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Weekend Update, Christmas Eve Edition
Dec. 24th, 2017 11:09 amMan, it's been cold here in the Bay Area lately! We've been waking up to chilly mornings in the 30s and 40s and it hasn't gotten much warmer than the low 50s the last week or so. We of course have been hunkered down in the apartment, heat on full blast, drinking coffee and tea and wearing our fingerless gloves in order to keep warm. [I know, I know...some of you dear readers are calling us pikers right now. As former east coasties we'll totally cop to having gone soft.]
I've been thinking the last few weeks about how I'm going to wrap up this year. It's been an interesting one, to be honest. It was an endurance test to learn how to not be miserable despite the frustrations of current politics. It was hard not to get pissed off when the dipshit-in-chief (I still won't call him President and don't plan on it ever, even after he leaves, whatever process that may be) constantly finds new and and more creative ways to piss off the rest of the country and insult or disenfranchise those near and dear to me. But I've also been warmed -- repeatedly -- by the fact that I wasn't alone in feeling this, and that there were countless others more erudite and active than I could ever be, fighting back. And often winning. THAT, in particular, made me feel comfortable in accepting that I didn't have to be stressing over this 24/7 like I otherwise would have. I could focus on important personal things.
In fact, it drove me to take my own personal life and my writing career much more seriously. I had to be more positive, keep myself from dwelling in the negative for long periods, and channel that energy into creations instead of outbursts. I didn't want my own fears and frustrations paralyze me from living a normal life, especially now. So instead I kept pushing myself. I thought, I'll be damned if I'm going to have this administration keep me from advancing my career, directly or indirectly. No way in hell was I going to let That Shithead Jock From High School ruin my life because he didn't like me for some dumbass reason. No fucking way.
[As you can see, one interesting side effect of this administration is that I swear a lot more. Not always out of anger, either. Just that my bullshit level has seriously dropped. I actually find this healthier for me, to be honest.]
All that said...I'm glad I took that route, because it made my life so much more positive, creative and productive in 2017. I finally completed the Trilogy project. I wrote a new novel in six months, and while I'm doing the post-production on that one, I'm doing the pre-production on the next one. I kept a solid twice-a-week schedule on not one but two blogs, continued keeping a daily (on weekdays) longhand journal, and for at least six or seven months wrote daily practice words. It drove me to think more seriously about the business end of my writing career, which I've been ignoring or delaying for far too long.
So all in all, despite 2017's public shitshow, I'd say I actually had a damn good year. And I'm looking forward to 2018 as being an even more positive, creative and productive year.
I've been thinking the last few weeks about how I'm going to wrap up this year. It's been an interesting one, to be honest. It was an endurance test to learn how to not be miserable despite the frustrations of current politics. It was hard not to get pissed off when the dipshit-in-chief (I still won't call him President and don't plan on it ever, even after he leaves, whatever process that may be) constantly finds new and and more creative ways to piss off the rest of the country and insult or disenfranchise those near and dear to me. But I've also been warmed -- repeatedly -- by the fact that I wasn't alone in feeling this, and that there were countless others more erudite and active than I could ever be, fighting back. And often winning. THAT, in particular, made me feel comfortable in accepting that I didn't have to be stressing over this 24/7 like I otherwise would have. I could focus on important personal things.
In fact, it drove me to take my own personal life and my writing career much more seriously. I had to be more positive, keep myself from dwelling in the negative for long periods, and channel that energy into creations instead of outbursts. I didn't want my own fears and frustrations paralyze me from living a normal life, especially now. So instead I kept pushing myself. I thought, I'll be damned if I'm going to have this administration keep me from advancing my career, directly or indirectly. No way in hell was I going to let That Shithead Jock From High School ruin my life because he didn't like me for some dumbass reason. No fucking way.
[As you can see, one interesting side effect of this administration is that I swear a lot more. Not always out of anger, either. Just that my bullshit level has seriously dropped. I actually find this healthier for me, to be honest.]
All that said...I'm glad I took that route, because it made my life so much more positive, creative and productive in 2017. I finally completed the Trilogy project. I wrote a new novel in six months, and while I'm doing the post-production on that one, I'm doing the pre-production on the next one. I kept a solid twice-a-week schedule on not one but two blogs, continued keeping a daily (on weekdays) longhand journal, and for at least six or seven months wrote daily practice words. It drove me to think more seriously about the business end of my writing career, which I've been ignoring or delaying for far too long.
So all in all, despite 2017's public shitshow, I'd say I actually had a damn good year. And I'm looking forward to 2018 as being an even more positive, creative and productive year.
