Number 4

I haven't been posting because, honestly, I lost interest in posting.  I won't blow the proverbial smoke and say I was too busy because when you take time to nap and Facebook and make/eat delicious Fantasy Fudge, that would seem to indicate there's some extra time in your schedule. 

Strangely, I always seem to come back around New Years.  Not sure why.  It has nothing to do with resolutions or anything like that.  I'm as willing to make resolutions in June as January.  And I have made some positive improvements since last we spoke.  I'm losing weight for one.  This is not vanity.  This is to save my life.  No, I'm not 700 pounds and on life support.  I just had a "moment of clarity" last year, again in January, looking at my father in a hospital bed and knowing that was going to be me if I didn't straighten the hell up healthwise.  I'm doing yoga, the first exercise I have ever truly enjoyed.  Don't you hate people who go to aerobics and wear terry cloth sweatbands and proclaim to love it when you know there is no way anyone could possibly ENJOY that crap?  And don't worry, I will not start springing Buddhist words of wisdom on you because basically I know none.  Go to the website for your zen.

I've used the excuse of studying when my friends ask about writing.  I spent about two years studying for CPIM exams, so it was pretty much like getting an associates degree.  And don't worry what CPIM stands for because it is on a planet far, far away from writing.  Now I'm studying for CSCP (don't look it up) and toyed with the idea of using it for the next great excuse.  But I'm not going to.  I've come to realize that the same discipline it takes to study for and pass those hard-ass tests I've been taking can be applied to writing.  It comes down to this:  break it down.  I break down the study in little chunks every day, and there's no reason to not do the same with the writing.  I've got the story, it's already started, I just need to put down a little chunk in writing every day.  And as was established in the first paragraph, the time is there.  Just put down the fudge.