I’m working my way out of the winter doldrums, finally. I wasn’t depressed or anything, just kind of … blah. The grey, snowy weather does that. It just makes me want to go straight home after work. There’s not a lot of motivation to get out and do things if you’re not a winter sports enthusiast. And I’m sooooooo not.

Staying in the house hasn’t been good for the planned spring weight loss, either. In the next three months I’d like to lose the 15 pounds I gained in the last three. It’s a reasonable amount in a reasonable time, but it might be a bit more of a challenge now: Last week I bought TiVo.

That thing should come with a “Fat Ass Inevitable” Surgeon General’s warning. Don’t misunderstand - TiVo is fucking brilliant and I love it - but I’ve sat on my ass and watched more TV this week than I did all of last month.

So, yesterday I told myself that I can watch live TV however I want, but programs I TiVo have to be viewed while using the treadmill, free weights, or something else similar. I don’t know that I’ll really be able to live up to that, but with any luck I’ll find the motivation to do it at least some of the time and it’ll help.

Anyway, the gloomy weather has been better lately, at least in the afternoon, and on Saturday Patrick and I are going down to Las Vegas for the holiday weekend with a group of friends. That oughtta put me in the mood for spring. Unfortunately, they’re forecasting rain all weekend in Vegas, but at least it’ll be warmer than it is here.

Today I got a big pick-me-up when the Salt Lake Metro announced the recipients of their annual “Utah’s Best” awards, which were selected in a reader’s poll. The article that stressed me out so much last August was named the year’s “Best Feature or News Story.” And, somehow, I was named “Best Newswriter.”

In 2004, I wrote for Metro only six times: four cover stories and two articles. I hope this motivates me to write more frequently. I don’t really like to write features while I’m doing it, but I love it once it’s done. Kind of weird, I know. It has to be a great, in-depth, feature-worthy topic, too (and I’m picky). It’s just always so time-consuming and such involved work that I really want it to be worth the effort. I tend to procrastinate writing, but it’s good for me once I just sit down and start.

I don’t have procrastination issues about writing here, probably since I can talk about whatever I want, though the audience is obviously much smaller. It makes me think I’d like being a columnist, but Metro’s got plenty of great ones already, especially “Best Columnist” winner Laurie Mecham, who writes AberRant and makes me laugh out loud at every proofreading session. She really should be nationally syndicated. Agents - are you listening?