PSYCHOLOGY BUSKING a la wordswords: CREATION AND RECREATION: THE HEBDOMADAL ME

BUSKING IN DUBLIN

I love my jobs – If I didn’t I'd ditch all three of them.

Every day Monday through Friday for two hundred days a year I have a job that I love with REGINA PUBLIC SCHOOLS – I am a SCHOOL COUNSELOR. Every Monday evening I have a job that I love with the UNIVERSITY OF REGINA – I am a SESSIONAL LECTURER in PSYCHOLOGY. And every Wednesday evening I continue to build my dream private practice – I am a HYPNOTHERAPIST and PSYCHOLOGY CONSULTANT.

Enough shop talk. This blog entry is about mes amours, my amusements and recreations, some intrinsic joys that I’ve created for myself. This being an hebdomadal blog entry, I’ll off course (pun intended) begin with Monday.

Every morning at five-thirty whilst I sip American coffee I read THE LEADER-POST (local paper), THE HUFFINGTON POST (national paper), PSYCHOLOGY TODAY (for reason obvious), and AL JAZEERA NEWS (for reasons not so obvious). I confess that Al Jazeera news is a helluva way to begin the day, brutal actually; for example reading today the beheadings by the immoral and malevolent, dishonorable and diabolical, reprehensible and repugnant, and gormless ISIS … need I go on?

After these reads I creep on my wife’s FACEBOOK page, which include all the narcissistic selfies and honey-bunch comments of loners and lovers, then I look at the DAILY JOKE and SMELLY RAT entries (for heterosexual fantasy, I suppose).

By six-thirty every morning I am out lifting weights at the UNIVERSITY FITNESS CENTRE. My regimen there is simple: On the calendar even days of the month I lift weights, on the calendar odd days of the month I go for cardio, always an out-door long-distance running in spring and summer, and climbing JACOBS LADDER in fall and winter. A long-distance run is joyful – JACOBS LADDER is painful.

For weights I prefer Olympic style (free weights) and I follow a push-pull routine, push meaning press, and pull meaning curl. On push days I do squats bench-press, push-downs, and dips (in this order), and on pull days I do dead-lifts, barbell curls, and dumb-bell curls (in this order).

Tuesday evenings I try to write songs and practice my guitar thrumming. Writing songs always follow a pattern. A catch-line (lyric) will jump at me; the last being, Jenny, Jenny your mom has gone, and then I fill in the rest with more lines for more verses, and literary devices. Writing is the easy part of song writing – I do not mean to sound glib. The hard part for me is penning the melody – I do not mean to sound glum but … this is because I am a crappy guitar player. I am a frailing chord thrummer; suffice for busking, not-so-suffice for song writing.

Tuesday is also the evening that I jam with PHANTOM TIDE. PHANTOM TIDE is a folk band that performs only original material. PHANTOM TIDE exists mainly for creative endeavor. We do gigs but … creating original songs is our primary focus.

Thursday afternoons I play floor hockey. I am a member of TEAM WHITE and we play only one other team, TEAM BLACK. Our team nickname is determined not by the color of our hearts, but by the color of our t-shirts. My hockey history is mainly with the NHL (NOTEKEU HOCKEY LEAGUE), where I played ice-hockey in the wee-wee, pee-wee, midget, bantam, and senior leagues with the VANGUARD EAGLES. After that, I played one winter on the ice with the SWIFT CURRENT INDIANS, followed by a five year ice stint with the REGINA ICEMEN. And now I play floor hockey for TEAM WHITE -- enough said.

Thursday evenings (for the last dozen years) I am at a gig with THE GRAND TRUNK TROUBADOURS, a community service band of which I am the manager and original member. THE GRAND TRUNK TROUBADOURS typically perform pro-bono at retirement residences, personal care homes, and hospitals. We always do cover tunes because covers are what the residents want.

Friday evenings is frequently hockey night with my nephew and oldest boy. My nephew is an NHL scout and my oldest boy has schizophrenia, which often makes for an interesting and sometimes addlepated evening of watching the NHL player prospects from the REGINA PATS and other teams in the WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE.

Saturdays my wife and I usually go out for dinner (we live right downtown) to CRAVE KITCHEN + WINE BAR, a thirty second walk from our front door; or to the RADISSON PLAZA HOTEL SASKATCHEWAN, a three minute walk; or take-out from either SIAM AUTHENTIC THAI (I love this hole-the-wall), or the BUSHWAKKER BREWPUB (the absolute best pub food and best beer in Regina).

I should give a cliche mention to some other great drink-and-dine experiences in downtown Regina: VICTORIA’S TAVERN, DOUBLETREE, and the LOBBY PUBLIC HOUSE. We do frequent these establishments, just not as much as the aforementioned four.

Sunday mornings I write my entry for this blog. I do quite enjoy this; after all I’ve had readers from 147 different countries to date. My goal, I guess, is to keep writing at least until all 195 countries on Earth are included. Such then, is my existential purpose in life, as is busking, and both being my catharsis and cathexis.

Come the New Year I plan to spend a couple hours a week in a martial art. I did take some JUDO as an adolescent, and I've taken KARATE and MUAY THAI as an adult. My next venture of this ilk shall be HAIDONG GUMDO, a Korean sword martial art.

My intention today was only to entertain, not compose a megillah; therefore, this blog entry for this week, save for my CHAUCERIAN PARADE, is fini.

My CHAUCERIAN PARADE FOR THIS WEEK: