I did manage to survive Jury Duty - even though I got selected for the Grand Jury Duty pool, had to go back on Wednesday and was super stressed. I managed to get excused by raising my hand “Does anyone here just really not want to do this.” I think many people were excited about the opportunity but I was excited for the opportunity to opt out. And it did lead to me having some realizations about my mental health and I’m planning to address that soon also.

Today I’m at the courthouse for jury selection and had to throw away my favorite lip gloss because it was in a “glass bottle.”. Arbitrary bullshit rules are bullshit. But whatever. I’m also the only person in this room wearing a mask despite many coughs sniffles and sneezes. Get real people. Or don’t. Idek anymore. So that’s my grouse for the morning. Let me sit here and experience the cattle call of the justice system at work and see if that improves my mood. 🙃

Some unstructured thoughts on the coming year, in true “If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter” format. This year is probably the year I have run the least in the last 10 years. While similar in latitude to Austin, running in Florida is just a whole different beast. The humidity is awful and there is such a dearth of parks and trails. But I (after at least 2 years of dilly dallying) finally signed up for the Masters Swim class at my local state college and have been swimming twice a week since September. And I re-registered for next semester plus Saturday mornings.

My introduction to blogging came to me in a very critical time in my life. I was 22 and recently widowed and was living with a friend and then a lover in Toronto. I was jobless and near homeless and it wasn’t nearly as traumatic or romantic as it sounds. But everything was liminal and I needed something and the newly born world of blogging was arising just as I had found myself with enough computer skills to dip in a toe.

I’m craving an outlet of some kind. I want to write and share. And I want to DO more things worth sharing and writing about. I guess the question is what? And where to start. The landscape of sharing online is so much different. Polyfurcated. I just need to pick somewhere(s) to start and see how it goes. Cross-posting should be easy with all the tools we have these days.

I think many of us are in a similar place – emotionally, mentally, politically, etc. And for me, I’m not trying to swim anymore, but I’ve reverted the conserve energy and float method of attempted survival. I don’t know. I’ve built a whole persona and career and life around being online. I blogged before it was popular, got married to a dude I met in a goth chatroom (and later to a guy I met via the Salon/Bust.com “personals”. HAH.