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It's an odd day because the public school is closed because downtown has been taken over by Oktoberfest.
People still insist on thinking it's weird that we have Oktoberfest in September. FOR GOSH SAKES ALREADY THAT'S NOT WEIRD, THAT'S JUST WHEN OKTOBERFEST IS. See, Wikipedia explains it, which makes everything right. What IS sort of weird is that this town has such a huge Oktoberfest in the first place. It's not like we have an overwhelming German/Bavarian population in the town, no more than usual for Western Pennsylvania (which, I'll grant you, is still fairly large), not like the Italian and Greek populations we boast. But we have THE hugest Oktoberfest in at least this half of the state, kind of like how we also have THE hugest July 4th parade in this half of the state, and I'm not ENTIRELY sure why my community has taken to these two events as ...HUGELY as it has.
But it has, which means starting from the library and going up three blocks or so there is a FULL-BLOWN CARNIVAL BEING CONSTRUCTED, and all the kids have off school...
...which means they ARE hanging out at the library... but they're also not, because there's a HUGE CARNIVAL out there to go hang around instead, even though it's not technically open until later this afternoon.
So... odd day. I'm not even sure where I was going with those paragraphs. I actually thought I had more to write about this when I started this entry. Actually, I thought I had more to write about, period. Didn't I post three times last week? Why don't I suddenly have loads of brilliant things to post THIS week?
Has anything of interest happened to me lately? ...No, probably not. Have I read, watched, or listened to something of which I have an opinion I can force upon you all? ...probably, when you include "listened to," because I can't listen to the radio without having an opinion on it, but I don't have much to TYPE about it, either. Oh, except that I've recently decided I hate radio commercials even more than I used to.
I KNOW. How is that POSSIBLE, you are saying, at least if you are among the people who has ever ridden in a car with me while I have access to the stereo controls? The difference is, in the past I didn't want to MISS ANY OF THE MUSIC that was happening on the other stations. Now, THE COMMERCIALS ARE ACTUALLY PAINFUL IN AND OF THEMSELVES. The jingles are annoying, the voices grating, the humor appealing to the lowest common denominator, and the serious ones-- well, also appealing to the lowest common denominator. AND THEY REPEAT OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Of course the easy solution to this is Don't Listen to the Radio, but the radio's all I've got in the kitchen usually, and definitely it's all I've got on my clock radio. Well, the other option there is a buzzer alarm. I'll stick with the occasionally infuriating radio.
When I wake up in the morning and do my morning journaling, most of it usually ends up being what I was just dreaming (selection from last night: I'm sitting looking at these historical books with my dad and some other girl and this lady who looks like the lady with the annoying voice on Will and Grace, but with less of an annoying voice, and we're discussing the sorry state of society today or something of that nature when the other girl says, rhetorically, "Well, you know what they say...." And the other lady replies, " 'Living is fatal'?" And the first girl does a double-take and says, "Um, I guess." And I thought the whole thing was very funny, but then again I was sleeping at the time), anyway, so most of it ends up being what I was dreaming, but entirely too much of it also ends up being a running commentary of whatever is happening on the radio.
...okay, again the solution here appears to be Don't Listen to the Radio, at least when you're trying to write; but even when I'm NOT listening to the radio, my morning journaling will go into great detail about whatever song is in my head at the time, and then about whatever song that reminds me of, and then I may feel compelled to turn the radio on just to get a song OUT of my head.
At the moment I don't have any songs in my head, oddly enough. I am hearing nothing but the swelling rumble of a large industrial HVAC system and the clicking of my own computer keys. I don't even hear any teenagers. They've appeared to have gone out to stalk the Oktoberfest setup again.
But as I wasn't actually saying about the morning writing, because I hadn't gotten this far when I felt compelled to inform you that I didn't have any songs in my head, my original Grand Goals for Morning Writing-- you know, how I was going to write productively and write to prompts and so on and so forth? Have definitely taken a hit lately. Part of this is because the days are getting shorter, which means it's staying darker longer, which makes me less inclined to wake up at a decent hour. That or I'm exceedingly lazy lately, I'm not sure which. But ANOTHER part of this is because, three days a week, I've got to get Sam off to school. I look like much less of the lazybum in comparison to Sam. I've got to get moving early, which means skipping out on a lot of my former Morning Writing time, just so I can more conveniently get HIM moving, which is EXCEEDINGLY DIFFICULT, and he tends to be eating his breakfast on the way most days. He is DEFINITELY NOT a morning person. I've always thought of myself as a morning person, but I'm not really, I'm just DEFINITELY NOT a night person. I'm a ten o'clock in the morning person. Actually, that's probably my only alert and productive hour of the day, except that most days I'm using that hour to toddler-wrangle.
