aLightningbug

So I was going to blog about laundry bar soap and allergies for my next blog entry. We all know how exciting those topics can be. But those will have to happen tomorrow or another day soon.

Today I shall blog about what’s wrong with John Green books. More specifically that John Green books tend to make me laugh out loud in inappropriate places. Not inappropriate places of the book, I mean, I’m reading in places where laughing out loud might be inconvenient or even impolite. For example I was reading Paper Towns at the Inova Breast Imaging Center. I was waiting for a follow up of a follow up with no shirt on — only one of those loosely tying gown thingies. The waiting room is pretty and almost annoyingly peaceful. As you might imagine, it is also very quiet. There were lots of other women there, who were also not wearing shirts or bras, and they probably didn’t welcome the random bursts of laughter. Plus, I felt just a little guilty for laughing at a fictional guy’s kidney infection.

I have finally gotten around to reading The Fault in Our Stars. I’ve heard it’s very sad. So while I purchased it a while ago, I’d put off reading it. I’m still not sure if I’m up for it, but given the lack of daylight entering my home right now gloom has already set in, so I figured I might as well dive in. That, and I really want to read it before the movie comes out.

But I should have known that it would also make me laugh. So I was reading it earlier tonight while sitting in the audience for the dress rehearsal for my daughter’s ballet. And, bam! Laughter. I tried to stifle it with my hand. But I also shake a lot when I laugh hard. I’m pretty sure I looked awkward. Perhaps like I was choking or coughing.

Then when I got home I was already sucked in to the book, so I laughed while sitting on the couch. This would have been fine, but my DH was also sitting on the couch and playing a video game. He complained that the shaking interfered with his ability to play well. Sheesh. Then he jiggled my iPad to emphasize his point.

Maybe the problem isn’t the John Green books in and of themselves, but where I’ve been reading them. I don’t get a lot of time to just flop on the couch by myself and read unless I’m doing it at like 3:30 AM. So I have to squeeze reading into the nooks and crannies of my daily hours
wedging sentences between things that don’t allow for reading — like driving. Thus inconvenient laughter.

And I’m still pretty sure The Fault in Our Stars is not going to end well, so that’s probably going to lead to inconvenient sobbing. Sigh.

So I better get blogging.

Stuff going on: the place we live, a condo in a very nice location, is undergoing major repairs. So life is pretty weird right now. We’ve lost a good bit of living space as parts of our unit are partitioned off to allow work to progress while we remain living at home. In short, it sucks. But the repairs are totally necessary, and I’m glad that that part is proceeding. At least I think it’s proceeding. We can’t see outside right now except in one room. Instead we have plastic-lined walls made of 2 by 4s and pink household insulation. It’s a special kind of joy. Wait. Not “joy.”

In other news my allergies have been bad this year. My sinuses are bad and my skin is itchy. In search of ways to help both. More on that soon.

Because twice a month is a more accurate description of my posting habits. I’m going to try a little time warp today. I better buckle up.

This is quite possibly the earliest we’ve managed to get our Christmas stuff put away. Previous year our artificial tree seemed in no hurry to take itself down and put itself away. So eventually we just had to force it down — taking the ornaments off by February and then dragging out the tree box an stowing it back in storage. Last year we stowed it in a garbage can instead. Most of its pre-lit lights would not work and we felt it was time to part ways. This year we got a smallish but nice fresh-cut tree. It was a really pretty one. The last pick up for “fresh” trees was on January 8, so we had that tree down by the 7th — day after the Feast of the Magi, the 12th day of Christmas. But we lingered a bit on actually packing up all the other holiday sparkle. So yesterday, instead of starting another project, I actually finished packing up Christmas and putting it into storage. Did I mention it’s still JANUARY and there is no more Christmas stuff our in our home! OK, except for the lights in the kitchen, but those have been there for two years so they don’t really count. I’m just going to call them “decorative” lights and leave it at that. (And it’s probably time to pitch those too.) Go us!

Yeah, about that.

I’m keeping it as something to aim for, but I won’t beat myself up if I don’t hit the goal every time. I think I can live with this idea.

My idea of blogging once a day for a year was clearly unrealistic given that I posted nothing yesterday. See how long that goal lasted? Yeah. So the other option was twice a week, but I think I can do better than that and should go for five days a week. I feel like five days a week will set up more of a habit. And I should try to stretch the goal into a challenge, just not too much of a challenge or there’s no way it will happen. So my goal is going to be like a work week, five days a week, but I get to choose the days and I can get some “vacation time” so that if it’s crazy busy or loved ones have birthdays (like yesterday, happy birthday to my awesome honey) then I can skip it without feeling guilty or like I must make it up the rest of the week. Next up my goal will be to blog about something other than blogging.

Contemplating a challenge to myself to blog once a day for a year. If it’s a tiny blog post I could probably manage. But twice per week might be more realistic. Hmmm.

Before I was a mom and worked full time out if the home, there were days I felt busy. Some days I even felt “too busy” and like I had no free time. I was wrong. I had no idea what busy was. None. As I write this as I laugh out loud at how little I understood the concept then and at how many places I’m supposed to be and things I’m supposed to do in the next few days. There is no way I can do all if this, so now my main task is to figure out what gets dropped. Already I probably won’t have time to actually eat lunch today, just like yesterday. So posting this in three “free” minutes instead. That is all.