KirstenL4W

What a long blog break. It’s my intention to blog nearly every day, and when that doesn’t happen I start getting more and more down about not having posted anything. I think blogging is like exercise - if you stop for any reason it’s harder and harder to pick it up again.

But I don’t want to stop blogging. I love blogging, I love my blog, and I love reading other blogs. It’s just that I do other things with my spare time besides park my ass in front of the computer. Need to be at a computer to blog. Wait, when did this become a post full of excuses?

It’s no secret that I read a lot of books. While reading and taking in these stories, I’m also thinking about some pretty awesome post ideas. Of course, they leave my mind as soon as I fall asleep. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of travel memoirs. If you look at my Goodreads page, you’ll see. The travel memoir has been an interesting category for me. On the one hand, I think I like memoirs or memoir-style books the best. At least, I like reading first person narration. On the other hand, I miss traveling. I traveled somewhat in my younger days - before I bought a house, moved to Vegas and got married. Now all my travel time is earmarked for visiting family. Not that that’s a bad thing, since I love my family, but with limited funds and limited vacation time available, it doesn’t leave room for much else. And without being able to travel much, it’s kinda hard to write about it, unless you want to hear about all the virtual traveling I do via Google Maps.

I’m interested in writing. It was always one of my best subjects in school, and one of my favorite (so long as I could write something I enjoyed. If I didn’t enjoy the topic, then writing about it sucked). When I’m reading just about anything, I’m always thinking about what I could be writing. I want to write more about my travels - perhaps I should dig out my old diaries. I knew that making a specific point of writing down everything that happens when I’m traveling would be handy someday. I also want to write more memoir-type stuff. Stories about me from way back when. And I want to work on how to get these ideas out of my head and on the computer. That’s the biggest challenge of all. And of course I want to continue my Encyclopedia of Me series.

I need to make a point of writing and blogging more. I need to try to do that without multi-tasking myself to death on the computer. Gosh, that’s hard. It’s like I have internet ADD. As I write this, I have 5 tabs open - Facebook, Twitter, the “write post” tab for wordpress, Google Reader, and my blog, so that I can easily find links for that handy linking to yourself thing that all the pros advocate. Maybe that’s what it takes. Maybe if I stop trying to do everything, I’ll accomplish something. I think I read that once before. It’s something to try. But first, real life beckons.

Here’s my Christmas wrap-up. Wrap. Christmas Wrap. Get it?

Anyway, moving on…

Since Mister recently had surgery, we decided to keep it a very low-key day at home. With all the goings-on, it was all I could do to decorate this year, but a few days before Christmas I finally put a few ornaments on the tree to make it look like I cared. It was a bit hard to get it the spirit this year, but in the end everything turned out OK.

Christmas Eve I went to church for the candlelight service. I don’t attend church too much anymore, but I really love the candlelight service. I got home in time to watch a movie with Mister. Since the Christmas Story marathon wasn’t on this year, we popped in the DVD. After so many years of watching it on Christmas Eve, it’s pretty much a tradition. After the movie was over, I kept trying to get Mister to go to bed so I could fill his stocking. I think he finally went to bed around 1am. I filled his stocking and joined him shortly thereafter.

I woke up on Christmas Day at 8:30 because Mister kept calling me from downstairs. He’d been up for almost 2 hours and couldn’t wait for me any longer. I stumbled downstairs, got some juice, and we went about opening our stockings. Mister loved his stocking. I wanted to do a non-food stocking for Mister, since 1. it’s too easy and 2. he couldn’t eat it anyway, and after having a bit of a tough start, I finally was able to fill it. He got a gardenia votive candle (his favorite scent), some frankincense and myrrh soap, a Rubik’s cube, a yo-yo, a kazoo, some LCD screen wipes, Nun-chucks (those little boxed novelties on a spinner near the checkout at the bookstore) and a bouncy ball with red glitter in it (and probably a few other things too - his stocking is huge). I got a few CDs and some candy in my stocking. One thing about the CDs - they are both Christmas CDs. The ONLY thing that sucks (the CDs themselves are great, and were on my wish list) is that when you receive Christmas music for Christmas, you really only have a few hours to listen to them before packing them away for the year. Remind me to put some non-holiday music on my wish list next time.

Then it was on to the presents. I got Mister a few books he wanted, an ellipse template since he wants to draw more drafting type stuff, a speaker dock for his iPod that has a plug and battery power, so he can bring it with him if he is in a different part of the house, some of those LED tap-lights, some photography magazines, the new Harry Potter movie and another DVD, and a piece of game glass. What’s game glass, you ask? Well, you know when you’re looking at a slot machine and there’s the graphic near the top that tells you the name of the game you’re playing? Since I work for a company that makes these games, and since my company recently offered employees a chance to buy these game glass pieces from old machines (proceeds went to charity), I bought one with a theme that Mister would really like. I got it framed, and he said it was one of the coolest gifts he’s ever gotten.

Mister got me a few books I wanted - On Writing - A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King and Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. Since I’ve become more interested in honing my writing skills, and I love to read, I put these on my wish list in hopes that they would inspire me and help me refine my mad skillz. And also? Remember the Wii that I wanted last year and didn’t get? I finally got it! Mister also got me the Mario & Sonic 2010 Winter Olympics game, which is a bit harder than I thought it would be after I mastered bowling so quickly. Now I need to add the Wii Fit Plus to my wishlist.

Here’s a sampling of our loot:

Once the damage was done and there was Christmas carnage all over our living room, Mister and I sat back to relax a bit. We watched some Christmas Britcoms on BBC America, called our families, and settled in for the day. We watched the new movies, I took a nap, and we played the Wii for a bit. There wasn’t a fancy dinner since it was just the two of us, so it was nice to not have to go through that sort of effort.

Overall, it was a very nice Christmas - we were both happy with our haul and the fact that we didn’t have to run around anywhere or worry about making a big fancy dinner. I hope all of you got everything you wanted and enjoyed your holiday!

Ok, it’s been awhile since I last posted. But don’t blame me - I took a long weekend away and I don’t check email or anything else online when I’m away. Well, blame me if you want, but that’s the way it is.

Anyway, when I got back from my long weekend I checked the comments on my blog and found that I had new comments on my post Cuts Like a Knife. My mom left a comment to bolster my ego, and my mom’s Cousin Betty left me an amazing comment (that’s becoming a habit with her). Betty suggested I try writing a book.

I’ll be honest, the idea is not new to me. Besides a few bloggers I know of who have written or are trying to write books, I too have thought of this. It’s something that’s been at the back of my mind since I was a kid. English literature and writing classes have been among my favorites in school, and they are the classes I always got the best grades in. I still have a lot of the stuff I wrote back then, and even posted one of my papers here on my blog. I have it in my blog post idea list to post more of my writing from school.

Writing a book is a great idea, and while I’d love to do that, I’m not ready - not yet. I think I still have some adventures to come that will help put me in a better position to have a complete book. I’d be looking towards a memoir or collection of anecdotes from my life, or using stories from my life and propelling them into a fictional chick lit book, which is a genre I tend to like. In the meantime, I’ll continue writing here. This blog is a beginning, a place to practice writing and hone my skills and test out what sort of stories would appeal more than others. Based on what I like to read, I am drawn towards stories in which I can identify with a character or situation in some way. I like complex, well-developed characters because I like to be able to figure out what makes them tick. Even if what I write isn’t popular, I like to know that it resonates with readers. As a writer, these are all skills that take time and lots of practice to perfect.

While I continue living my life and writing my story in my head, do you have any suggestions? Any blogs or books to read that will help me along my way?