I have a lot of things that I want to do this year. I want to do something with my writing. I want to run more. I want to spend more time building cool things out of Lego. There are other goals, but these are the three that I am most frustrated about right now. It may still be January, but I’m feeling like a bit of a failure on these three fronts.
Blogging
I’ve always enjoyed blogging, one of my few outlets for exhibitionism. I’ve had all sorts of blogs over the years. They’ve always been fairly personal, though I did keep an anonymous blog once. I’ve run ads on a few, but I’ve never made a dime. So I ask myself, “why do I do it?”
One
I’ve been thinking a bit about kids this week. The reason is evident in my afternoons: I’ve been taking care of a couple of extra kids. Suddenly I find myself the ‘father’ of 3 and let me tell you, it is a lot of extra work. It may only be a couple hours a day, but those hours seem to generate an unending pile of dirty dishes and empty my pantry of all the snackables. As lovely as these two extra girls are, they leave me quite sure that one is enough.
Continue reading One
NaNo 2
Way back in the 12, I did my first NaNoWriMo. The lovely Mrs. Portmandia had been writing and I decided to join her in the attempt to write a book in 30 days. I hadn’t written anything longer than a blog post in 20 years, but I wrote a 50k word manuscript that didn’t completely suck. It might never see the light of day, but writing that manuscript rekindled my desire to write. So I did it again this last November. I wrote 50k words and I’ve been on a bit of a writing hangover ever since.
More Distance
I went for another long run this morning. Just like last week’s long run, I looked off into the distance and couldn’t believe that I would make it. I did. I ran my eight and a half miles. On the way though I spent a lot of time thinking about writing. Last night I had a few friends over to talk about NaNoWriMo, and as I ran I couldn’t help but wonder what running could teach me about writing.
Distances
While I was out on a run Monday, I had three things going through my head. I was disappointed that I didn’t have a blog post scheduled for Monday, but I’d spent my evening playing Civ V and I really didn’t have much to kvetch about. I was steeping in my usual disdain for cyclists who wear black from head to toe in low-visibility conditions. The biggest thing on my mind was the run though, and that really came into focus as I turned a corner and saw a bridge in the distance. I thought for a second that there was no way that I could run that far, but then I realized that I’d actually be running past that bridge and over the one after that before beginning to turn home.
Parenting
I was in the grocery store the other day. I was buying a few things and getting lunch, enjoying the freedom of being on my own while the boy is in school, when it hit me: my kid is kind of great and I’m a pretty okay parent. I should probably back up a little and explain how I got to that conclusion, so I will start with a screaming child. Not just a child who screams, but a child in the midst of a full-blown nuclear armageddon melt down screaming fit.