Nobody talks anymore. And no one listens. It’s always about me, me, ME and I’m as guilty of it as the next guy. I made some amends about this situation today, but first…

Yesterday, another largely-unproductive day. This cold has frankly been kicking my ass and I’ve been wanting to sleep even more than usual. I did get a few more words written on the novel, which I think is important. I also created a mental checklist of what’s left to do for the law school apps. I keep hoping that if I post enough of these “today I didn’t accomplish SHIT!” posts, I’ll eventually kick it into high gear and do a month’s worth of work in 6 hours…

Last night I hung out with some old friends, most of whom were too drunk to appreciate my wonderful presence. I was elected to be DD and shuffled the gang from a beer pong party to a bonfire. I bummed a few menthols off a stoner chick in hopes the smoke would alleviate my cold symptoms. No luck there.

Today I spent some time with two cousins and we had some real conversations, as I alluded to above. It was good, it felt fresh, new, exciting. It was something different. It was good to get out of my own head for a while and focus solely on the conversation: responding, but more importantly, listening.

Aside from already falling behind on the blog posts, I’ve been fairly productive as of late. Especially so if you take into account the fact that I’ve been trying to combat my cold by sleeping 15 hours a day. Okay, perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration.

Yesterday I hammered out some more law school stuff and asked a few professors to write recommendations for me. All that’s left to do is get the transcript situation handled (which would probably take an hour at most if I just buckled down and did it), get the necessary forms to my professors in physical form (still unsure if I can do this by mail) and then write the personal statement.

The personal statement won’t be bad at all as long as I can write it when I’m in a good flow. Sometimes words just flow from my fingertips like poetry. Other times, I can barely construct a coherent sentence. (In case you’re wondering, all the blog entries I’ve written so far have fallen under the latter category).

It is my plan to wake up early tomorrow and really get on the law school thing. I’d like to be finished with it (or as close as possible) by this weekend. I’m tired of thinking about it. I want to send off my applications and hope for the best. If I get a fat scholarship, then sure, I’ll go. If I don’t…well, that’s a topic for another time.

Today could technically be considered a success. My head feels like its been run over by a truck, yet I still managed to write a few hundred words on the book and finish editing most of what I’ve got written so far. I’m sort of at a crossroads now because my journal is at my other house, and I don’t feel like driving three hours one way just to know how to spin the story. That part can wait.

If I get particularly antsy, I might just pick up where the journal leaves off. I think I can figure out how where to go from there. Wish me luck.

So I’ve already technically failed to post every day because it’s now nearly 3 AM, January 4. Anyway, at least I’m posting. That’s gotta count for something. Today was actually fairly productive, despite the fact that I slept in embarrassing late.

No, I didn’t get any more work done on my law school applications. In all honestly, the thought scares me. I’m not sure whether I’m more afraid of applying to law school or more afraid of actually becoming a lawyer, but something’s not quite right about it.

My success today lies in the fact that I wrote over 1,000 words for my book. I’ve been working on the thing forever (at least since 2010) and it’s finally coming together. I’ve got something like 43,000 words, just over 70 single-spaced Word pages. It’s smooth and in a lot of ways it flows like poetry, or at least that’s what I think. I’m probably a little biased.

Speaking of the word count, does anyone have a decent idea of what an acceptable count is for a young adult novel?

Since this is a place for me to keep track of my self-improvement, I think it’s important that I remain honest. I didn’t accomplish much of anything today. I should have worked on law school applications. Instead, I hung out with my dad and later hung out with my great uncle (I’ll call him Bartholomew) and second cousin.

I guess I could argue that hanging out with them “rounded me out socially” or some nonsense, but that would be a stretch. In my defense, though, Bartholomew is always a riot to hang out with. Tonight at a restaurant he approached a random group of similarly old people and struck up a conversation. Before long, we were all sitting together at a giant round table and Bartholomew was preaching on and on about his Bible theories. By the end of the night, my cousin and I had made a slew of new friends who were eagerly unloading life advice.

A cancer-riddled guy named Bob told my cousin and me to always have a backup plan because the cold, cruel world is always eager to give somebody an ass kickin’. He also assured us we’d be just fine, as he lovingly puffed his fifth cigarette of the discussion. The catfish wasn’t bad, either.

I’m starting this blog today (January 1) as a kick-in-the-ass for myself. This is my new years resolution. Hopefully I’ll actually keep up with this thing, detailing my progress on self-improvement, and maybe even become a better writer as a result. Here goes nothing.