5-String Guitar Method

Hope tells me, “do something 14 times and you’ll make it a habit.” So, I’m making habits. Like doing my math homework. Yeah, Mrs. Kassel, you get the last laugh on that one. I’m not saying I’d take back all the naps I took in your class(I mean, how do you take back a nap you took?), but you’d better believe I’m paying for them now. What goes around comes around, I guess. But basically: if I had paid attention in high school, I might understand a few of the key underlying concepts that I’m scrambling to hard to grasp now. Like … trigonometry. And logarithms. Simple things, really, but I look back at high school with a certain horror, realizing how little I managed to learn. At least I can count. I mean, if I couldn’t count at all, I’d be really in a world of hurt. Seven … eight … eight … oh, my.. GORDON…!

(aside: I’d say that “I’m making it through, by the grace of God,” but that’s not true. If I’m making it through, rather, it’s only by the grace of Gordon. If Gordon wasn’t around to answer all my stupid questions (which I have repeatedly prooved DO exist (even if I don’t know how to make a proof)), I don’t know where I’d be. But it wouldn’t be in calc 181, that’s for darn sure.)

So I’m making habits. Like getting up in the morning. I finally found an alarm set-up that works: I have two. The first is the “primer” alarm. It sits on the window frame, within easy reach of my lofted bed, and goes off some 10 minutes before the “real” alarm. And the “real” alarm? Well, that’s under my loft. Better yet, my roommate is a late sleeper, so when my “real” alarm goes off (and goodness, it’s loud!) I always feel the obligation not only to shut off my alarm, but to shut it off as quickly as possible. And once I’ve climbed down my ladder off my loft (which is tricky, even while wide awake), there’s no going back.

Consequently, I have yet to sleep through anything this year. And for me, that’s a big deal.