I am just so proud of this picture…and the fact that Tate looked towards the camera before it snapped is just perfect.

(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 7)

I am reading Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton - more on that later.

But the big thing that I am struck by in the book is ambition: Alexander Hamilton was a driven individual.

In a different way, so was Thomas Jefferson.

The book describes Jefferson as “…a fanatic for self-improvement. He rose before dawn each morning and employed every hour profitably, studying up to fifteen hours per day…He told his daughter, “It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”

Part of me wishes I was “always doing.”

Here’s the thing: Jefferson was able to spend up to fifteen hours a day studying because his family owned a large number of slaves…so take the above with that grain of salt.

But I love that idea of rising before dawn and maximizing the day and getting as much done as possible in my waking moments.

As it stands I’m lucky if I get one thing done before I’m making breakfasts and lunches for the kids.

But - a day here or there excepted - I don’t often feel like I wasted a day.

I do often feel like I could have squeezed in one or two more things.

I don’t think I can do something like teach myself a new language (though that might be something I attempt in a less-than-Jeffersonian effort)…but I’ve been finding time to read, and I’ve been trying to continue to expand what I know.

(For example, when it comes to world news I think I’m as well-informed as I’ve ever been.)

And sometimes it’s in my idlest moments that I do my best thinking.

So I’ve been working a bunch during the day…but I’ve also been allowing myself a little bit of time to just lay there with the dog and let my mind wander and see what pops in there. (And I set an emergency alarm for myself just to make sure I don’t accidentally fall asleep and sleep through picking up the girls.)

I don’t always have the most productive days in the world.

But I also feel OK about how I’m spending them.

And, as I’m learning reading this book - there are plenty of better people than Thomas Jefferson to use as a model for behaviors.

Writing and Comedy

*The funny thing about the worlds of writing and comedy is there are certain overlaps. One such overlap is that you can’t really idle - success comes to those who are always working. That’s been a problem for me with comedy - I can do the writing piece plenty, but I just can’t get out and perform as much as others do it.

But with writing, when I devote the time to that I can do as much as anyone…it’s just a matter of finding the discipline. Because I don’t need to go anywhere and find stage time and all that…I just need to find a time to write. And I’ve been doing that part more and more lately.

And, I’ll just say this: I respect the heck out of the people who are getting out there and working hard in both comedy and writing. Good for them. It certainly inspires me…I’ll see if someday I can’t match that effort - if not in both endeavors, then at least one of them.

*One other comedy note: last week I mentioned that Exhibit ‘A’ started a comedy open mic. It’s on Sunday afternoons, and it was an enjoyable way to spend part of my Sunday last week. I’ll be back there this afternoon trying out some new material. It starts at 4pm, if you’re ever curious about what an open mic is like and you want to enjoy an Exhibit ‘A’ beer.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*My friends Kevin (you remember Kevin!) and Danielle (you remember Danielle!) are watching the Marvel movies…in no small part, I think, because my family watched them all and enjoyed them so much. It’s fun re-living the experience through them…and I’ve even watched a couple of the movies around the same time as them and I’m enjoying the re-watches. I find that I can pick up more details the second time around - first of all, because there’s a lot of details to pick up and sometimes it takes more than one viewing. But second of all…the first time watching these movies I was watching them and also monitoring the girls watching them. (Is this appropriate for them? Are they handling the violence OK? Things like that.) This time around I’m just watching them independently and not worrying about any distractions.

Thoughts On Dog Ownership

*The inevitable happened this week: I got poop on my hand. (Is that inevitable? I kind of always suspected it was going to happen picking up poop all the time.) (Also, file this in that similar category to “Things That Would Have Destroyed Me Before I Became A Parent”: “Things That Would Have Destroyed Me Before I Had A Dog.”) But the way it happened certainly wasn’t what I expected. I’ll occasionally use a newspaper bag rather than a designated-for-poop bag (I guess that’s what it’s called?) to pick up the poop in order to reuse the newspaper bags instead of throwing them right into the garbage. And I always check them to make sure they don’t have holes where the poop would go. But this one I neglected to check. So, lesson learned.

*(Also, that picture up there is pretty great, no?)

Notes

*So, January and February can kind of crawl by for me. This year I kind of stumbled upon a strategy where I read the two really long books to start the year - Gone With The Wind took all of January the way I divided it up - and I planned on reading Alexander Hamilton throughout February. The problem? When I went to renew the Hamilton book from the library, it was already on reserve for someone else. So I had to accelerate my reading of it a bit. And I did, and I’m on pace to finish it by the February 18th due date. That just means there will still be 11 days left in the month to get through when I’m done with the book…so I’ll have to figure out another way to get all the way to March.

*The Sirius free preview came to an end this weekend. I enjoyed it while it lasted. It was nice to have all of the NFL games on the radio when I had to be out on Sunday, and I definitely thoroughly enjoyed a few stations (Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, and Broadway, to name a few), but I’ll enjoy getting back to regular radio for a bit. I might consider re-upping when baseball season comes around, depending on how much time I’m actually in the car when there are games on.

*Twitter’s been fun lately - I had a fun interactive tweet on Friday that I might do more with at a later date. You can get in on the fun by following me on Twitter here. Also, if you don’t already, go ahead and Like the John Sucich Facebook page. Thanks!

*Have I updated you on the fact that the Marathon dream for 2020 is over? It is. Deadlines for registrations have passed, and everyone registered and the waitlist went only 3 or 4 deep or something. So not too fortuitous for those of us that were last on the waitlist.

*Also, my knee has been hurting. Unrelated. But not irrelevant.