Day in the Life of an Idiot

 It's probably foolish to attempt to post something mundane, but I would like to give it a try.

I know that we are well into 2021 at this point, but I would like to recap my New Year's. If you've been following me for some time, you may know that we have a private family tradition in which we put out a small satchel of dimes (to represent "silver") on our front stoop some time before midnight and then ritually bring them in on the morning of the first day of the year. It's a simple representational spell to try coax money IN the door in the upcoming year (and it harm none, of course.) This year, because Mason is headed off to college, we had him do all the money handling. 

Likewise, one of the questions I often have at the beginning of each new year is "Do you make a resolution, and, if so, what is it?" I go back and forth about new year resolutions. Out of curiosity, I went back and looked through my hashtag "new years resolution" and I seem to be pretty to consistent in that I at least talk about a resolution every year--although my level of commitment does seem to waver a lot. 

In case you are curious, I will do a sampling retrospective for you:

• 2020: "I should probably journal on DW more?" (The half-a$$ed resolution that I actually kept.)
• 2019: "I will do a spell every day from my Spell-a-Day book!" (The sincere resolution that ended in a broken bathtub that we still haven't fixed!)
• 2018: A joke about maybe trying to "be nicer" (jury is still out.)
• 2017: Try to read at least 30 books in a year (I think I managed it that year, actually.)
• 2016: "I've decided this year that when I'm angry at some yahoo on social media, I'm going to insult them exclusively from lyrics in the Grinch song." (FAIL. I don't think I remembered pledging this five minutes after I did.)

This year, I feel sort of unwilling to commit to much beyond "continue to try to survive the pandemic," but I am signed up for a Japanese language class that starts next week. I am hoping to make a dent in my understanding of Japanese these year, but it's probably safer, given my track record, not to make that an official resolution.

So, how about you?

 It's been a while, hasn't it?  

Since we last talked, this happened:


Image: A photo that perfectly depicts what is wrong with Minnesota: a bright orange, plastic Halloween pumpkin covered in several inches of snow.

The crazy thing? The snow hasn't melted yet. We will, periodically, get snow like this, this early, in Minnesota. But, normally it just warms up the next day and it's like we dreamed a dream of the winter to come. This time? The snow has been here over a week and then it snowed more on to of that!  Temperatures have been in the 30s-20s (for my international friends: -1 C to -7 C.) This morning we woke up to a windchill of -9 F/-23 C. THAT'S NOT OKAY EVEN FOR 2020!!!

The only good news is that I've been so swamped with my coursework that I haven't much budged from my spot hunched over my laptop on in the comfy chair under a pile of fleece blankets. 

Okay, so it turns out, gentle readers, that I am still the sort of person who, despite being nearly 53 years old, thinks, "Oh, I'll fill that in later," forgetting that later comes pretty quickly when you've set up a class to be high in critique already. So, last night, a good 1 day and 20 some hours before the next lesson opens for my students, I realized I had whole sections still marked [needs to be done] or [flesh out.] So I was up until midnight last night frantically looking up fantasy subgenres and their official definitions--as well as examples of fantasy tropes that I secretly still love (along with ones I feel are overdone.) So.. that was FUN. I mean, it was kind of, but... also exhausting.

I really, really do not know how my friends who are teachers are coping with doing this, only with several courses and hundreds of students.

Then I actually got inspired to write a science fiction short story that I'm trying to finish for my writers' critique group meeting next Thursday.

AND I'm starting to plot out a novelette for a friend's new F/F publishing venture...

I mean, I was telling a friend that I think maybe all the bad news/anxiety of 2020 has finally broken through to the other side for me. Previously, I could barely read or write for worry; now I'm so overextended on panic that I'm like NOPE, checking out now, gimme all the fiction worlds!!   I mean, I am not checking out in any real, worrisome sense of that. I'm still reading the newspaper. I have already voted and am ready to join the protests, should that be needed, but yeah. The part of my brain that was creatively blocked has simply been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bullsh*t 2020 has heaped on us.

Silver lining?

Considering what it's taken to break me, I'd say NO. 

But, that's what I've been doing for the past week and a half since I went silent. How have you been??