Category Archives: blogging

A Pain in the Blog

Posted on May 23, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh dear. I am having a dreadful case of What Haven’t I Written About? If I was in front of my computer (um, clearly I am NOW, but when I wrote this, I was sitting at a desk scribbling in a spiral notebook), I could easily go back and check. Wait and do it later? But we have plans for the evening. I want to type in a short, previously written essay and hit “Publish.” Is that too much to ask of my brain? Apparently it is.

In my defense, I have a dreadfully upset stomach. You know all body part are connected. Again I say, oh dear. I just flashed on this scene from a TV show I saw back in the 70s or 80s. It may have been Trapper John, MD. They were running the Boston Marathon. This short oriental guy (I think he used to play Arnold on Happy Days) fell and hurt his leg. A doctor who was also running the marathon (he was the series regular) (no, I don’t remember his name; I’m not even sure of the series, it was just a flash, after all) expected the guy to stop running, which he did not.

“The pain in my leg, not my head,” he said, jogging happily away.

So there’s my inner critic, sniping, “The pain is in your stomach, not your head.” Oh, shut up.

I suppose most pain and nausea pass eventually (“But stupid is forever,” mocks the inner critic, who does not shut up just because I tell him to). In the meantime, I see now that I am partway though Yet Another Post About Why I Can’t Write a Post. But can I think of anything new to say about that?

Well, I could not at the time. The above is all I wrote this morning. When I logged onto WordPress to type it in and attempt to finish it, I was greeted with Congratulations from WordPress, it is my anniversary as a blogger. Three years I have been at this. I forgot that date was approaching. I think it is pretty darn hilarious that as I mark three years, all I can come up with is a silly post like this. Then again, it is Non-Sequitur Thursday. Thank you for participating.

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A Post in the Blog is Worth Two in the Notebook

Posted on May 15, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

It is turning out to be a Wuss-out Wednesday. I see no reason to apologize for this, as I seem to get more likes for posts about Why I Can’t Write a Post than I get for what I continue to think of as “real” posts.

It did not start out to be Wuss-Out Wednesday. Early in the day I wrote an entire post about an authentic Mohawk Valley adventure I had. Then I went to work. While I worked, I thought of something else to write a blog post about. I even started writing it in my head. When the buzzer for the nine o’clock break rang, I grabbed my notebook and wrote frantically.

Well, what can I say? Things happen.

What happened, you may quite reasonably ask. Oh, never mind. Explanations are so tiresome and I do enough complaining as it is. I did, however, end up writing a good deal more of the second post I started.

So two posts in the notebook, and crap on the computer. What’s that all about, you may ask, another quite reasonable inquiry. The answer is, I don’t think either one is quite good enough to share with you, my beloved readers (ooh, here’s a Freudian typo: I started to type “freaders” Could that be a combination of “freaks” and “readers”) (not meaning to imply anything and no offense meant).

Without exactly complaining, I will just MENTION that I’ve had a headache all day. It is one thing to write frantically. I am just not up to editing.

So out I wuss. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

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Sometimes Ya Gotta Clean

Posted on May 11, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sometimes that little writing voice in your head says, “I don’t want to write this now.” Then you have a choice to make. You listen or you don’t. Today I decided to listen.

Actually I decided to listen the third or fourth time the voice said it. That is why there are two more paragraphs on an unpublished draft I started to write earlier this week. Are they any good? I can’t tell that till later. So anybody who was about to start huffing about how you just have to Not Give In to Writer’s Block, just go huff at somebody else. This is my story and I’m sticking to it.

I truly did not want to have a Wrist to Forehead Saturday. I didn’t even want to do a post about Why I Can’t Write a Post (as usual, the irony is not lost on me). I considered doing a post about cleaning my house, which is mostly what I did today. I was going to include the line, “Step one: Invite people over.” I got a little bogged down in subsequent steps, and that was when I was still writing in my head.

This morning I took a walk to the post office with my schnoodle, Tabby. I tried to pay close attention to things, so I could write about that. Running commentary was out of the question, because I needed my energy to clean. Well, unless these walks are really noteworthy, I need to write about them right away for the post to be any good. I was certainly willing to do that, but… dirty living room called.

I’m sensing a pattern here. As with my diet, so with my writing: there is always an excuse not to do the right thing. Oh, with my running, too. Damn. So today I call myself out on my excuses. But I don’t feel too bad about myself. Because you know what, I didn’t run, but I walked. I haven’t eaten anything too fattening yet, because I was too busy cleaning. And earlier, when I needed a break from cleaning, I did a little work on my novel.

So what I’m saying is, I don’t suck.

And who’s to say that cleaning my house was not the right thing to do?

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Murder on the Blog Post

Posted on May 9, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Is anybody keeping score as to how many posts I write about Why I Can’t Write a Post? I hope not. In fact, why should I flatter myself that people are paying that much attention to me in the first place? At least I was working on something different this time. I was trying to kill someone.

