Before Labor Day, I took a lifetime supply of books on “How to Write” out from the public library with the intent that I would spend some serious time improving my skills. As with anything in life, writing is a skill that if not used, you will lose. And for the last three months, I just haven’t been flexing my writing muscles.
Then again, I haven’t really been flexing any muscles. And there is now a Homer Simpson style butt imprint on my new couch that belongs to me and a little kitty butt imprint right next to it. (By the way, we adopted a kitty.) We are nothing but class at the Morgan household.
The big reason for all of this was that I was on a medical leave of absence from work for 6 weeks and I’ve only recently gone back to cube land part time. I’d like to say that cube land missed me but there were some dust bunnies forming on my desk while I was out that had started to impersonate me. At least the dust bunnies got a head start on some of my projects for me.
As for the medical leave of absence, the long and short of it is that I started off with bronchitis that was later re-diagnosed as “Acute Asthmatic Bronchitis” (which there is nothing cute about, FYI). That diagnosis was problematic since I don’t have asthma but they treated the asthma I don’t have any way but the medicine they gave me angered my heart problem and then I was done. 6 weeks later, I’m still moving at a quarter of the pace that I am used to moving at and I feel like I massively missed out on summer. Which are side effects of the fun filled beta-blockers I’ve since been consuming twice daily.
So while everyone else was out there enjoying the sun and wearing bikinis on the beach, I was on the couch. All day. Every day. I’d like to tell you that it was exciting but the most excitement I got was the day I decided to watch all of the Terminator movies in one sitting (hence the Homer Simpson style butt print). I also had great plans that I was going to expand my mind while I was out of work, but I was really lying to myself. I did a lot of reading but my mind was so foggy (and still is to a certain extent) that I wasn’t reading anything challenging. For example, I’ve had Saint Augustine’s “Confessions” on my reading list for about three years and this was not my summer to finally read it. I think I lasted about five pages before I decided to go back to bed.
In the same line of thought, I had great plans to do lots of writing. After finding a box filled with my poetry from college, I thought I spend some time writing poems. Or maybe I’d would spend some time creating some blog drafts and cleaning up a few writing projects that have been littering my kitchen table for a while now. I did none of it.
The most ambition I had all summer was fold hundreds of paper stars while watching movies and painting my nails at least twice a week.
I’m not saying any of this to complain but more to explain: at the moment, I am prone to rambling due to a lack of human interaction. Remember community? I needed more of it than I was able to receive for six long weeks. Sadly, while I’m able to hide my temporary rambling tendencies in person (unless you are Brian or Oliver, in which case, you are getting hit with all of it) hiding those rambling tendencies is a bit more difficult while writing. Because in my head I have so much I want to share with everyone that I haven’t said in months.
And I miss blogging. I miss sharing ideas and encountering new ideas I can barely wrap my mind around and I miss commenting. I miss twitter and Facebook and the good feeling that comes with a morning coffee (decaf these days) and a full Google reader that desperately needs attention.
It is good to see all of you again. Excuse the rambling, the books I picked up just didn’t help with that.
Carl Weaver said...
1I wish you a speedy recovery.
09/8/09 3:46 PM | Comment Link
Susan Pogorzelski said...
2Believe me when I say that you’ve been missed as well! Glad to see you’re back and on the recovery way — wishing you healthy wishes, good thoughts, and happy writing. But take your time — we’ll be here waiting
09/8/09 6:01 PM | Comment Link
Carmella Tress said...
3Glad to see you are back. I have been a loser friend with the past 6 weeks also being insane for me, but I just want you to know that I still think of you and hope you are doing well and all of that. I hope your transitions in work go well, and I hope to see you soon-ish.
Love, -carm
09/9/09 1:47 PM | Comment Link
And They Say That Content Is King | Life in the Middle Lane said...
4[...] Your life is interesting. Relationships are interesting. Building bridges is interesting. Having a conversation is interesting. Telling a great story is interesting. Making a difference is interesting. Exposing stupidity is interesting. Overcoming is interesting. Making me jealous is interesting. Being inspiring is interesting. Being funny is interesting. [...]
10/14/09 11:19 AM | Comment Link
Bruce said...
5Believe me when I say that you’ve been missed as well! Glad to see you’re back and on the recovery way — wishing you healthy wishes, good thoughts, and happy writing. But take your time — we’ll be here waiting
05/19/10 4:12 PM | Comment Link