Sept. 18, 2012 —  It amazes me how much importance a sense of regularity plays in everyday life. I’m one of those people who enjoy excitement, but needs at least some aspect of regularity.

  Just two months ago, I lived in Berkeley and kept a very regimented schedule. I woke up at 6:30 every morning, had three cups of coffee, was at work by 8 a.m., off work around 6 p.m. and in bed by 10 p.m. I walked the same route and talked to the same people every morning.

  I thoroughly enjoyed the small aspects of regularity in my life, especially since my job always required change and adaptation.

Once I made the decision to move back to Quincy, I knew that at least for a while, the regularity would be gone.

  Moving itself is always stressful and doesn’t allow for much regularity. So to complicate things even further, I decided to throw in as many stressful events into my life as possible all at the same time.

  Within the last two weeks of June I moved, quit my job, started a new job and got married. Each one of those is considered a top stress causer, and I decided to do them all at once. In other words, I was an idiot.

  Quitting my job in Berkeley was fairly easy. I knew I wanted to move back to Quincy and that was a means to an end.

  I was lucky enough to get hired at Feather Publishing before moving back, so that added a bit of relief.

  Finding a place was a bit tough; something within our budget, yet something big enough to house all of our things. The first month of being back we didn’t find anything, but house sat for a friend who was out of town.

  The real stress killer, I would have to say, was the wedding. It ended up being a beautiful day filled with music, laughter, wine and food, but it was quite the event to throw together.

  I never thought I would have to worry about something as insignificant as tablecloths, yet I found myself doing just that.

  My wife Amy handled the majority of the planning, though I stayed as involved as she would let me. Now that it’s all said and done, all I can think is that I’m so happy I never have to get married again.

  Once I was done with all the commotion, I felt I could finally breathe. I still had to get my house in order (still working on it, actually) and get used to the new job, but at least it was closer to a sense of regularity than I had had in quite some time.

  I was shopping at Safeway around that same time and ran into an old friend.

  He asked me what I’ve been up to. It amazed me that my response was simply, “Not much. Just the same ol’ same ol’.”

  I could’ve just gotten back from a vacation on the moon and that would’ve been my reply.

  Thinking back to that, I’m not sure if my response was based on disinterest in the small talk we were having or perhaps I was subconsciously yearning for that sense of normalcy to return to my life.

  At the present moment, I can say things have returned to normal. I once again wake up every morning at 6:30 and drink coffee. For the most part, I’m in bed by 10 or 11 every night.

The most exciting thing to happen in my life this last two weeks is that I finally noticed how large my goldfish, Charlie and Nancy, have gotten. Not truly too exciting, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.