As I have written about so many times in the past, I have very few rituals in my life. I envy people that wake up at the same time, or eat the same breakfasts (breakfastses?) , or drive the same route to work. I am especially envious when these people have positive rituals, such as exercising etc.
There are a couple of small rituals that I have managed to include in my life over the past few years. One of them, as you know is that NYT Crossword Puzzle. I typically wake up before the rest of the Leone clan does. I will crank out today’s puzzle plus one archived puzzle. This keeps my brain flexible and keeps me humble because I almost never get through Thursday’s puzzle without help from my little friend, Google.
The other ritual is that I use Google Reader to read a list of what I categorize as “My Daily Reads.” I have approximately 30 blogs that I can’t live without (don’t worry, I count both of you as among my most important). These blogs range in scope from the light-hearted, to Mommy and Daddy blogs, to Pinko-Commie Left Wing Propaganda, to some work relevant blogs, to harcore scientific, skepticism and atheist blogs). These blogs, your blogs, are as important to me as the books on my shelves. Everyday I laugh, I think, I learn and sometimes I bleed tears. What I especially love is that most of you don’t make a dime from your efforts. You have no stake in this other than a sincere desire to share yourselves with tens, hundreds or possibly even thousands of readers that share your corner of the internet. I love that! I sometimes feel like I write just to be included in your worlds.
As you can see, I am really good at making a short story, long. As all I wanted to say here was that I just checked this morning and noticed that in “My Daily Reads” I have 116 unread posts! I feel like I am missing something in life if I even go one day without reading your words and now I have 116 posts I have to catch up on.
Doesn’t it suck when life gets in the way of living?
There is so much happening in all our worlds and my world is no exception. I try to deal with the day-to-day stuff to the best of my ability but I still need to RSVP to a Boston College alumni dinner invitation, make copies of my son’s progress report, write a letter to his teacher, deal with my dad’s terminal illness as he slips further away from us every day, get estimates on cutting down a tree that is dangerously close to my neighbor’s bedroom window, console my mom as she becomes a patient herself, research health insurance options for my mom as she decides to leave her job, fight a traffic ticket, fix my son’s laptop, make my home network a little more robust, fix the bathroom faucet that has now dripped to a continuous stream, work on not over-reacting when the Baby Goats are busy being Baby Goats, hang photos that are still un-hung after 6 years, find a lawyer and an accountant to look over my parent’s finances, cancel my barber’s appt for Thursday because I am volunteering at a PBS telethon, call my doctor for some blood test results I had drawn two weeks ago, determine a Christmas budget and SHOP for a holiday I have NO belief in! Phew!
As bloggers, there are at least a few different “responsibilities” we have taken on. We need to:
1. Come up with relevant content for our own blog
2. Design our blog and maintain it
3. Join and actively participate in various communities of bloggers
4. Read other’s blogs for our own pleasure as well as to get ideas for our own blogs
5. Grace other’s blogs with a thoughtful comment
I am a stuck at Step 1. Please allow me some time to come up with creative ways to sweep my list of stuff to do under the rug. Once that is done, I will work on making my world interesting enough to justify your precious time visiting and in the meantime, I will sneak into Google Reader to catch up on what all you REAL writers are up to!
Question for Both of My Readers (BoMR): HOW THE EFF DO YOU GUYS DO IT?!
Gotta go do mine now…
Personally I do it by completely ignoring my family and loved ones. Oh, and doing a large proportion of my blogging while at work.
Don’t worry about taking a break if you need to Dan, we’ll still be here when you get back.
Left by t'other Dan on December 5th, 2007