Now that I’m finished running around for the summer and all settled into Big Momma’s House, I’d like to start blogging again. But before I sit down at the keyboard I always wonder for a moment if I should even bother. There are, after all, so many more productive things I could be doing with this time. Just think of all the scrapbooking/organizing/canning/decorating I could be doing in the hours that I blog. (I mean, if scrapbooking/organizing/canning/decorating were things that I actually did.) I know blogging is about as fruitful as talking to yourself in the middle of an empty parking lot, but every time I convince myself that I’ll drop it forever and do something that produces an actual result, I find myself eventually wandering back. Why? I can think of only one good reason that is insultingly obvious but which I will now try to cloak as profound (a skill necessary in any wannabe writer, btw.)
Writing about things I experience–especially random, everyday things–makes me feel like I’ve experienced those things more fully. Like a trip to the grocery store or the best apple ever from the Farmer’s Market or how Ethan now prefaces everything with “apparently” or how sad I am that my children are getting older or how happy I am that my children are getting older or how sunburned my face got after picking up trash for two hours this morning along the Columbia River. When I’ve finished writing about something, even the smallest something, I feel an exhilaration that rivals a Post-Workout High. (Depending on the workout.) (And how recently you’ve had a baby.) What I’m trying to say is that when I write about something, I get to enjoy it all over again. I like that. I need that. I need to feel like I can exert the tiniest bit of counter-pressure on the tidal wave of time that is sweeping, so mightily, right on over me.
Time, in all its scarcity, beat me to such a pulp this summer that I failed to write about many random, everyday, absolutely glorious events: Megan turning nine. A trip to the coast with family. A trip to the mountains with friends. How much I love my good friends. Rachael starting middle school. Megan starting a new elementary school. Ethan starting kindergarten. Getting ready for another half-marathon. Getting ready for an unexpected vacation. How much I love unexpected vacations. My husband’s crazy schedule. How much I love my crazy husband. The drama of trying to build a new house. The drama of living at my parents’ house. How much I love my parents. How much I love drama. How much I love to write.
So I hope you’ll indulge me as I canvass these experiences, a little post-dated, with the hope of enjoying them a second time around. Life’s too interesting to let spin by in a blur, isn’t it? So I try to hold down just a bit of it in the recapturing. And if doing so sends me talking to myself in an empty parking lot, that’s okay. I’m good with the parking lot. (As long as it’s well-lit.)
Thanks for hanging out there with me.
You are hilarious! I also feel the same way that you do about blogging, but you said it much better than I ever could. Jaimy told me about your blog and I had to check it out. Now…how do we get Jaimy to start one?!?
I remember you making faces in the mirror too, but I thought you were practicing commercials! 🙂 I’m glad you’re blogging instead of scrapbooking, so that I can be reading blogs instead of scrapbooking. I don’t think the parking lot is so empty – we all are hanging out waiting for you to show up and give us something to do there. (Kind of like Ron’s during high school!)
You’ll leave all of us with no interesting reading to do if you quit blogging. I agree that it does allow for cherishing those moments and even thinking of them in a different light. Maybe your child dumping the dinner plate all over the floor is more funny than annoying if you can write about it!
I look forward to your recap of summer birthdays and vacations and life in southeastern Washington, in general. Thanks for recommitting to spilling your guts all over the internet. I mean that in a good way.
Loni, you crack me up! Remember, she didn’t talk to herself in mirrors – she practiced her “faces” in mirrors! Jen, I love you and your writing and your blog. I’m actually kinda mad at you for not writing more often. Please don’t ever stop!!
dont stop blogging I really enjoy reading your blog and it helps keep us up to date whats going on in your family. When did you move up to parking lots? I remember when you would talk to yourself in the bathroom mirror.
I frequent that parking lot, so you’re not alone. I write for the purposes of keeping a journal of our family events which always include my own musings. I have to hope that 100 years from now, my grandchildren will like reading about their ancestors and the kinds of mundane things we did. I have even written about my laundry before, complete with pictures. I say write on! I enjoy your posts. You have a gift for making the mundane very entertaining. We need that kind of entertainment. 😀
You CAN NOT stop writing!!!
I hope you do start writing more! I’ve missed your blog posts!
Keep those blogs comin’!
I enjoy reading your blog! Hope all is going well for you and your family.
So if you are in a parking lot talking to yourself does that make me a creepy person that is eavesdropping? Anyways I do enjoy your posts so thanks for sharing, I think your a great writer and comedian! Good luck with the new school year!