Tortillas on The Computer and Why Do I Blog?

I'm trying to sit down at my computer, at the kitchen table, to write my post and there's an open bag of tortillas sitting on top of it. Perfect example of why my house is a mess. The Transporter and SoccerBoy, who just spent the night, just finished making burritos for breakfast. There “was no counter space” because OYT was also making breakfast. That's his reason for putting them there. Um, what about the whole rest of the kitchen table? There was yesterday's mail he could have put it on top of. Or how about the newspaper The Engineer didn't finish reading and left scattered about. Or best of all, on top of the packaging for the car part that arrived FOR THE TRANSPORTER yesterday, and still is sitting ON THE KITCHEN TABLE. No, tortillas on the computer.

I can't win this clutter battle with no help. And I can't even complain about it on my blog until I get reluctant, sullen teenager out of his room to put them away. You'd think I'd asked him to paint the house so enormous was his complaining. Then he tried, “Why couldn't you just put them away? It's just a bag of freakin' tortillas?” My point exactly, but why couldn't YOU put them away. His argument proves my point. He's now sulking in his room because, “All you do is yell at me!” and I'm fuming at the computer because of all the clutter – and what I described is just a small portion, but a perfect example of what happens everywhere.

But that's not what I was going to talk about today...that was accidentally the “vent” portion of my tagline: wanna be writer seeks place to vent, practice, and share. I was going to talk about why I blog, because I read some great blogging rules over at Alex J. Cavanaugh's yesterday. It got me thinking about all the different sorts of blogs I've come across on the Post A-Z Road Trip this summer, and the different types of bloggers, and what motivates us all to go on this crazy ride and join this supportive community.

I blog to practice writing. That's why I'll put up a stupid, gory story when I have “writer's block” (which is a whole 'nother post – does it really exist) because my blog is what holds me accountable to myself (and my readers!) to KEEP WRITING even when it's not flowing, even when I have no good ideas, even when it's late in the day and probably not as many will read it. It's the JUST DO IT thing. Just write. Just throw it up there. Don't let life circumstances, how you're feeling, or what else you have to do stop you. JUST WRITE.

That's why I started my blog. What I didn't know was that I was joining a symbiotic, living, breathing, shifting, evolving community. I didn't know I'd make friends. I didn't know I'd find blogs that I HAVE to read, even if it means that when I get there, I read a whole week's worth of work in one shot. (You know who you are...smiles.) I didn't know about bloghops to meet new people, and I didn't know about challenging myself. I've learned so much.

On my facebook page, my occupation is listed as blogger. It's not that I'm getting paid, but THIS IS WHAT I DO. When I don't do it, I feel like I'm missing out on something good. That good being your post that will teach me something new, show me a great picture, share your artistic talent, make me think, make me argue, and make me smile. The other good would be the interaction through comments and emails that fly all around the world, just because I'm practicing my craft.

Why do you blog?

I Want A Do-Over!

Ever just want a do-over? Go back and erase something bone-headed you did? I used to think I'd like to go back and not break my wrist into a million pieces resulting in six surgeries, eleven years of chronic pain, and a wrist that is now fused. But I don't think that's a good idea. (And I probably have seen too many time-travel movies...) Maybe who I am would radically change – maybe going through all that adversity has profoundly shaped my personality for good instead of for bad. (I've always thought of it as a bad event.) Maybe I'll pick a simpler do-over.

I think I'd like to move into my house again. Almost 13 years ago we came from a 760 square foot house into this 1700 square foot ranch with a (weirdly) finished basement almost the same size. We unpacked. Well, mostly. I still have my antique Swedish chest that I've never unpacked, which every time I think of it, I wonder what's in there that I haven't missed in 13 years. I suspect nick-nacks. Not that these thoughts ever lead to actual unpacking.

I don't know how it happened (though I have some suspicions) but our house is overflowing with clutter and the basement, well, let's call it semi-inhabitable. Where you can walk. I'd like to move in again and THROW AWAY A LOT OF CRAP and then make a NO CRAP ALLOWED rule. A place for everything and everything in its place.

I'd also like each member of the family to put their own stuff away, instead of piling it up in places it doesn't belong. Any flat surface that I manage to clear off, instantly sucks in clutter again. I've seriously found that if I DON'T clean off a spot, it can't gather MORE clutter because it would be too precariously perched, so it stays in a relatively stable state of stasis.

Here's a typical example. Boy orders game from Amazon. Boy unpacks game. Boy leaves packaging, receipt, knife, and cellophane on kitchen table. Husband does minor fix-it job. Leaves electrical tape, scissors, and two screw drivers on kitchen table. I'm trying to set table for dinner. First I have to put away all that crap, then I can proceed. (But at least I found a pair of scissors! Those seem to just vanish into thin air...) Ask them to put it away you say? The fix-it stuff would end up on what's supposed to be my telephone table: pad of paper, basket of pens and pencils, and my coupon basket. What's there now? An assortment of tools, glues, and car parts.

Yeah, I said car parts. We have, as many of you know, several (OK, five) old cars. They require maintenance. Car parts come in the mail. Repeat scenario from game coming in mail in above paragraph. Put car part on little table in kitchen. “It's not worth putting it in the garage, I'm about to install it!” Yeah, like, um, next week. Meanwhile, it gets to live in my kitchen?? I don't get it.

I'm fighting an uphill battle. We're all pack-rats. There's one person who feebly, at times, tries to un-pack-rat, but it's such a hopeless endeavor that she usually gives up and goes to procrastiknit. Wouldn't you? Or would you ask for a do-over?

~Tina