Category Archives: blogging

Almost Completely Lame

Myself as well as this post.

I think somebody somewhere has a voodoo doll of me and is sticking pins in it. He or she picks different spots. One day it’s the sinuses, one day the upper back, one day the lower back, later that day the bunions. This evil person’s evil plan is to make it so nobody likes me any more because all I can do is complain. I fear it is working.

Yesterday at work my headache reached nightmarish proportions. Seriously, I felt that I was in a nightmare. As I walked up the stairs to the ladies’ room I was surprised to see that I actually made it to the top of the stairs. I expected them to continue infinitely, as happens in some dreams (or have you never gotten the never-ending staircase or road or hallway?). When I got to the bathroom I was relieved to see real toilets not disgustingly dirty. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I dream about bathrooms they are either too wet and dirty for use or they are not real toilets but in the dream you are expected to use them as such, usually in full view of other people (or, again, is that just my sicko dreams? Paging Dr. Freud!).

After I got home and took a nap the pain subsided into mere lightheadedness. I could rock that, at least till bedtime, which would be early. Then as I was walking up the stairs (one flight) to the (normal) bathroom, I felt this sudden jab in my back. What the hell was that? After I went back downstairs and sat down, I found I could not get back up. This sucks! Well, I went to bed (after Steven helped me up). Sleep would help.

It did, somewhat. When I described my symptoms to a friend at work, she said it sounded like sciatica, which she suffers from. I do not know much about sciatica, except that it is fun to say (try it!). After a while the pain subsided. I reported this encouraging development to my friend.

“It comes and goes,” she told me. Damn! She went on to describe her own tribulations with sciatica. Oh dear! I said maybe I should not complain, because her case was obviously much worse than mine.

“You go right ahead and complain,” she told me. “That’s your prerogative. To complain and to change your mind!”

“Maybe I’ll change my mind about complaining,” I said.

The pain was practically gone by the end of the day. I thought I might even go running. Then I thought it might be more sensible to walk with my dog Tabby. Obviously she would prefer that alternative. By the time I got home, however, the pain was back. I could still rock a walk, I thought. Um, no.

I got on the computer. I would check my email, make my blog post, then decide. I checked the email. “Oh yeah, I wanted to email Entertainment Weekly and complain about YET ANOTHER double issue!” I stood up to go downstairs and get the magazine for the address. OOOWWW!

I went and laid down instead. I read, I relaxed. I made my painful way downstairs and ate something. I really really really wanted to make my blog post and get it over with. I had not written anything, but I had a tentative title, “Not Completely Lame,” and I had a tentative subject, my walk with Tabby which I had not yet taken.

In desperation, I came up with the above title and started typing, the results of which you see. You know, I think it is the hoariest cliche in fiction where the character wants to write a book, wants to write a book, wants to write a book, has some movie-ish adventure, then writes a book and it’s THE MOVIE YOU’VE JUST BEEN WATCHING!!! Have I just been guilty of a hideous piece of hypocrisy? How lame would that be? I would say, almost completely.

Pre-Lame Post

Lame Post Friday is not till tomorrow. Yet here I sit with NOTHING to write about.

I’ve been thinking lately that I want to do more posts about bad movies. They are fun to write, and people seem to like them. Then I thought, will people think I do nothing but watch bad movies? Then I thought, what do I care what people think? Then I stopped arguing with myself and tried to finish writing this post.

I seem to watch a lot of television. In my defense, I usually crochet or knit while I watch, so I get projects done. Sometimes I write in the TV Journal, which is fun to do and fun to read later. I’d like to think that it is my legacy to future generations, but I rather doubt that future generations will bother to decipher my handwriting.

I often run into people who sniff, “I don’t have time to watch television.” Some of these people can still tell you the last couple of people to get voted off Survivor and which husband Kim Kardashian is on (I don’t know these things myself; what does that tell you, if anything?). Or maybe they truly do not watch television, but spend hours working on their fantasy football team or playing Farmville. To each his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow.

My point being, don’t sniff at how I spend my leisure time; we are none of us as productive as we could be. Oh, all right, I suppose some people are. I’m sure many, many people are at least more productive than I am. Don’t brag about it to me, though, or I will lampoon you in this blog as a thoroughly obnoxious person (ooh, scary threat).

Where was I? Nowhere, really. The real reason I’m at a loss today is that I have not been doing much this week. I actually have a topic I would like to write about, but I think that needs to wait till tomorrow at least. So I guess that’s a preview of coming attractions. Here’s a teaser: I’ll tell you my tentative title: “Dirty Break for Dirty Works.” Intrigued? Stay tuned!

Where’s That Wisdom?

Middle-aged Musings Monday is supposed to be easy. My idea was to have another day where I could write any old thing and kind of let myself off the hook. Ease into the week, I believe I said in the premier Middle-aged Musings post. After all, sometimes it is enough effort to get through Monday at all, let alone entertain and inform. Ahem, I hoped to still entertain.

