Blog Absence

I have not written a blog for a little over a week. So if anyone reads this regularly and was wondering where I went, I'm still here. Things have been a bit stressful with our apartment searching and financial auditing (aka figuring out how to try and get out of debt) taking up lots of time. I had some idea it would be difficult to find a place to live for the amount we'd like to spend... but I did not expect it to be near impossible. When you are picky like me, and you don't really like the smell of cigarette smoke lingering in the paint on walls or the smell of cat piss carpet, then it really makes the search that much more difficult. Anyhow, we may have figured out where our next apartment will be... it's just a matter of one major thing that's bothering us about the place. That would be where to park our vehicles. It comes with one garage space, but that leaves Nate to fend for himself and jockey with neighbors for the few "open" parking spaces that are near the apartment we chose. Great. So now that I've gotten our "sob story" out of the way, I'd like to talk a little about a writing class that I went to yesterday. :)

I like to learn. (That was dorky, and I don't care.) Recently I decided to get over a little fear of putting myself out there, and I signed up for a membership at a writing workshop and also signed up for a workshop to learn more about travel writing! Yay. If you know me, I love travel... and well... I also love to learn. I also stink at putting myself out there sometimes. A writing workshop about travel writing was the perfect cure! Yesterday we did introductions, some free writing, and I even made everyone laugh out loud with my description of our "neighborhood". I put neighborhood in quotations because we don't have much of one where we live. Apparently when I described the "tan guy", as Nate and I appropriately named him, as the guy at the pool with his "trunks hiked up around his man parts" others found that as silly as I do. I guess that reading Bill Bryson has maybe taught me a thing or two? That brings me to my next thought. We talked a little bit about how you don't want to be too self indulgent when writing, because then your readers lose interest if they cannot relate and put themselves in your shoes. Oh to learn that perfect balance between self-indulgence and creating a sense of place for readers. Isn't balance that elusive idea in life that seems like it should be easy but is often just the opposite. I hope I don't bore you and if I get too self indulgent please let me know. My only wish is to share travels and observations with you, and my goal is most definitely not to indulge. Although I'm sure we're all guilty of that once in a while, right? :)

As for my blog absence, I'm sorry to anyone who's truly interested in what I write. I will try and be better. Maybe this writing workshop will inspire me to be a better writer and to write more often. I never used to like writing very much, but I find it to be a nice creative outlet and way to express yourself. Fun I guess. Fun to you? I'm not sure yet. Thanks for reading!