I just said that to be dramatic. I was writing a murder mystery. You see, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… oh wait, that’s something else. It was in the North Country, as that area of northern New York State likes to call itself. And it was the 1990s, so, you know, not yesterday. My husband and I and some friends used to have a company called Murder For Hire. We put on interactive murder mystery dinner theatre.

I used to write most of them, and I like to think I was pretty good at it. We never made a lot of money, but we had a lot of fun. I really miss doing them. When I get a real intense bout of writer’s blank, sometimes I start one, just to get my creative juices flowing.

Regular readers may recall my saying that my novel is at a standstill. I keep thinking about it while at work (a good time for working out plot points), but nothing much is coming. So I started to think about something else. I thought about a possible venue for a murder mystery. I thought of an organization that might like to do one as a fundraiser. Then I thought about what kind of murder mystery they would like. Then next thing I knew, I was making notes.

I started that yesterday after I had written the day’s post, so I’ve been at it for two days now. I am enjoying it quite a bit. Will I feel confident enough to actually approach the organization I thought might like it? We shall see. And probably write a blog post about it.

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I Feel Confident to Hit Publish

Posted on May 6, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I’m afraid this is going to be a Monday Middle-aged Musing. I tried to write a “real” post (I put it in quotes, because what is this, an optical illusion?), but I am having a failure of confidence. Then I thought, there’s a ripe topic to muse about: confidence.

OK, I just started twice to write a sentence about needing confidence, but erased it because, you guessed it, I had no confidence in it. This happens to writers sometimes. We start to write something and think, “Oh, that’s dumb, nobody wants to read that.” Or, more nicely, “That isn’t quite what we want to say, is it?”

A trick I often employ is to grit my teeth, write it anyways, and don’t show it to anybody (including myself) till later. At that point, sometimes I look at it and say, “What was my problem? This is fine, send it out!” Sometimes I immediately see ways to revise it into something not contemptible. Or a judicious mix of those two responses. And yes, there is the case where I say, “Yikes! What was I thinking? Burn that!” (Of course I don’t actually burn it; safety first.) Surprisingly, that does not happen very often.

With a blog, however, especially a daily blog such as I aspire to, I’m on a constant deadline. Oh, I know, I know, write ahead, then I won’t have that problem. I’m working on it.

For some reason, I write something silly like this, and I don’t mind giving it a quick proof, sometimes reading it to my husband, and sending it out into the world. Why should this be? Ah, that calls for some half-baked philosophy, more suitable for Lame Post Friday (which seems a discouragingly long ways away, incidentally). For now, I simply observe the fact and hit “Publish.”

And I saved the draft of the post I started. I hope to share that with you later in the week.

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At Least I’m Over 200 Words

Posted on May 5, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Other bloggers would just stop posting on Sunday at all. But what fun is that?

I have had a real Wrist to Forehead Sunday today. I got one thing accomplished: I went to the supermarket. Then I didn’t put the groceries away for at least an hour, because I forgot. Luckily it was not warm enough for the milk to spoil. So this unseasonably cold spring is not completely bad, I suppose. I finished reading the book my friend at work loaned me (which may form the subject of a future blog post) (Preview of Coming Attractions). I must say, a very well-written, absorbing book, but not exactly a feel-good book. I could have used a feel-good book.

One of the things that saved me is that I started to page through an older notebook, largely to ascertain if there was a number of blank pages I could utilize. I saw some stuff I wrote in 2010-2011, when I was in the depths of despair. Wow, I thought, I am in a much better place now than I was then.

If I was really self-absorbed, I would type in a couple of those pages for your edification. I gotta say, though, I like my own writing, but this was not particularly entertaining. So I’ll spare you.

I’ll spare you all of it. I’m over 200 words. I say Happy Sunday, carry on with whatever you were doing, and I hope to see you on Middle-aged Musings Monday.

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From the Spiral Notebook

Posted on May 2, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

In future years if anybody looks at this notebook, they may be confused (um, that is the spiral notebook I was handwriting in this morning; I’m typing this into a computer now)(that sort of thing makes me feel so time-warpy)(where was I?) How egotistical is that, thinking posterity might utilize my notebook for history (as if they could read my handwriting).

What’s going on is I’m having a waste-not-want-not moment. I found a blank back of a page in the notebook I’m currently using and thought to write my blog post here. This is a notebook I had been using in 2012-2013, when I was secretary for Ilion Little Theatre. Boring minutes in messy handwriting. Seriously, none of my notes convey the drama of backstage community theatre. I’m sure any theatre-minded readers will understand. I need say no more, and, indeed, in would be inappropriate for me to do so. What happens at the board meeting stays at the board meeting.

OK, so that’s about all I have for today: a page to write on and a story about where the paper is located. Nothing in particular to write on it. Regular readers know this sort of thing happens to me at least once a week. Sometimes more.

