attention to them without letting my mind wander off to other things. At work I tend to keep to the job quite easily, at home I find other things to draw me away from work I should be doing – music, the internet, random articles in newspapers or even outdated magazines I have lying around.
So I’m thinking the first tattoo I’ll get will be of a very utilitarian sort. I’m going to get “focus!” tattooed on the side of my left arm.