Thanksgiving Thursday Thirteen

Grateful for my health, activities to bide an hour exercising on my ski machine came to mind today. Listed in order of prevalence:

1. Study Japanese – my favorite; to be doubly productive is great, though my ears sweat on the Rosetta Stone headset (good thing I have a second pair)

2. Sweat – unfortunately unavoidable despite the fan blowing on me; people have said it’s one reason my skin is so clear, so that makes me feel better

3. Cat Wrestling – this is funny until someone gets hurt or she sabotages my speaking lesson; no Japanese phrase I’ve learned sounds like a high-decibel “meow”

4. Editing – revising a piece of fiction makes time fly and it’s rewarding, though writing legible notes can be tricky

5. Listen to Music – a classic necessity before language studies came along

6. Email – tediously typing one-handed

7. Visiting my Online Group’s Fiction Writers’ Workshop – reading the works my friends have submitted is always rewarding

8. Reading Fanfiction – this lets me catch up on the plethora of talented authors updating on the Pomme De Sang website, though I’ve fallen far behind

9. Books – I used to carry a book bag downstairs before writing became more imperative than reading, there are a few tomes collecting dust by my laptop stand down there

10. Write – even trickier than jotting notes of typing, of course, sometimes that story simply needs to be told NOW

11. Surfing the Web – this is better saved for already distracted moments as that uninterrupted hour of exercise offers precious time to focus

12. Magazines – I used to skim gifted periodicals out of guilt; I’ve been forgiving myself for not reading that which I didn’t subscribe to in the first place

13. Television – while sometimes entertaining, the TV actually makes time seem to slow down; the one in the basement might not even work any more