7 Quick Takes

To get restarted blogging after Fry's restored my computer from a hard drive meltdown (thank God we decided to get the extended warranty), I decided to steal this idea from Conversion Diary: 7 quick takes. They do it on Friday, but I'll have to do the Saturday version.

1.  Nothing is harder for me than carving out space to write seriously while working full time and sharing other responsibilities.  I attempted to write something, anything, on Thursday night, while I was "multi-tasking" on the computer and watching TV.  It was a complete failure.  I got one paragraph in and gave up.  Perhaps ironically, the subject I chose to start with was why I had difficulty writing.

2.  Personally, this week has been stressful, with M's surgery.  It happened pretty quickly for those who don't know, but M required surgery to remove the sources of some pain that she's been dealing with for about 4 years.  It was a stressful day on Tuesday, with both sets of parents visiting at the hospital and trying to help.  Since then, we've had a few visits from friends and flowers delivered, plus my parents came and sat with Mariellen for most of the day Friday.  I had to work Wednesday and Friday, but Mariellen's parents were with her on Wednesday.  The overall effect of these visits and gifts have been good, but I've had to be more social than usual, and it's hard for an extreme introvert like me.

3.  The holidays have snuck up on me again.  I can't believe it's only a week until Christmas!  I'm trying to convince M that her big gift has already been bought, but I still need to get some little things for her and my parents.  We're going to be in California for Christmas Day, if M is feeling up to traveling.  Our gifts for her family were delivered early as part of an advent calendar thing, but it feels weird to go empty-handed to Christmas, so we'll probably do some shopping soon.  My parents aren't sure where they'll be because Dad may be flying, so we'll have to do Christmas with them on a different day.

4.  It seems to be getting harder to focus on what really matters, not easier, as I get older.  There are just so many distractions.  I've been worrying about all the wrong things -- work, the news, the past, the future, money.  Things that don't really matter at all.  I can't change the past, nor can I control the future.  The news is bad all the time.

5.  Speaking of news, I miss the days of the nightly news broadcast, as opposed to 24-hour news cycles.  I still watch NBC Nightly News on occasion, and I find that bulletin version of the news more interesting than the hours and hours of news on CNN or Fox News.  Not that I can stand to watch Fox for more than a few seconds, but still.

6.  Is blogging creative?  I'm not sure on that one.  It does occupy some of the creative energy I have to come up with this stuff, but I'm not sure it's an effective creative outlet.  There's very little audience for my writing these days, as far as I can tell, even though it's being broadcast to the whole world.

7.  God is good, all the time.  I'm thankful for a successful surgery, for the relative comfort of our lives, for having a job that allows us to pay the bills in such a down economy.  I'm looking forward to a new year, in which God will continue to be a refuge.