...so as I was saying. You know how I was moaning recently about how I don't read as much as I used to? And I was thinking about how somehow this has made me even pickier about what I WANT to read, and how therefore there are lots of titles I may have gladly picked up in the past that I WON'T now because I JUST DON'T CARE enough to make the time to read them. Anyway, I started to wonder if maybe (now that my ability to CONCENTRATE has returned. Not that you can tell from this post) I'm actually SHIFTING MODES. That maybe I've been on Input Mode for the past few years, wanting just to read and read and read, but NOW maybe I'm shifting to OUTPUT MODE! MAYBE I HAVE HUGE PILES OF STUFF I'M GOING TO WRITE NOW!
...except, um, I see very little evidence of that happening. Possibly I've stalled out between modes.
CAN there be a stalled-out mode? What exactly is the POINT of a person who is neither inputting or outputting?
Honestly, I'm not sure WHAT'S happening in my life. I feel like I am mediocre-ly involved in various realities, fully and completely present and active NOWHERE. And I'm including my imagination in this. Even my imagination is mediocre lately. I'M NOT EVEN DAYDREAMING WELL LATELY!
I HAVE been puttering ahead on One Book. I include it in the list of things I am accomplishing only mediocre-ly, but I nonetheless am progressing slowly but... slowly at it. It's pretty much the only thing I can point to tangible evidence of me MAKING progress at, so at least there's that. Mediocre progress though it may be.
So anyway, probably I should stop typing this now and attempt to be marginally productive in some less mediocre way.
And this post is so mediocre I can't even find a userpic that feels appropriate for it. There's always the default of course. Which is an utterly mediocre choice. Although it's so dang FRIENDLY, it still doesn't seem right....
*I'm not just saying this in some effort to appear squeaky-clean for the Internet's benefit. I don't. It's disgusting. I don't like wine either. I prefer a sweet mixed drink that tempers the alcohol with nicer-tasting ingredients such as ice cream.
People still insist on thinking it's weird that we have Oktoberfest in September. FOR GOSH SAKES ALREADY THAT'S NOT WEIRD, THAT'S JUST WHEN OKTOBERFEST IS. See, Wikipedia explains it, which makes everything right. What IS sort of weird is that this town has such a huge Oktoberfest in the first place. It's not like we have an overwhelming German/Bavarian population in the town, no more than usual for Western Pennsylvania (which, I'll grant you, is still fairly large), not like the Italian and Greek populations we boast. But we have THE hugest Oktoberfest in at least this half of the state, kind of like how we also have THE hugest July 4th parade in this half of the state, and I'm not ENTIRELY sure why my community has taken to these two events as ...HUGELY as it has.
But it has, which means starting from the library and going up three blocks or so there is a FULL-BLOWN CARNIVAL BEING CONSTRUCTED, and all the kids have off school...
...which means they ARE hanging out at the library... but they're also not, because there's a HUGE CARNIVAL out there to go hang around instead, even though it's not technically open until later this afternoon.
So... odd day. I'm not even sure where I was going with those paragraphs. I actually thought I had more to write about this when I started this entry. Actually, I thought I had more to write about, period. Didn't I post three times last week? Why don't I suddenly have loads of brilliant things to post THIS week?
Has anything of interest happened to me lately? ...No, probably not. Have I read, watched, or listened to something of which I have an opinion I can force upon you all? ...probably, when you include "listened to," because I can't listen to the radio without having an opinion on it, but I don't have much to TYPE about it, either. Oh, except that I've recently decided I hate radio commercials even more than I used to.
I KNOW. How is that POSSIBLE, you are saying, at least if you are among the people who has ever ridden in a car with me while I have access to the stereo controls? The difference is, in the past I didn't want to MISS ANY OF THE MUSIC that was happening on the other stations. Now, THE COMMERCIALS ARE ACTUALLY PAINFUL IN AND OF THEMSELVES. The jingles are annoying, the voices grating, the humor appealing to the lowest common denominator, and the serious ones-- well, also appealing to the lowest common denominator. AND THEY REPEAT OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Of course the easy solution to this is Don't Listen to the Radio, but the radio's all I've got in the kitchen usually, and definitely it's all I've got on my clock radio. Well, the other option there is a buzzer alarm. I'll stick with the occasionally infuriating radio.
