In the past two weeks, I surpassed the hours of work I thought previously that I could not achieve in these jobs, in these days (84).  Naturally I’ve been building muscle with hemp protein, meal bars and home cooked meals.  I’ve had to be aware of my lifting technique and frequently stretch as well as wear back braces/support guides and rest.

I still have three more overnights into next pay cycle before the first of three trips to Jacksonville planned this year.  I’m slightly nervous protecting my investment towards saving a life, watching my health and iron intake in order to stay prepared to donate blood again soon.

It’s also the fifth year anniversary in my life as a vegan approaching and I will be entering a daring sixth year.  My plans include going out to vegan restaurants in Bangkok and Seoul and hopefully discovering other activities I have been too strict to feel comfortable trying.  I’m going to hopefully share some meals by cooking for my Parents as well.  I’ve strongly established boundaries of certain principles, grey areas and feelings of compromise, comfort foods and a gradient of attitudes towards the topic of veganism in my own mind and politically.

In addition it’s been a year from purposefully listening to music.  There is music playing at one of my jobs which is unavoidable and of course public places like grocery stores or in movie soundtracks.  I even shut off movies at the end before the credits usually to avoid the closing song as my final impression of a film.  It won’t be easy returning to it with the same state of mind and perspective.  Still a year isn’t that long and although there are a couple of albums I would like to listen to, I’m not sure now is the time.

The charger port on my phone stopped working and I have finally received wired internet into my condo to stay connected with the blog, my future plans and communications.  An overnight schedule makes it difficult to reach places like a library and living outside of the city, there aren’t any late night FedEx office type places.  Still I’m delaying the phone purchase because I can’t settle on a choice within my vegan standards.  Most phone brands carry their own brand of leather products (cases and watchbands) or cameras that heavily use leather (like Hasselblad and Sony).  So it’s an attempt to really go at my first trip to Jacksonville in a more old-school way.  I even ordered a physical ticket reissue for Jerry Seinfeld on October 1st.  We’ve become too dependent on mobile devices and I want to verify that it’s possible to live life without them as we once did.

Tonight is my only night off and there have been thunderstorms threatening commutes and outings on bicycle, so I don’t know if I’ll catch a late movie in the theater, but I’ll post about the trip when possible if nothing else interesting happens before then.  I leave Tuesday evening.