A lot in me has been changing and evolving (the majority of them inconsequential). This is good, this is helpful. I have evaluated a few areas and made some adjustments.
I am trying to take better care of myself, both physically and aesthetically. I’ve stared down my fierce and shocking hatred of nail files and started to have manicures and pedicures. I still feel like my spine in being yanked out through my neck when it’s done, but I look and feel a bit more put together when it’s done. This has a knock on effect to my confidence which is surprising – it’s only nail polish, but it makes me feel like I am better equipped.
You’re probably sick of reading it (Christ knows I’m sick of both writing it and experiencing it), but my health has taken major hits this Spring – as previously mentioned I was being held together with duct tape and wishful thinking. Some elements have healed, while others worsened. My severe allergies are, it transpired, impacted by being allergic to the allergy medicine that should’ve cure me. Oh, the irony. Suffice to say that when hay fever hits from here on, it’s steroids. Go directly to steroids. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200. I’m on the steroids, and although they’re helping I’m still recovering (highs include eyes swelling shut and the skin on my face peeling off. I looked hot.) Additionally the EDS is showing new signs that I was not prepared for, namely that one minute I will be walking, the next I will be sprawled most ungracefully on the pavement without a clue of what’s happened. It’s happened twice now – I was walking and then I…wasn’t. To the detriment of my knees. Investigations are ongoing.
Locking down old posts is ongoing – it’s painstaking (due to limitations on WordPress I have to do one at a time). I am surprised at some of my old writing. Not only is it very open, it also occasionally veers into Really Very Explicit (although my titles used to be way funnier than they are now. Time to up my game.) I kind of don’t recognize that person, that one who wrote then. It’s not to say it’s not my writing because it is, it’s just more of a milestone than a mirror.
The novel is ongoing. It’s unravelling in my head and now, finally, via my fingers. The plot is simple but the characters aren’t. Suffice to say that it’s something I’m not unfamiliar with. It will make its first appearance here on the blog within the next few weeks.
This week my blog turns 8. I have been writing here for 8 years. Staggering, really. My blog is elementary school age. This means it excels at Sorry and Chinese Checkers and still loves a good Disney film (it would have the good taste to have never gone for that Hannah Montana crap).
On the day my blog turns 8, I will be in the States. I leave tomorrow from this side of the Atlantic and land on the other side at Boston Logan Airport. I will meet some folks there and then we hop in a rental car and head to a Somewhere Else, whereupon I will be meeting many people and I am unspeakably nervous about it. We will be there for several days, and then I return home. I realize this all seems very hush hush and James Bond-y, but there’s a reason for it (it relates to my private life) and more details once I get back. I am going on my own, and I have left daily presents for Alastair and the twins to open while I’m gone, with promises of more presents when I get back. I will miss them all fiercely.
That’s where we are. A re-hash – clumsy. Eyes like raw hamburger meat. Tired. Nice red nails. 8 years old. Heading to Boston.
And happy. It’s pouring down with rain. My minions and I are off to watch “Despicable Me” or, as they call is, “De-stickable Me.” Popcorn will be had. It has the hallmarks of a great day.
-S.
Boston! My beloved Boston! Wave hello to it for me, and tell it I’ll be there soon (apologize to it for the last time I said that and then had to work). Try not to hate on Logan; for whatever reason, people do. Me, I love it, welcoming me home with Dunkin Donuts coffee and the ping-pong-Rube-Goldberg deelie near the international gates. If you have never been (I don’t know your familiarity level with Boston), YOU MUST GO TO NEWBURY COMICS on your way to Somewhere Else. There is a location on the Fresh Pond Parkway just by Alewife, one on Newbury Street, one in Faneuil Hall…you will appreciate it in ways I cannot fully express except in my enthusiastic insistence. Geek shirts. Dr. Who action figures. Music at incomprehensibly good prices. Quippy pins. All around wondrousness. A word of caution, however – in case you, like most people outside of Canada, don’t follow hockey, the Boston Bruins are in the Stanley Cup playoff thingies, so there may be rabid fans about.