When I wake up in the morning and do my morning journaling, most of it usually ends up being what I was just dreaming (selection from last night: I'm sitting looking at these historical books with my dad and some other girl and this lady who looks like the lady with the annoying voice on Will and Grace, but with less of an annoying voice, and we're discussing the sorry state of society today or something of that nature when the other girl says, rhetorically, "Well, you know what they say...." And the other lady replies, " 'Living is fatal'?" And the first girl does a double-take and says, "Um, I guess." And I thought the whole thing was very funny, but then again I was sleeping at the time), anyway, so most of it ends up being what I was dreaming, but entirely too much of it also ends up being a running commentary of whatever is happening on the radio.
...okay, again the solution here appears to be Don't Listen to the Radio, at least when you're trying to write; but even when I'm NOT listening to the radio, my morning journaling will go into great detail about whatever song is in my head at the time, and then about whatever song that reminds me of, and then I may feel compelled to turn the radio on just to get a song OUT of my head.
At the moment I don't have any songs in my head, oddly enough. I am hearing nothing but the swelling rumble of a large industrial HVAC system and the clicking of my own computer keys. I don't even hear any teenagers. They've appeared to have gone out to stalk the Oktoberfest setup again.
But as I wasn't actually saying about the morning writing, because I hadn't gotten this far when I felt compelled to inform you that I didn't have any songs in my head, my original Grand Goals for Morning Writing-- you know, how I was going to write productively and write to prompts and so on and so forth? Have definitely taken a hit lately. Part of this is because the days are getting shorter, which means it's staying darker longer, which makes me less inclined to wake up at a decent hour. That or I'm exceedingly lazy lately, I'm not sure which. But ANOTHER part of this is because, three days a week, I've got to get Sam off to school. I look like much less of the lazybum in comparison to Sam. I've got to get moving early, which means skipping out on a lot of my former Morning Writing time, just so I can more conveniently get HIM moving, which is EXCEEDINGLY DIFFICULT, and he tends to be eating his breakfast on the way most days. He is DEFINITELY NOT a morning person. I've always thought of myself as a morning person, but I'm not really, I'm just DEFINITELY NOT a night person. I'm a ten o'clock in the morning person. Actually, that's probably my only alert and productive hour of the day, except that most days I'm using that hour to toddler-wrangle.
...so as I was saying. You know how I was moaning recently about how I don't read as much as I used to? And I was thinking about how somehow this has made me even pickier about what I WANT to read, and how therefore there are lots of titles I may have gladly picked up in the past that I WON'T now because I JUST DON'T CARE enough to make the time to read them. Anyway, I started to wonder if maybe (now that my ability to CONCENTRATE has returned. Not that you can tell from this post) I'm actually SHIFTING MODES. That maybe I've been on Input Mode for the past few years, wanting just to read and read and read, but NOW maybe I'm shifting to OUTPUT MODE! MAYBE I HAVE HUGE PILES OF STUFF I'M GOING TO WRITE NOW!
...except, um, I see very little evidence of that happening. Possibly I've stalled out between modes.
CAN there be a stalled-out mode? What exactly is the POINT of a person who is neither inputting or outputting?
Honestly, I'm not sure WHAT'S happening in my life. I feel like I am mediocre-ly involved in various realities, fully and completely present and active NOWHERE. And I'm including my imagination in this. Even my imagination is mediocre lately. I'M NOT EVEN DAYDREAMING WELL LATELY!
I HAVE been puttering ahead on One Book. I include it in the list of things I am accomplishing only mediocre-ly, but I nonetheless am progressing slowly but... slowly at it. It's pretty much the only thing I can point to tangible evidence of me MAKING progress at, so at least there's that. Mediocre progress though it may be.
So anyway, probably I should stop typing this now and attempt to be marginally productive in some less mediocre way.
And this post is so mediocre I can't even find a userpic that feels appropriate for it. There's always the default of course. Which is an utterly mediocre choice. Although it's so dang FRIENDLY, it still doesn't seem right....
*I'm not just saying this in some effort to appear squeaky-clean for the Internet's benefit. I don't. It's disgusting. I don't like wine either. I prefer a sweet mixed drink that tempers the alcohol with nicer-tasting ingredients such as ice cream.
