Travel, Dreams and the Weekend

Busy weekend!

I had a great time with Tori this weekend. Started with some wings and beer at the Buffalo place in Milford, then back to Stratford for the night where we FINALLY watched Layer Cake. It was too intellectual for Tori (j/k), who fell asleep around midnight. Saturday morning was spent lounging and I got sucked into watching Myth Busters while she made breakfast. Then it was off to the Stewart Residence, from which we set a heading for "random" and let the car take us where it would. By and by, we ended up heading down to Guilford and then around and up to Gillette Castle where, apparently, we were about the last people to cross the bridge before it broke for the day. We heard the sirens shortly after. Walking around outside Gillette Castle was cool..... the man found the perfect location. Afterwards, we got in touch with the parentals, whose dinner date plans had fallen through. We invited them up to try Indian cuisine at Ambassador of India with us and good times ensued... mom had a full (albeit small) glass of wine and was off the hook. Hehehe... OH! But then when we got back home and Tori was carrying her overnight bag in she tripped over the loose board on the deck and bruised her knees pretty bad. =( We took care of that board last night! We're still waiting for Tori's lawyer to call...... guess I can't break up with her now! =P

Sunday ended up being a Starbucks breakfast (seriously, never going there again.... the coffee is no better than DnD, they have fewer summer drink options, and the FOOD is CRAP...CRAP I SAY! lol). After filling up, we sort of cruised through some spots I haven't been to in a while across town and found a few choice locations where we'd... well, at least I... would love to plant a dream house not far from the Vineyard.

Tori didn't stay long, because I had work to do. I never got it all done though, because I got the urge to put together a handicap ramp for Star to get up on the deck since her leg bothers her a lot sometimes. I geeked out a little bit and built the ramp out of Trex composite boards, which are very soft material and easy to work with... except when it comes time to screw them together and you have to finish off each screw by hand with a ratchet to get the head to set properly below the level. Once it was put together (cut everything perfectly the first time) and test-fit, I wrapped it all in some indoor/outdoor matting to give traction in different weather conditions for the dogs. All in all, it looks fairly professional out there.

Interestingly, Star took to it quickly. She seemed to realize I did it for her because she was very affectionate and excited after I got her to go up and down it a few times.

A nice, busy weekend. I even managed to get some good sleep, which is a rarity for me on a weekend. But I have been dreaming quite a bit since last week. Very clear dreams, somewhat abstract... i.e., not prophetic but not purely random either. Given their density and complexity, I can only guess that perhaps something good or bad may be coming my way in the next week or two??? That is vague as heck, but the only proven rule to how this works for me. If I had to guess, it may have something to do with improvements with my trading. No guarantees.

Sidenote: I've also realized that I have been decompressing a bit lately. I sort of shut things off for a while so I could keep moving forward on the trading front, but I'm finally coming back to life. Maybe it's the chance at a light at the end of the tunnel, but I can relax a little now. This is bringing up some mixed feelings of happiness and bitterness. Joy over getting to the other side of the tunnel, but it has not been without a price: a friend or two who (granted, they were fairweather friends to begin with), no one understanding what I do and therefore thinking I'm crazy, other friends/family who have expressed doubt, knowing what some people clearly think but don't say, the financial pressure of a dwindling checking account (could fix it if I needed to), my dad's ups and downs, my own pressures, expectations and internal feelings of relative failure.

All that.

But maybe now I've got a shot. Hey, it only took 8 years to get here. That is 8 years of my dad plugging 18 hours a day at this (which is really FAR FAR more years than anyone else in this list). Roughly 3 years of my own have been devoted to the pursuit. Add to that a collective 12, 18 and about 5 by some of our close peers. That is practically a lifetime of different experiences being poured together by men whom I mostly consider to be extremely intelligent. All that effort, and in the end it isn't an indicator, subscription or system, but a skill set. That's difficult to explain, surprising to experience, and probably near-impossible to teach. This is all jabber-jaw since I have no tangible results yet, but I believe it will all come in time.