Man, I've almost written a ton of blog posts lately. See, back when I forced myself to blog daily (or later, near-daily), I would sit down at my computer and think, Gee, what should I blog about today? And then I'd just ramble on about whatever was on my mind, unless that thought was too complicated for me to articulate at one in the morning (which happened frequently). Were I not already determined that I would be blogging something, many of those thoughts would have stayed in my head. I know this because it is exactly what has been happening lately. Now, instead of starting with the decision "I am going to blog today" and fitting a thought to it, I start with a thought, "I wonder why so much Christmas pop culture is so terrible?" and eventually the train of thought turns to, "Hey, I ought to blog about this," but when one a.m. roles around, the train of thought has pretty much run its course in my head, so I feel no need to put it out on the screen any longer. Thus, without the predetermined outcome that I will share my thoughts, I usually don't.
What have I almost blogged about this month?
--the "culture" of Christmas
--my favorite Christmas songs
--my least favorite Christmas songs
--a poem I was working on
--a short story I was thinking about
--Robbie's school Christmas pageant (you can see the pic on my flickr site, tho)
--my own church's Christmas special (my script, and all the nerves that came with it)
--why I don't participate in religious, political, or philosophical discussions on FB or Twitter
--the Texans winning the division (and subsequently becoming the Texans of...every year before this one)
--Robbie's first hockey game, and the possibly-divinely-won free tickets that made it all possible
--keeping faith in the face of financial struggles
--our upcoming Christmas road trip
--taking the kids from my church to the Players' to see Christmas Pageant
--why Gremlins is such a wonderfully absurd and grotesque Christmas classic
--Feliz Navidadgehangen
--A new RNGOTM
And a few other, "deeper" subjects I don't remember any more.
That would have made for some interesting reading, huh???
However, I have been spending this month working on some other, smaller writing projects, and they've been eating my time and creative juices, even if they've been very slow in coming.
Anyway, heading home for Christmas tomorrow morning. I have to stay up late until the bread in the breadmaker is finished. We have an 11-day 3-state whirlwind of family and festivity ahead of us. I estimate at least 40 hours of driving time. That will probably not be fun. Plus, I've finally got the head cold that the rest of my family has been fighting through. Just like at Thanksgiving! I think it will be good, though. I'm stoked to see my sister and brother-in-law for the first time since their wedding. And to see the in-laws' new house for the first time. And to (hopefully) revive the New Year's Eve hockey tradition (albeit in OKC). And to just get a chance to relax and maybe focus on some reading or writing. (I think I read almost 600 pages over Thanksgiving break) I'll also need to update my reading blog. Operation: Christmas Reading has been pretty funny. And fairly disastrous. So I've wanted to wait until I've got enough time and focus to sit down and write a good review for each of the lumps of literary coal I've labored my way through so far this month. Oh, and it looks like I'm actually going to end up with an average of just over one book per week this year. Which is not a lot to some of you, but it's a great step forward for me.
In case I don't log back on before Sunday, Merry Christmas, everyone. And have a happy new year. I won't have Internet access on the 31st, so I won't get to write an absurdly long year-in-review post this year, but if I could I promise it'd be a lot happier review than last year's.
