My momma doesn’t like what I write. It’s not that she doesn’t like my writing style, or the fact that I write…she just isn’t into the “weirdos” that I write. Don’t get me wrong, she loves to read. She often gets up an hour early to spend time reading the newspaper. BUT she’d rather read nothing than what I publish.

It’s ok, I’ve always got my dad. He loves fantasy/sci-fi/horror. He was the one that took me to Star Wars (I BARELY remember it). The problem is that dad doesn’t like to read.

So how did I end up the way I am? Dad’s love of a good story, mom’s love of reading…it was a “perfect storm” and there I was to soak it all in.

So, what happened to you? How did you end up writing what you write?

Someone…anyone…please…send a 4×4, a plow, a salt truck, ANYTHING!  SANTA, FOR GOD’S SAKE I’LL TAKE SANTA!

White...everywhere!

5 days in the house, we’ve only made it out once…and I understand how someone who lives in a place where blizzards and multiple feet of snow are a regular occurance can lose their minds and kill their loved ones.

Seriously, one can only watch so much TV before your brains slide out of your ear and start mucking up the collar of your shirt.  Back on Sunday, I didn’t understand why people (in tiny little cars) were out wandering the steets…now I do.  I am willing to brave the blizzard now.

Being alone with the snow, ice, wind, animals and woman are diving me out of my tree!  I LOOK FORWARD TO SHOVELING!  Ok, ok, so I liked shoveling before…it made me feel like I was exercising…but I’m just going so stir crazy I’d chew off my own leg if I thought it would get me out of here!!! 

Don’t get me wrong, I love this time off…I’ve gotten almost all the laundry done, the dishes washed, I’ve gone through some books and marked them for donation, I’ve put away all my clothing…but I can’t settle my mind enough to do anything worth doing.

I could have spent these 5 days (soon to be 6) wrapped up a world of my making…but I can’t quit cat vacuuming long enough to do it!!!!!  I’m disappointed in myself, but I’m resentful of even having to write this…

What has happened to me?  Have I lost my writers drive?  Did I ever have it to begin with?  Or am I just snowbound and stircrazy?

So, to follow up from last time…

Splinter is still in me, and I’ve only got enough antibiotics to get me through till morning.  Ok, fine…so what do I do?  Well, with no one else to go get me antibiotics, and 10 inches of snow on the ground by morning I had to call CVS.  They were open, thank God, but didn’t know how long that would last.  I told them I was on my way.  I got my walking stick and Day’s as well and took off with multiple layers my wallet and phone and a prayer. 

I only fell once, sliding off a curb I couldn’t see and into the street.  Other than that and crossing the streets, it wasn’t that bad.  (Except the pain in my leg…they hadn’t given me any painkillers for the morning, nice of them wasn’t it?)  Anyway, I get to CVS and discover I’ve lost my phone on the trek.  Great.  But at least now I’m not going to die from an infection.  I take one of the antibiotics right there in the store and one of the painkillers too!

I begin the adventure back to my home, and stop to see if I can find my phone in the snow.  BUT where I fell is turning out to be a very highly traveled area with very little by way of salt/sand and so cars are sliding around the curve like they are funny cars looking for drift!  So, I give up on the phone…and head home.

The weekend passes with me mostly babying the ouchie because I don’t wanna make it worse, then on Tuesday I get an appointment with a plastic surgeon.  I go in and he has to open me twice as wide as the guy in the emergency room…and spends at least 10 minutes looking for the damn thing.  He’s getting frustrated and I’m getting worried when he says, “2 more minutes of this and I’m going to send you to get an ultrasound to find this thing.”

Then he moves and I gasp, I feel something sticking me.  He makes some noises and then all the sudden proclaims, “THIS THING IS HUGE!”  He had pulled a splinter about 2 inches long out of my leg.

Yeah, 2 inches.

Anyway, he leaves the wound open so it will drain and tells me to stay home for the day.  So I do, and I’m glad I did…that injury was in such an odd place that sitting down was painful and I bled through the bandage once.  Then I saw him 2 days later and he told me that it looked great…but he wanted to see me after I got back from Missouri.  Ok, sure, fine…I’m just so happy to have the damn thing out of me that I would have kissed his feet.

I had a close call when I got trapped in Chicago.  I had left my bandages and antibiotic ointment at home, sitting on my couch (where I had put them so I wouldn’t forget them)…and then I actually irritated the wound banging into the arm of the plane seat…AND THEN I got trapped in Chicago for a day.  So now my wound is bleeding a little and sore, and I don’t have anything to put over it.  Great.

Well, the next day when I arrived at my sisters house I was able to clean it up…and she said it looked a little angry.  BUT with a few days of tender loving care it was back on track to healing again.  When I got back from MO, the doc took a look at me and proclaimed me mostly healed and told me he didn’t need to see me anymore.  Woot!

Moral of the story…not all splinters are created equal.  Some are stakes!!!!

I am determined to do this.
Determined.
Day related this story to me about a personal trainer…he said he could tell in the first meeting with “resolutioners” which ones were going to stick with it and which ones weren’t going to make it past March.
If meeting with him was the only exercise they did, AKA he was the one pushing them to get anything done…warning bell!
When he asked them to start keeping a food diary, and they “didn’t have time” or “didn’t want to” or “didn’t see the point” without giving it a chance…warning bell!
Basically, he is looking for people that are taking responsibility for this resolution, not just waiting for him to drag them thorugh it.

Well, it’s that time kids.
Time to take responsibility not just for our physical health, but our writing health as well.
Keep a writing diary…what did you do, how long you did it, anything to track what you are doing. Trust me, later it will pay off (just like the food diary).

And make a schedule for writing and stick to it.
I told you earlier I was going to do something with regards to writing every day. It’s a little ambitious, I know, but writing a blog post…reading about writing…editing…writing…plotting…outlining…drafting…etc. ALL count! This isn’t about doing 8 hours of writing a day. This is about trying to find a way to help me with rule number one.

WE ALL KNOW WHAT RULE #1 IS DON’T WE?

JUST WRITE!

Ok, so what are you doing this new year to boost your writing? To take responsibility for your success? Come on, I wanna know!!!