Happy eighth blogirthday (blirthday? blogthday?) and thank you for sharing your musings, explicit, pensive, amusing, and otherwise. Enjoy Gru and the minions – have you seen the bonus shorts? They’re pretty darn amusing.
Happy Anniversary! Have a good trip to Somewhere Else…
I do not enjoy the pedicure – people touching my feet is more or less unbearable (random fact: I can tickle my own feet, which should not be possible). But I suffer through occasionally, because the results are so pleasing.
Hard to believe been that long and that I was led to you soon soon after you began. I have laughed and cried with you and enjoyed every mile of the ride.
Your voice has changed over time reflecting your evolving happiness, Love seems to shine now.
Enjoy your trip to Elsewhere.
Welcome to Boston! But please don’t bring any more rainy English weather with you. It’s pouring today, and I blame my English in-laws current visit for the constant precipitation. Anyway, hope you have a blast, and if you find yourself on the North Shore, drop me a line!
Happy blog anniversary thing! I hope your time in the states is a good one. I would post a comment that made more sense but I am doing this on my phone and it’s all.wonky. Seems appropriate since I am all.wonky myself!
I hope the trip goes well. I look forward to the writing. Mostly, I am very glad to hear you are happy.
Abs x
Happy blogiversary to you! As your adopted blogson (or blogstray that sat on your porch meowing until you took pity and let me in the house), I’ve been reading here for almost seven of those eight years, and inspired by a goodly number of your posts. Hell, once in a while I post something that I think is actually worthwhile, and I give thanks to you for the inspiration.
It is interesting how we go over our old posts and see how we’ve evolved over time, even if we don’t recognize ourselves at the time or remember how we got into the mindframe to come up with those posts. But evolve you have immensely, and I’m happy to have been along here for the ride. And I look forward to seeing you evolve further, especially as the mother of two growing kids.
Hope all goes well with your trip to Boston, and that there will be plenty of hugs and kisses for the hubby and kids when you return.
What June said about the weather. Ugh, But when the sun comes, the best!! Happy 8 years. I have been quietly reading most of that time, and have valued your willingness to put it all out there, but see why you’d lock it down. Enjoy your trip!
If you are going to be in or near southeastern Wisconsin and have some spare time email me. I live south of Milwaukee and would dearly love to meet you. I was going to say and shake your hand but I wouldn’t want to hurt you. ;)
Like Charles and Diamond Dave I’ve been with you from the beginning and have laughed and cried (and cried and cried and cried) with you every step of the way. There are passages I can recite by heart because I’ve read and reread them so often – you know one of them :-). Anyway, sending you all love to add to that you will carry with you on your trip to the US. If you are doing what I suspect you are doing you’re a brave and strong woman – not that you haven’t always been, but I rejoice in the fact that you have your family in the UK strengthening you through their love. Wishing you all the best for a safe and happy trip!
I hope the states has gone well for you and you are now well situated and comfy for your time there.
Time flies. Have a safe and fun trip, can’t wait to hear about it all upon your return.
xo
I hope your time here in the US is both enjoyable and fruitful and that the weather is to your liking. I look forward to hearing how the trip went.
We’ve been having some crazy weather where it’s hotter up north than it’s been in the south. Only by a degree or two, but when Minnesota and Wisconsin are 95 and it’s only 94 in NC, SC, GA, and MS, that’s incredible. But I haven’t noticed if Boston has been hot. Hopefully you’ll get exactly the weather you want.
Happy 8th.
Happy 8 Year Blogaversary! Ah Boston, they’re stealing my Canucks thunder as I type! Allergies suck. The End.
Happy birthday Shannon’s blog.
You have changed.. for the better I would say.. which is good cause I dont have to worry about you so much now.
(ok ok you didnt ask me to worry, i know that.. it’s my own head trip)
have a great trip. good luck with whatever you’re doing.
Wow. That’s a long time to stick with something. I have about a two-year limit for continual effort unless there are drastic changes along the way. (Raising children, for example, falls under the “drastically changing” category.) Congratulations on the perseverance!