Oh, I know, you’re all thinking of “That Damn Book,” a rather ridiculous essay I posted a mere two days ago. I actually had stuff to write about that day. I just couldn’t write any of it with that compelling book so close at hand. Today I have sensibly left the book at home. Along with, apparently, the better part of my brain.

That is all that I wrote this morning before beginning work. Then I thought, how appropriate for Non-Sequitur Thursday: using notebook pages out of order. Will I find something as good for Lame Post Friday? As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

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That Damn Book

Posted on April 30, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

This is going to be another Tired Tuesday post, because I fulfill both criteria. I feared that would be the case, since my husband Steven and I planned on doing laundry after I got off work. Therefore, I went to work determined to write something while at work. Something not too long.

I guess no words at all is not too long.

Well, let me explain how the fates conspired against me. You may say I did myself in by succumbing to my own addiction. Potato, po-tah-to. A friend at work had told me about a book she had read that she thought I might like. It is a novel based on a local murder case which happened many years ago.

“Oh, I’d love to borrow it,” I told her.

Who knew she would be so prompt? The book was by my work station when I got to work this morning. How very kind of her. I would begin reading it at the first opportunity. First I had a blog post to write. I did, in fact, look at the blank page with a pen in my hand for, oh, a good three or four minutes before I thought I could read just a little bit…

I get to work a half hour to forty minutes early so that I have time to write and sometimes socialize a little. I did neither this morning. Oh dear. Well, there was still the nine o’clock break. And lunch. And the 2 p.m. break. And sometimes two or three minutes at the end of the day while I’m waiting to punch out.

I don’t really need to tell you I read during all of those, do I? Determined to make up for my profligacy, I left the book in the SUV at the laundromat and brought my notebook in with me.

And wrote one paragraph, which I immediately despised.

“It’s no use,” I told Steven. “I’m going to read that book and just write something off the cuff when we get home.”

And, I’m afraid this is it. On the brighter side, the book is about a murder that took place in the Mohawk Valley. Perhaps when I finish it I could write a book report for that day’s blog post.

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Words Before Wine

Posted on April 28, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I’m not having a particularly wrist-to-forehead Sunday, although I did have kind of a wrist-to-forehead run earlier. However, I am having a kind of a wrist-to-forehead moment right now. You see, I must pick Steven up from work for a Wine Tasting Event in about twenty minutes (it became 19 as I typed that). It would be a good idea to make my blog post now.

I CAN’T TAKE THAT KIND OF PRESSURE!!!

What a silly thing to say; of course I can. For one thing, the pressure is purely self-imposed. I can remove it at any time. For another thing, when it comes to writing, I thrive on pressure! I never wrote a paper in school one minute before I had to. Then I stayed up late, scribbling frantically. And the best essays I ever wrote in my life were on exams, writing against the clock, once with a screaming headache due to strep throat.

Ah, those were the days.

On reflection, I must admit that I have no idea if those essays were the best I had ever written or not, because I no longer have access to them and I certainly don’t remember what I wrote (although I did ace the exams in question). Regarding the paper, not having a basis for comparison, we can’t be sure the papers would not have been better with more time taken.

This is not the post I sat down to write. I had meant to write about how I did almost everything on my to-do list. Except write this blog post. Wait a minute, maybe it is exactly the post I sat down to write. Ah, deadlines.

At any rate, I am over 250 words. I’m going to go taste some wine.

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But I’m Not Supposed to be Tired till Tuesday!

Posted on April 22, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

OK, so I just sat here looking at a list I wrote last week of potential blog posts I could write, and yet not writing any of them. I did not write a blog post while at work. I started to write something, then worked on a letter to my sister. As I continued to work, I thought, “This is no problem. I’ll go home, run, then write about my run.”

Oh, I am too tired to run. I am too tired to write. What’s that all about? I can’t do a Tired Tuesday post on a Monday! Monday is for Middle-aged Musings! Dammit! I can’t even stick to my own schedule which is, as you may have noticed, not particularly onerous.

I just sat here looking at the word “onerous” and thinking it did not look right. It looked like it should be pronounced “won-russ”, like the number 1 with rous. Or “wondrous” without the d. My computer did not underline it in red (like it is doing with “won-russ” and “rous”), but I looked it up in the dictionary anyways (I had to pause to remember if O came before or after P). It’s right.

My new plan is to take my precious list downstairs with me and write down why I could not write these potential blog posts tonight. The reasons involve foolishness like I don’t feel like looking up the links I would like to include or I left my notes in my work bag (said bag is on the kitchen floor, it’s not in the Antipodes after all) (I did mention I was tired, didn’t I?) (Incidentally, I believe that is the first time I have ever used the word “Antipodes” in a sentence).

Where was I? Ah yes, nowhere but working on getting somewhere for tomorrow’s blog post. At least I amused myself with today’s silliness. I can only hope others were entertained.

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