Guitar Circle Journals

Late rise after turning off alarm clock instead of using the snooze button. The extra hour of sleep helped me to feel much more rested. I guess I slept another sleep cycle.
A good day at work. Had lunch with the boss of my boss. Very good conversation with him. Until today I had never had the chance to speak with him so this helped me to gain a more precise impression of him and replace some illusions.
After lunch a very positive meeting with two people who I need input from for my project. Presenting some images from a webinar got people quite interested. Images are worth a 1000 words.
Evening, a good walk home. The weather is just perfect for walking. Around 0oC. Evening practice with Chris. Beginning with some exercises for warming up including a new idea for circulations. Increasing the number of notes each person plays as the circulation progress’. Really fun and this needs to be explored more. Working on an ebow part for one of his compositions and then the Satie Piece.

Last post of my 3 month post commitment.
Rise at 5:50 am coughing. Body is really feeling the accumulated fatigue from the last few days of having difficulty sleeping.
Morning at work. Arriving and noticing that my office is in need of a serious clean up. Cleaning up and feeling happy and fortunate to be working in this new space with a window. After clean up making an important phone call to set up an important meeting. The first part of this project is turning out to be an effort of gathering of information from different people who work in the company. This is going to need lots of initiative and lots of calls, two things that are demand effort and get me out of my comfort zone, which is quite worth it.
In the morning, an impromptu visit from the telecom boss. I ask a few questions about the new project and get plenty of valuable information in a short time. These kinds of meeting are sometimes more productive than 30 min. to 1 hr. formal meetings.
Out for lunch and seeing a colleague of mine at the restaurant and then joining him for lunch. I ask a few more questions about my project and fortunately get plenty more valuable information. Another productive informal meeting.
In the afternoon, fatigue growing in my body. Clearly I’m in need of exercise and rest.
Meet my Dad at 5pm at his job and then he drives me other to his place for a dinner party for my grandfather’s 92 birthday. One of the guests trips in our living room and hurts herself. Feeling quite concerned for her as she may be seriously injured. However, how do these feelings help the situation? During the rest of the evening she seemed OK but in some pain. Wishing her the best.
At a few moments during the dinner my grandfather told us little stories. He’s in a really good mood and it really shows. A nice evening.
Over the next few days I’ll be continuing my journal and this weekend I’ll decide how I plan on continuing for the next few months.
Looking back: The commitment has been well worth it as it has freed up energy for me. My aim was to develop and stronger morning sitting. It’s quite hard for me to say that I have achieved this aim. Also, I haven’t always kept this aim in mind. It may have been there in the beginning but it disappeared soon after. Finding ways to remember my aim for future commitments is something I need to explore.

Rise at 6:35 after a night with lots of coughing.
A good hot breakfast with lots of fruit to raise my spirits and an AT lie down.
Morning: I’ve got an important day at work with two important meetings so I feel that I’ve got to be there. In the morning meeting my boss and presenting him the ideas that I came up with yesterday. He was receptive to my ideas but seemed a little tired and distracted by the noise around us. Maybe he’s had a tough night as well…
Out for lunch with a colleague who’s become and good friend. We talk mainly about music as he plays the guitar as well. Also getting valuable information for my new project.
Afternoon: working on various tasks and then a meeting with my boss (boss 1) and the boss of my boss (boss 2)… The meeting begins with boss 1 explaining a procedure and boss 2 misunderstanding a part of the procedure. What followed was confusion and I didn’t have the clarity and distance from the situation to explain the misunderstanding. An aphorism came to me during the meeting: “when stuck increase complexity”. So I decided, when it was my turn to speak, to explain the idea I came up with yesterday. This shifted everyone attention and had a nice result. For me, this kind of outcome is very rare so I felt quite happy.
Evening at home, practicing and working on a breathing exercise and reading from the book “the 4 agreements”. Quite tired from the last few days of being sick and not being able to sleep much.

Rise with a really bad cough. A hot breakfast and tea help to calm my coughing.
After breakfast, I go back to sleep for 1 hour and then send an email to my boss to tell him I’ll be staying at home. I get a simple yet thoughtful reply wishing that I get well soon. So far I’ve been very happy with my interactions with my new boss.
The remainder of the day was mainly for resting and doing some walking outside and practicing. In the afternoon I spent 1 hour writing down some ideas for my new job. A very productive hour of work.

Day of many bad breaks and seeing a wonderful friend that I haven’t seen in 2 years. Keeping a smile.

Rise at 7:30.
Morning task: setting up answering machine in our living room so that my roommate can use it. In the afternoon out to get a new drain pipe for my washing machine. Installing the pipe. Evening out to play poker with friends Alex and Melissa. I really appreciate being around these friends. We have many things in common.
An active day even though I’m struggling to get over a cough.

Rise at 6:20.
Day at work: answering questions for a colleague. For a long time I was the one who always had questions. It really feels nice to have people come to me with questions now. Lunch with a colleague. I was surprised to hear about his career path. He worked in forestry and pulp and paper before going into telecoms.
Afternoon: During the day I was saying to myself that it would be very nice if my new boss would call and that is just what happened. I was surprised and happy that he called. He gave me lots of encouragement for the new project.
Evening: Cooking a big lentil soup and some practicing.

Rise at 7:30.
Morning : people from my insurance company visit to evaluate the water damage. After all the cause of the damage is different than what we thought and I may only be responsible for 50% of the damages.
Afternoon: Off to pool to pay for my subscription and than to work. At work, completing the move of my stuff to my new office and cleaning up my old office space. Forgetting that this is my first day at my job for 2008. Tomorrow will be a second chance for a proper beginning.

7 days left in my 3 month journal commitment.
Rise at 9am. A wonderful breakfast prepared by my Mom, helped to get the day started and to relieve my sore throat.
Ride back to my apartment with my parents. A comment I made to my dad brought out the state he was in. Why did I say this? Was it necessary?
Afternoon at home. Dealing with the water damage situation. Writing a journal of the events for my insurance company. Then cleaning my apartment. Near the end of the cleaning I felt tired and decided to stop.
Fortunately, I was in a good enough state to know to choose sufficiency. In the future, it’s better to set a determined amount of time for cleaning to avoid working too much.
Evening: practice with Chris, using only my Les Paul. We work on an arpeggio idea that Chris had, then the Satie piece and then one of Chris’ composition with me using my ebow. A good practice.
A quick journey home, catching bus, metro than bus with little waiting time.
Now to bed.

Late rise. Breakfast and 2 phone calls needed before morning exercises.
A good feeling during morning sitting. Just accepting tension and observing it.
Noticing that my posture improved on its own during the sitting and tension was
lower afterwards.
Practicing: Working on arpeggios in C major using the top 3 strings and then the
Erik Satie piece: Petite ouverture a danser, which I can now play. A beautiful
and mysterious piece.
A light lunch and then out for dinner at my parent’s place for my brother and
his wife’s last night before heading back to London.
Dinners with my family bring back an identification that was often present
during my youth. Noticing this and realising that the same identification
comes back when around certain other people.
This is not who I wish to be and it’s source is cleary not me either. What to
do? Observation is a beginning. Choosing a different state is where I wish to
be.
Watching a movie with my parents. “La vie en Rose”, Edith Piaf’s life story. A
very sad life. She was surrounded by “helpful” people, which brought her fame
but also many difficulties.