I have detailed my experience with WordPress’ “postaday” tag/experiment/project. The thing is that I think in all of my two+ years of tagging my posts with the tag “postaday” I somehow missed the fact that this tag no longer seems to be “in use” as they say. I’ve been subscribed to and receiving emails from WordPress’ “The Daily Post” for a while. I’m not sure how I even ended up in this boat. But I’m thinking I want to try something new tonight. In fact, I’m actually yearning for it.
Completely unrelated picture #1. I wore a bow tie today.
I spent about an hour earlier — right after my kids were in bed, uncharacteristically on time for them — looking through old posts. I was struck by a few things. I was a different writer then. In many ways my writing reflected a light-heartedness that is not always evident now. No, now I am a more serious and determined writer. I had a cadre of regular commenters in my fellow postaday bloggers. A few of these are still with me, though not commenting much at all anymore. We’re all busy. One of these is no longer blogging and I wish him well, though I am sad I have not heard from him in a long while. I used the daily prompts from postaday almost religiously, that is, until I figured out that I could usually reflect more of my life and quicker without them. I discovered the Freshly Pressed honor when a friend received it and boy did I try my hardest to get it. But I never did. I wrote actual stories! Imagine that. Almost every night I wrote a story that was structured around a topic with relevant pictures. The conclusion was usually an awesome punchline that neatly tied everything together. I’ve hit that rare mark before since then. I know I have because my dear friends Kelly and Theresa chime in with comments of how much a post reminds them of the classics.
I want to be a happy writer again! Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not a sad writer now but I want to change my focus and be a better writer. So I thought I would join in with this daily post thing and see what happens. Let’s give it a shot, shall we? Besides, the kids are growing up so fast. I want just a few more posts that remind me of when I still had a baby girl in a crib and a baby boy who was learning to potty train and the insanity of fatherhood that emerged because of them. I love them so much.
Tonight’s prompt:
Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?
Completely unrelated picture #2. My wife recently made this birthday cake for her nephew.
Sonofagun! Talk about hitting a nerve. Wow. OK, here’s some background. When I was a small child, my HOUSE WAS ON FIRE. In fact it was a triple fatal fire. My life changed forever because of that night and I’ll tell you something, having lived through that horror, I don’t give a tiny rat’s behind about any single possession in my home. If they all burn up like Sisqo’s career (remember him?) I don’t care! They’re only things. They are not people. You know what I grabbed? I grabbed my wife and kids and held them closer than I ever have in this imaginary nightmare because they are all that matters in this situation.
Oh wait, I’m supposed to be playing along with the prompt here. OK. In no particular order, here they are:
- A clean pair of socks. It’s cold outside right now and for some reason I feel like my feet would get coldest of all my body parts.
- My Apple devices. If we’re going to be out on the lawn for a while my kids are going to need their apps.
- My gun. I still have no idea if the bullets might just explode! in the intense heat of a house fire. Wouldn’t want to hurt our firemen friends. Also, we might need to eat and I could take down a squirrel or two.
- A bottle of ANYTHING from the bar (unless it’s that Midori stuff, yuk). I might need to settle my nerves.
- Frozen chicken nuggets from the freezer. Assuming I can find a microwave (and a power source) I could feed my kids for days.
So there you have it. Yes, I’m feeling so happy right now. Maybe I’ll just go to Walmart and stare at the crib displays to remember the good old days.
Nitsa has a recipe for a Jade Martini that uses Midori, you should as her for it. I hear it’s great.