I’m a man of habit. Not obsessively so — I don’t insist on waking at the same time, having the same breakfast, etc. But I’ve got to have some sort of a pattern on which to rely, at least when I have little else on which to provide stability. Here in Blacksburg, not having a job or school yet, I basically have two weeks to putter around. That’s not to say that I don’t have plenty to do — from getting the utilities in my name to scheduling classes, I’ve got enough to keep me busy for some days. But my days have the potentially to be completely formless, and that, I’m certain, would be pretty depressing.
So I’ve gotten myself a little routine. I wake, feed the parking meter, shower, eat breakfast while reading the New Yorker, read for school (this morning, John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government”), clean, feed the meter, and head over to the computer lab. There I have up to two hours until the meter runs out, though I often invent more pressing matters for myself, and allow myself less than an hour. The afternoon is for projects — visiting parks throughout the town, purchasing necessities for my new apartment, or unpacking a few particularly bothersome boxes. Come late afternoon, I do some further academic reading, punctuated by the playing of video games (I favor Tekken Tag Tournament), and then move onto work. Though I don’t yet have an Internet connection, I have a great deal of work to do for clients, and so I’ve been developing websites sans web access. It’s good for me, I believe. I have dinner at the reltively reasonable hour of 6 or 7. Last night, it was a baked potato and a salad, sensibly. Then I might watch television for a bit, or listen to music, and alternate between working and reading until it’s time for a bit of neatening up, and then reading in bed, followed by sleep.
It’s a strange thing to live such a simple life, albeit only a temporarily-simple one. I have no projects underway. I have neither friends nor acquaintances, so I experience no chance social gatherings. I don’t have money to spare, so there is no eating out or public luxuries. This is, in short, quite the opposite of the life that I am accustomed to living. I don’t know how much longer that it will last, but I’ve decided that, when all’s said and done, it’s good for me.