500 Words on Missing Words

I’ve always loved writing, and have a lot of fun blogging over the years. When I quit teaching in early November, my schedule had a lot more room in it. My plan – my brilliant plan – was to use this blog to practice writing and get some feedback. I’d have a lot more time and it only takes a couple of hours to research and write a post. It was going to be perfect.

And then reality got in the way.

My triumphant return is an explanation of where I’ve been. I hope you’ll understand.

Who dat gonna keep me from bloggin’? Since 2005, I’ve spent my Sundays on dive boats. I never took more than 10 weekends off each year and rarely did one of these Sundays fall during football season. There were a few Sundays that I could focus on football, but I had tickets to the Chargers with my brother and was focusing on only one game. Hell, I watched 3 Super Bowls on dive boats and caught the end of a fourth after a morning shore diving.

So Saints football only held my attention on Monday or Thursday night games. Otherwise, I had to settle with recaps, websites, and first-hand accounts from my fellow Super-fan Amy. SCUBA diving ruined my football.

So it’s only fitting that football would ruin my blogging. In fairness, my original schedule never demanded much attention on a Sunday – which was good because I spent most Sundays during the regular season holding court for two games in a row – but the historic playoff run of the New Orleans Saints started dominating my post-season life. In my free time I was reading about the Saints, talking about the Saints, and making Saints-inspired iTunes playlists. I spent 2 full weeks between the NFC Championship game and the Super Bowl thinking only in black and gold.

In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies keep me from blogging. Ironically, around the time my blogging lapsed I cancelled my DirecTV service. Right now, I have no television access. I was watching too much television and quitting cold turkey would free up hours a day. Until I found a loop hole. My inadequately unused Netflix account would feed the addiction with 10 seasons of streaming Law & Order SVU. I’m now finished through season 10, in case you were wondering.

It’s a Kindle world, I just live in it. Shop for a book, read a book, finish a book. Repeat. I got a Kindle for Christmas and it’s a hundred times better than I imagined.

So, I’ve managed to keep busy, but not busy doing the things I want to be busy doing. But there is good news. The New Orleans Saints are Super Bowl Champions, there are only 10 seasons of SVU on Netflix, and reading helps me write. Hopefully, I’ll settle back into the routine that I never quite perfected.