January 2018

I promised myself I would write. So I am. Here, at my desk...good, bad or indifferent... writing. January 2018.

I am coming off of a good year. I wasn't anxious or eager for it to end. Some years you just cannot wait for that new year to roll in. Too much bad, or too much negative, or maybe just too much of something. This wasn't one of those years for me. Lots of change in my family and it was all good change. That doesn't always happen.

It seemed like the country had a lot of bad. Nature seemed angry at us, or at the very least angry at California. I won't get into the political bad. Everyone has their opinion. I will say I am disinterested and numb to it all and this cannot be good. But, when I try, when I try to wake up and force myself to look at what is going on in politics...it just seems so surreal and possibly stupid, that I close back up again. 

The big AHA moment for me as I enter 2018 is that I really don't have "children" or "kids" anymore. They are two teens and two adults. Which is both joyful and challenging. The two teens are completely uninterested in the advice that I am still legally required by law to force upon them (this would be called "parenting" a concept that is lost in this household) and the two adults now ask for advice, which would be lovely if they followed any of the advice that was asked for, but they really do not.

There is a come uppance to it all because as I complain here, I realize I do the exact same thing to Naomi. I will frequently engage her in some type of conversation about my home and the decoration or up keep of it, ask a question and then immediately do something entirely different then the advice that she offered up. So there is a ridiculous never ending cycle to it all. I am lack luster in my attempt to break the cycle. 

I spend a lot of time texting my college friends. We live in all different parts of the United States. OK, we live in all different parts of California with one lone, sad situation of a dear friend stuck in Ohio (here after referred to snarkily as "the tundra"). This is not to offend the people of Ohio, but we are California girls and we need her back in flip flops and sunshine. I have several different threads (group messages that I refer to as threads, which wikipedia tells me is a real thing, but the two teens and two adults scoff at and mock me for...you know, if scoffing and mocking were allowed, but clearly they are not because that would be disrespectful and that does not happen in my house, of course). These texting threads are the perspective in life  that keep me sane when dealing with my life.

I'm watching The Bachelor. I know. You don't need to say anything, I know. But, the two adults watch it and I like to have topics of conversation with them that don't involve me giving the solicited, yet  ignored advice. So, here I am joining bachelor nation in its maybe 400th season.  

I only have one real observation. I have many, many observations, but only one real one. Only one that rolls over and over in my mind as I watch both the show and my brain cells spill out onto the carpet. 

While I may be new to watching the show in season 400, I am not new to it's concept. And while I, at age 49, am new to watching the show, I feel certain the 20+ girls ages 22 to whatever are not new to watching the show, nor it's concept either. Yet, there are several that seem shocked that the show goes on after they kiss this man and announce their love, or actually "deep, one of a kind connection" with him. It appears that at this moment they expect the bachelor to announce, "Yes, me too. Let's shut this whole thing down! ABC, host of 400 seasons...this time is different, We are going to wrap up tonight and let the other 20+ girls go home. It's a shocker, but we are doing it. Thank God I don't have a contract that expects me to hang in there for the next 15 episodes and since all you really wanted was for to find true love then you will be supportive of this decision."

That's all. That's my one real observation. I will spare you the many more that I have, because again, it is season 400. The thoughts have all been shared.


Right now, with this new found promise to write, I have about ten started and unfinished articles in the works. Some with great potential and some that are really just awful. But, I have decided that if I am going to get anywhere with posting blog pieces more frequently, good, bad or indifferent I am just going to have to post more frequently. Meaning...some may be really awful.