Can I just say, IT’S NOT WORKING!!! I have no musings, middle-aged or otherwise. And I have the worst case of Writer’s Blank I have suffered in a long time. I am also suffering from the related malady, Cross Out Or Erase Everything As Soon As I Write It. And I am composing at the computer, so no wide X’s I can just read around later and say, “Oh, that isn’t so bad.” When I erase it, it’s gone.

I had thought I could go running and blog about that (I won’t say “write about it,” because I cannot so dignify my meanderings today). I figured it would combine running commentary with middle-aged musings. I even had a title, “Musings on the Move.” I may have used that title before. I believe I have observed more than once: I am not above repeating myself.

I did run. The weather was nice and cool, although the sun came out near the end of the run and that was a little hot. It was no problem, really, since I did not run very far and I certainly did not run very fast. I thought if I wrote a blog post about it I could call it “Go Play in Traffic,” because there were a lot of cars on the road. I did not cross any busy streets.

I tried to muse as I ran, but I didn’t come up with anything. You know, I thought I was getting pretty old. Shouldn’t that wisdom thing have kicked in by now? There’s a musing for you, although I didn’t think of that while I was running; I thought of it just now as I was reflecting on how I couldn’t think of anything.

I see that I am over 300 words for today. A respectable post if only I would have thought of something intelligent to say. It seems I am always craving my readers’ indulgence as I write yet another stupid post. Oh well, they say no life is wasted because you can always stand as a bad example to others. If nothing else, you can look at this and say, “Huh. At least I didn’t write THAT!” Happy Monday.

Half-Baked Holiday

No, this is not a post about eating raw cookie dough. Although there’s an idea…

I am enjoying my three day weekend. And before anybody starts grumbling about how THEY don’t have the weekend off, I’M SORRY!!! I worked retail and I was in the army: I worked PLENTY of weekends and holidays (and I know where the caps lock button is on my keyboard).

I guess some people have worked more than me. Others have worked less (worked less in general; I know it is worked fewer holidays). And this is where I stop myself from going into some half-baked philosophy suitable for Lame Post Friday (and maybe some linguistic philosophy about why “more” can work quantitatively as well as qualitatively while when it’s not so much we have to worry about “less” and “fewer”). But I digress.

Digress from what, you may ask. Well you may ask. Keep asking, in fact. Because once again, I got nuthin’. I didn’t have any Mohawk Valley adventures yesterday. I did go to the Ilion Farmer’s Market, but nothing new happened there. I stopped by the liquor store, but if I mention that, you’ll all just think I’m some kind of lush (oops). I don’t even have a sinus headache, so I can’t use the calling in sick excuse.

I have plans to watch a couple of cheesy horror movies later today, so we do have some excellent coming attractions. I cleverly looked ahead to what was showing on TCM and set my DVR accordingly. I started reading the script of Dirty Work at the Crossroads, Ilion Little Theatre’s upcoming production, so I will be able to produce a more detailed write-up, for my theatre-minded readers (without giving away any major plot points or the dramatic conclusion, OF COURSE) (there’s that caps lock button again). I ran again today and plan to tomorrow, so I will try to entertain with running commentary.

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is what sometimes happens when I insist on writing a post every day. Some of them are not very good. In my defense, it’s my three day weekend and I am enjoying it. I hope you are enjoying yours. Hope to see you Monday (figuratively speaking).

But I Like to Write

I did not write my blog post while at work today. I worked on my novel. There, I’ve said it.

I don’t like to talk about the fact that I’m writing a novel. I’ve started too many novels and not finished them. I used to talk about my novels all the time. It was a mistake. I usually got a disgusted look and “That’s been done.” The worst (although I’m sure she didn’t mean it that way) was a friend who said I needed a Kilgore Trout. Kilgore Trout, if you did not know, was a Kurt Vonnegut character. Trout was a novelist, and Vonnegut would describe the books he wrote. In other words, I am only a fictional novelist.

It’s true, I suppose. I’ve written pages and pages of novels but only ever finished one. And it wasn’t very good. I know a lot of crap gets published. I know because I read some of it. Some of it I start reading and can’t finish because it’s too crappy and, as noted, I’m not hung up on finishing things. However, the crappiest novel published has one advantage over all but one of mine: it is finished.

This is not what I meant to write about. I set out to do a common or garden Friday Lame Post (“common or garden” is one of my favorite descriptive phrases). In the interests of accuracy, I like to say whether I write my post at work or compose it at the keyboard. So I suppose it was in the interests of accuracy that I blurted out the reason why I hadn’t written the post at work.

