Wasteland - On Writing

Wow. I look at 2010 and see 15+ posts a month. I look at 2011 and I see... I posted once in August.

That's just sad.

So what have I been up to since August, you ask?

I have no idea. The last few months have just flown by, faster than I've ever personally experienced. School - partly mine, mostly The Kid's - has taken over our lives, and I have barely had a moment to breathe much less write anything that wasn't about art or literature, which sounds all lofty until you realize the truth of the matter...

I'm using up all my writing juice on school.

Now I could be completely pretentious and post my A-work writing, but do you really want to read about what I think of Kate Chopin's feminist views, Theodore Roethke and William Blake's mental illnesses and subsequent genius, or whether or not Shakespeare was a fake?

Probably not.

Nor do you necessarily want to hear about my trips to the Denver Art Museum or the Osmosis Gallery, written for my Art Appreciation class. Well, maybe the DAM one, but only because there are pictures.

The reason you don't want to read these is that they were not written for you - they were written as a means to an end, an answer to a question posed by a teacher. That doesn't make them bad writing, but it does make them boring writing, and I don't want to be dull. Better to go months without a post.

But enough about that, how about an update on me? I'll do it for myself, if nobody else is reading - and who could blame you. Nothing like a dead blog.

Let's see...

I've been re-exploring my knitting "skills"... I use that term very loosely as I have none. I can knit a little, but I am far too impatient for really careful work. That's why I like crochet! I also have fat hands, so I can't do the fast-knitting technique I see others employing. It takes me twice as long to do it that way, and I end up knitting WAY too tightly, though I have tried to make myself just to try to train up. Alas, I'll just have to do it my way!

The Kid has been very active in orchestra this year, and is beginning to think about colleges. Fort Lewis, in Durango CO, is a real contender, although it would mean she was stuck during the winter. It is a bit isolated in that it's in the mountains, across a pass that is often closed for weeks during the winter. It's the modern age, of course - she can always hop on Skype to interact with folks off-campus - but still.

Another contender is UNC - the University of Norther Colorado. Located in beautiful downtown Greeley CO, it isn't quite the town she loves but the school, and the location not too far from home. She'd still live on campus, because the commute can be a real bear in winter, besides the obvious fuel cost issue. In that vein I may encourage her to look at CSU - Colorado State University - because of the fact that there's a bus that runs from along the Front Range and she wouldn't have to drive.

We'll see.

She of course still wants to at least look at Oregon, since she loves it so, but that is kind of a remote possibility.

At any rate, no matter where she goes, she is going to continue her sport - orchestra! We have decided this really is a sport. There are evening practices, special clinics, mandatory performances - if that isn't a high school sport I don't know what is. She can even letter in it!

Speaking of high school traditions, we also ordered her class ring this fall. I always thought it was a Senior Year kind of thing, but I guess not!

One more exciting that that happened this fall - my mom finally got to see The Kid in concert! We planned it as a surprise for Kid, and she was totally surprised indeed. We spent a great weekend driving around and enjoying the gorgeous weather, and though it means we'll be spending the holidays apart, it was worth it to get some real, quality, no-holiday-stress time together.

Oh, and I'm re-learning how to rollerskate.

So that's it! That's pretty much the long and short of what I've been up to, besides the usual - being ridiculously smitten with TR, wishing death on creepy-crawlies, trying to keep afloat of all the bills.

I hope your fall has been good, oh 3 remaining readers - I've missed you.