it was a good week. i’ve been working too much, and in a manic/frantic state at that. as much as i like to ride a jangly caffeine edge through the day from one problem to the next, it wears me down pretty quickly. a couple weeks of long, stressful days ending with book events ending with me blank-eyed drinking beer on the couch till two with my roommate jason, coinciding with an illness that kept me off the bike for a solid week, and i felt like i was losing my mind. worse, i was calling up close friends and telling them i was losing my mind, avoiding my family and snapping at my roommates. bleagh. oh, and insomnia.
when i felt well enough to get back on the bike it was like someone had turned the lights back on. it’s a dependency, for sure, but i’ll take it over smoking or getting wasted every night. unfortunately, cycling’s a habit that is not so compatible with attending all-night disco parties, now my second favorite thing, for which discovery i have to thank the gentle people across the pond at djhistory.com. we through a party jointly with them and white columns at santos party house for a book we’re distributing, a collection of weekly columns written during the heydey of disco. our book parties often involve wine and polite networking; rarely is boot-shaking involved, so this one had unusually good attendance from around the office. i’m proud to say that everyone got down. the personal life/work life barrier in our office is fairly weak, and that used to give me some little anxiety, but i‘ve since given up and embraced it. the music was joyful and fast and loud, and everyone danced like no one else was watching. it was such a release from the usual new york cynicism. i really enjoyed dancing with my new boss. we were sizing each other up a bit, i think he was surprised. my record nerd coworker and i stayed until the lights came on. another nice consequence of the cycling is that my dancing endurance is better than it’s ever been, way up from the smoking days. the next day at work was a total blur of zombie tiredness and pleasure memories.