I don’t know why I should suddenly feel all exposed to my readers, like I’ve let fall some shameful secret. In the first place, many of my readers are my friends and family, who must surely know I have not given up on my dream of writing novels. And I am willing to bet that most bloggers are closet novelists (which is not quite the same thing as a real estate novelist, as sung about by Billy Joel). I like to think most people write a blog because they LIKE TO WRITE.

Ooh, there’s a bit of half-baked philosophy; maybe I can segue back into Lame Post Friday from here. Bloggers like to write. I like to write. However, I have seen quotes from writers (I’m a big one for reading collections of notable quotes) to the effect of: I hate to write but love to have written. I think I may have talked about this before. How lame is that, to repeat myself? I AM segueing back into Lame Post Friday!

Random observation (just to make my Lame Post Friday complete): it is a full moon tonight, the second full moon of August. Some say that makes it a blue moon, but there was some discussion on Facebook that what really makes a blue moon is four in one season. Huh? I’m not about to Google it and join in the fight.

I am about 500 words into the post and I have not yet reiterated for anyone unfamiliar with the term that Lame Post Friday is my day for random observations and half-baked philosophy. It is my day to Post Dumb if I feel like it. Guess I felt like it in spades today. Happy Friday, everyone.

Calling in Sick

This will be a short post. I feel like crappy crappy crappola. I had this sinus headache, see, so I took some ibuprofen and benadryl. Now I am doped the hell up. The pain is gone, I think. It’s kind of like I’m in a different room from the pain and hope to keep the door closed a while longer.

All I want to do is lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. What I am actually doing is reading Agatha Christie plays. I can pretend that’s doing something useful, because I might find something suitable for Ilion Little Theatre to put on sometime in the future. Of course this is a mostly an excuse. I can tell right away that some of these will never do. And the chances of my wanting to direct one of them is even slimmer. Then again, they say no effort is wasted. Wait a minute, I say that. Perhaps I am right. That sounds like some half-baked philosophy suitable for Lame Post Friday.

So, yes, I am afraid this is yet another post on Why I Can’t Write a Real Post. How many of those have I made recently? How many do you suppose I can get away with? Let’s just look at it this way: I’m calling in sick. Most professions offer sick days of one kind or another. Of course, if this were a real sick day, my post could be one sentence long: I’m sick, I’m not posting. And out.

But now that my fingers are actually typing, they want to keep typing. I have several good topics to expound upon this week. I haven’t fully covered the DARE 5K yet. We went to not one but two area marinas last night. We took a nice walk to a garage sale this morning (before my sinus headache kicked in). Oh, and enjoyed a yummy breakfast at a well-known local establishment. So much for preview of coming attractions.

I see that I am over 300 words, so I think I will sign off now. Thank you for bearing with me. Here’s hoping to have a better post on Monday.

Lame Attempts

So there I was at work, writing a blog post titled “Dithering over the DARE.” I am, of course, a past master of dithering. And then I didn’t like it.

I had intended to go running after work, despite the tremendous humidity, so I thought I might write about that. I even had a title picked out, “Oh, the Humidity.” You know, like that guy said, “Oh, the humanity!” during the Hindenberg disaster. Or is that being flippant about a tragedy? Could be, but I have several times seen and heard “Oh the humanity” used with ironic intent, so I think it is OK. But when I sat down at the computer, nothing.

I thought, “I can’t do ANOTHER post about not having anything to write about.” Then I thought, “Sure I can. It’s Lame Post Friday; I can do whatever I want.”

The reason I could not finish writing the first post is that I felt certain any number of people would tell me to stop being such a whiny baby or to quit rationalizing or some other rude, superior thing the people in my head can always come up with. I tend to spend a lot of time having imaginary conversations with people who criticize everything I do, say or think. In fact, as I write this, I can picture some snotty writer telling me I MUST silence the inner critic or I’ll NEVER be a writer. And somebody else telling me to quit complaining about it.

Huh. I bet neither one of them are published either.

And now I don’t like this post either. You know, I’m just not messing with it today. I’ll say something concrete instead: I was dithering about the DARE 5K because I have not been training as hard as I had intended to. Also, my running partner and cheering section have defected. After work today, I ran up the steep hill that is part of the DARE 5K course, in the steamy humidity. I made it, and the way back down was distinctly pleasant, what with gravity and the breeze picking up.

I think this has been the lamest Friday post yet. I don’t know whether to feel proud or sheepish. I’ll compromise on silly. See you Saturday.

Second Verse, Same as the First

This is the second half of the post I started Thursday. I basically sat during the breaks at work and wrote whatever came to mind. That, of course, is what I usually do on Lame Post Friday.

I went through and typed in the best bits for Thursday’s post. I must say, I was having a harder time writing it than I normally do. Could it be because I was trying to do a Friday Lame Post on a Thursday? We may never know.

