Well I really fell off the blogging wagon for a while. I think you're starting to get the idea of what happens when I try to keep a journal. But with a journal, there's zero accountability...who knows if I actually write or not? Here, anyone can see how bad I am about regularly writing for fun. I'm reading a memoir by a guy who's a novelist and a runner. And he admits that he has never been good about keeping a journal (about life) but is steady about keeping a running journal. Well amen to that because I feel the same way. Last spring I bought a runner's journal. Up until mid-December I was really good about recording workouts, whether running, swimming, strength training, or what-have-you. I don't know what it is about daily life that keeps me from writing, but I look at the times when I have kept a journal (a semester abroad in Australia), and I really enjoy looking back at my thoughts.
Perhaps I've been an intermittent blogger because I don't have a focus. This isn't a blog about fixing cars or reducing the fat content in America's favorite comfort foods. It's Seinfeld-ian in a way...it's a blog about nothing. I can only hope to be half as entertaining.
Now that that's off my chest, here are a couple of thoughts about the holidays:
You know that program "One Laptop Per Child" which strives to provide a laptop for all children in developing countries? I have a new proposal -- the "One Portable DVD Player Per Child" initiative. All parents on long road trips should seriously consider this for the sake of sanity. After a few antsy trips to and from New Jersey, we finally bit the Best Buy bullet and bought a portable DVD player for our son. Hallelujah. Not a peep out of him on either leg of the trip. He watched DVDs for about an hour or so on the way to NJ and for about three hours on the way back. Not only did it keep him quiet but he now can't stand to watch TV for more than 30 minutes at a time. He used to watch an hour of "Curious George" from 5 to 6 p.m. while I made dinner, but since the trip he promptly shuts it off at 5:30, declaring, "I'm tired of watching George." I guess I better dust off the 30-Minute Meals cookbook.
Speaking of meals, I love how the holidays revolve around food. I mean, I want to throw up at the thought of a Christmas cookie right now, but while you're in the thick of it, the feasting isn't so bad. Part of the feasting, at least in my family, has always involved the holiday box of chocolates. And I don't mean the Godiva ballotin...I'm talking about the Russell Stover rectangular trough with the candy diagram on the inside of the lid. Year after year, the box is passed, and everyone tries to figure out if the candy is still in the same position as the diagram. Because once you remove an empty wrapper, you've pretty much ruined the diagram's integrity. You don't know what's where. Coconuts are now where the cremes used to be, and a caramel has slid over to the walnut section. It's a complete disaster. But anyway, you do your best to find what you're looking for -- albeit the lumpy tops of the nut clusters are a dead giveaway -- yet it's inevitable that you bite into a strawberry creme when you were hoping for a mocha truffle. But you know you're among family when the person next to you says, "Ooh! Strawberry creme! Are you going to finish that?" and takes the other half so you can guiltlessly troll for that truffle.
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