I have a history of non-maintenance with this blog. (No, really?) Not to mention an awesome talent for stating the obvious. (As an aside, that spec script premise actually ended up being the novel that was lost in the Mac crash.)
Anyway, in the beginning the blog appealed to my journalism training, and I welcomed it as my own private op/ed column. It probably helped that I participated in the first BlogHer conference about a month after I started it (someone canceled, and I was close enough to drive), and that gave me a major blog boost to network with a wide variety of like-minded women. I had also recently relocated, and was stuck on a precipice with my other writing. I needed a break, and the blogosphere provided one.
The problem is, I have a problem juggling the two worlds.
I was prodded this past fall to return by my sister when I went to visit her. She'd embraced blogging, and wanted me to get back to it. Now, that probably seems quite reasonable, except for the fact that she lives in Hawaii (blog in paradise?), and one of the reasons I'd quit was the fact it became so time-consuming. But she was right, it felt good to be back. It probably helped that I flew into Honolulu on the final night of the Democratic convention, and that gave me plenty of fodder. I'm an opinionated news junky, and with that and my pesky journalism training my blog is my soapbox.
And my sister and I found another outlet in which we are quite companionable. There we were, on the lanai at the vacation house on the North Shore for the Laborless Labor Day Weekend, she with her laptop while I read. When we returned to her home, we'd work in separate rooms while we blogged in happy camaraderie.
After I returned home to California the upcoming election and the state of the nation occupied most of my interest and output, while my sister was finding her voice and building a rapport with her virtual friends.
It did not escape our notice that some of our most effective compositions were from the last three years that we actually lived under the same roof, when our family decided to live full-time at our vacation place at North Malibu. My sister gets more up close and personal, while I tend to be detached, employing a journalistic manner. But there's no denying that those years had a definite impact on our approach and outlook on life, and the women we became.
Again, my sister prodded me into action. She had the brainstorm that we should write a joint memoir about that time in our lives.
Once again I resisted. A bit. A memoir definitely means up close and personal, and maybe going to places I wasn't sure I wanted to go. And then she outed me.
That means I've been researching, doing a lot of reading. I have my memories, of course, but I find it easier to immerse myself in that time and bring it back by stimulating those memories with facts. I've been absorbing those facts, and percolating.
That's it for now. I want to watch the Top Chef reunion. You've got to relax sometime.
Love the Laurel Canyon girl Shaunna. Envy the research you are doing.
Posted by: Pseudo | March 05, 2009 at 06:50 AM
Is it horribly narcissistic to admit she reminds me of myself back then? Or is the memory lens distorted?
Posted by: shaunna | March 05, 2009 at 06:19 PM