I’ve been reading a book about writing (I admit it: I read about writing more than I actually write): I’d Rather Be Writing by Marcia Golub (Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 1999). Golub says you should schedule yourself time to write every day, say a half hour. If you sit there for a half hour and don’t write much, that’s OK. You still sit there and when your half hour is up you are free to do something else and Not Feel Guilty (yes, I had to capitalize it).

I write this because I was sitting here looking at a blank page and it was very detrimental to my self-esteem (I have a delicate self-esteem). But could sitting staring at a blank page be productive in some perverse way? Golub isn’t the only person to say this. Many writers say you have your scheduled time even if you just sit there. This is in fact my scheduled break, not my scheduled writing time. I don’t have a scheduled writing time. Perhaps that is part of my problem (I imagine there are many parts and/or I have a lot of problems).

One could argue (I don’t know who one is, but he or she is apparently capable of infinite argument) that my scheduled break time is my scheduled writing time. Well, all I can say is, perhaps it should be, because I had meant to spend my break chatting with my husband via cell phone. I had planned to write at noon.

And now it is noon (time lapse is so awkward in the written word), my regularly scheduled writing time (from now on). And I got nuthin’ but the feeling that I am trying to get away with entirely too many lame posts.

That is about as far as I got in the blog on my lunch. I would like to report, though, that the time was not wasted. I turned to a different page of my notebook and wrote a few more paragraphs on my novel. Then to two different pages yet and wrote some more dialogue on two different scenes for a murder mystery I’m writing. So maybe this schedule thing works. I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, I’m over 400 words. Respectable if lame. Happy Friday, everyone.

Too Beat to Blog

Last night Steven and I drove into Rome to meet some people I graduated high school with, roughly a hundred years ago.

It was not the official class reunion. That was last year and I missed it due to the DARE 5K. A classmate who is living overseas was coming to town and asked on the class Facebook page did anybody want to get together.

A select group met at the Savoy. We had a great time. Now, last Sunday I said I was too tired to write a proper blog post, and at the end of the post, Steven told me it was so a proper post. That will not be the case this week. I am really truly too tired to write a proper blog post.

I could do my Middle-aged Musings Monday a day early and lament how I am just too old to party like it’s 1999 (no, I’m not pretending I graduated in 1999, I’m quoting a Prince song) (as a matter of fact, I think I partied more in 1999 than I did in 1981; I was a pretty innocent teenager) (Stop laughing! It’s true!).

I did get out and go running this morning and took Tabby for a short walk a little later (in addition to our usual post-run cool down walk). So I was not completely ate up. I don’t feel I should write about my run, though, because that would make three running posts in a row. And the walk with Tabby was strictly uneventful.

So here we have it: yet another post about Why I Can’t Write a Blog Post Today. I can’t keep doing this! People will get disgusted and stop reading me. I have to admit, though, these silly posts are kind of fun to write. It is comforting when I feel that I can’t possibly pick up a pen to find that I actually can make words on a piece of paper (or directly on a computer screen in some cases).

I am over 400 posts now, all on consecutive days (although WordPress sometimes dates two on the same day and skips a day; go figure). That is more than four hundred days of writing every day. That makes me feel pretty damn good. Now I just have to work on writing something worth reading. Here’s hoping you’ll stay tuned.

Funked Up Monday

Why are Middle-aged Musings Mondays so much more difficult than Lame Post Fridays? And I’d also like to know why so many of my posts turn out to be about How I Can’t Write a Post Today.

I have seriously been trying. I’ve gotten a few paragraphs written, and they actually don’t seem too bad. But I can’t go on (said in a dramatic tone of voice, with one wrist to my forehead).

The point of this blog was NOT to be a forum for my personal problems. Not that there’s anything wrong with a blog like that. Some people find it very helpful to write out their problems. I’m sure some people even like to read about other people’s problems. They can say things like, “Ha! She thinks she’s got it bad!” or “And I thought I had it bad!” Probably they think of good solutions. It’s always easier to solve other people’s problems (hey! that was a middle-aged musing, wasn’t it?).

I just seem to be having an ongoing problem of being in a funk on Monday. Perhaps I overdo it on the weekends. Being middle-aged, I perhaps should not try to act like I did when I was in my 20s. Perhaps it would be helpful if I wrote Monday’s post on Saturday or Sunday, when I am not in such a funk. That’s not cheating. Stop shaking your finger at me!

Oh, you’re not shaking your finger at me because you think I’m cheating. You’re shaking your finger at me because you’ve been thinking for the past three Mondays that I ought to have written that post on Saturday or Sunday. Good idea.

OK, so in posts about running, I admitted to having conversations with various body parts. Now we see I am having conversations with imaginary readers. And if I keep doing ridiculous posts like this, I may be left with only imaginary readers. Say it ain’t so!

I will try very hard to find something better to write about tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.