29.MAY.00

Meatloafing

So I've been avoiding writing here, again. Over two weeks without a word. Why? I certainly can't claim I've been doing this too long and that I have burnout, as a lot of more experienced journalers have done recently.

Each day brings some sort of marginally interesting thing which I could focus on. Last week alone, I had day after day of annoyances and/or bad luck: visiting relatives, dental hell, muffler pipe broke, car starter quit stranding us far away from home....etc., etc. 

Thursday, I sat and priced about 40 boxes of books in anticipation of selling them at Printer's Row Book fair which is coming up soon in downtown Chicago. Our new venture into book selling, might be something worth writing about. Not to mention the 4,000 books my husband bought at an auction which we had to deal with moving.

Last weekend we went to some good garage sales, and at one of them we bought a pot full of pennies. They asked $8.00 for it and when we had them counted they came to $42.25...not a bad profit and a bonus--since we didn't even have to put it up on E-bay and sell it first--no waiting for our money!

On almost each and every day there really is something, no matter how banal, that seems like it could be forged be into a decent entry.

Even the unbelievably excellent and tasty variation on my “Mom's Meatloaf” recipe which I made last week could have been transformed into a fairly interesting food entry.

Journals primarily for ruminations about everyday life or life in general, are acceptable, and I should simply not concern myself with whether or not any of those topics would interest you. It is for me, right? Why is it so hard for me?

There is something which I do find disconcerting about feeling that I am writing into a void. It's something which I am am not used to doing, probably because my time on line --for five or more years--has mostly been spent on various types of interactive sites or bulletin boards, and I am used to the idea that writing something brings a response. That's one reason I linked to the Greenspun forums, so that people could respond if they felt like doing so. Except for the few friends I tell, who may happen to pass through, or my family who wants to see what's up, the traffic here is pretty minimal still. So I don't  get a lot of conversation. Even if I try another messaging system, I don't expect that to change much initially.

Add to that my self-imposed criteria that I must write something “important” each and every day, and you've got a complete formula for not writing at all.

Of course we all know that ordinary life just isn't always all that interesting. The pithy observations and the insights come from the sum total of our experiences...blah,blah,blah.... right? 

Frankly, though, one of the things I do enjoy about the journal format is reading about everyone's ordinary daily lives. It's true that the skill with which someone writes impacts whether or not I come back. And the intermittent reinforcement of finding the well written, really excellent essay, observation, or even a great rant with which I can identify will almost always hook me into being a daily reader. Still, just the skillful recitation of daily events has something which keeps me interested. Perhaps it's simply my nodding in recognition of the commonality of the human experience. 

Hmmm..suddenly I feel I'm on my way to some awful Gumpian analogy akin to “life is just a box of chocolates”--(am I one of the few who hated that movie?)  So, before I dive headlong into the meatloaf bowl..I'm gonna quit right here.

 

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