I have been thinking about starting a blog for a long time now. I was long in the habit of writing for myself, filling notebook after notebook of random ideas that might be "published" one day. More recently I have been surveying all I have accumulated and realized that to anyone but myself it is a pile of papers that would require intense labor to sort thru, and I dont forsee my children taking up the task so posthumous discovery ala Emily Dickenson is probably out and I need to get to work. Thanks to the Internet however the outlets for publishing are far greater and more accessable than they once were. A friend who also blogs on this site (Mod Mom Beyond Indiedom, check it out) recomended it to me, and here we are.
I have titled the blog Meg on the go, because thats usually what I am doing, transiting from work to school activities, to afterschool activities, to the store, and so forth. As a non driver I do alot of this on busses which gives me plenty of time to think and write. More over, until I can get some repairs to my laptop I will be doing most of my posting from my cell phone, so it will be a truly mobile blog.
Part of the problem I have always had with writing is finishing anything. I get really good ideas, sustain them for 4-5 pages and then run dry, and start over again with the next idea. There are just too darn many things I am interested in to work on any one idea for too long. Not long ago I was looking thru the lovely blank book a friend gifted me with awhile back and realized that what I had been doing was blogging on paper and it was time to take the plunge.
So a few things more about me so you know where I am coming from:
After graduation from college I passed on further education (temporarily I thought) and was employed a police dispatcher in a large city in Ohio. I have been there over 20 years. Civil service isnt what it used to be, neither for job security or benifits, but they are still good, esp when you have a family. I know horror stories amongst my own family and friends of what happens when families lack health and life insurance, and I am grateful my job allows me some security for my family, and the promise of a certain pension at retirement. The security is the main reason I stay where I am.
After graduation I married a college friend, who is a composer (his marriage) and also an awesome chef. He is a repository of knowledge about how things used to be done, spinning, leathercrafting, canning, flint knapping. Come the downfall of technology you want him in your corner.
I am the mother of a middle school age daughter who is in girl scouts and ballet, both since kindergarden. Since 5th grade she has also been in choir and orchestra playing viola (heaven help you if you mess up and say violin). Her brother, a soon to be high school senior, is in boyscouts and baseball, also since gradeschool. Occasionally they complain about their minority status as kids who have the same parents, married before the elder's date of birth, with everyone sharing the same last name. They are fiercely yet affectionately competitive for position and attention. I spend a considerable amount of my down time at baseball games, dance classes, orchestra and choir concerts and other such events. Between their dad and myself we usually get it all covered.
In college I majored in Theatre and minored in British Literature, plus I took a lot of history classes. Although I havent been able to pursue formal education beyond my bachelors degree I have self educated as much as possible. I have a particular fondness for the Platagenet and Tudor soap opera. The largest manifestation of history in my life is the 2 weeks each year my family and I spend at the Pennsic Wars recreating the Middle Ages.
I am an incurable optimist, I always want to believe the best of people and of situations. I probably set the bar too high much of the time. I once heard someone say that a pessimest is always surprised and an optimist is always dissapointed, which explains alot about me.
I believe in heroes. I believe that no matter how much we strive as a group we need people to lead the way. My greatest heroes I admire not only for the deeds that gave them fame but with what they did with that fame afterward. Edmund Hillary is a hero of mine not because he climbed Mt Everest but because he used that fame to advocate for the enviorment and for the people of Nepal.
I love books, probably to excess you look around my house. I advocate for libraries wherever I can (esp around the workplace when theres a levy on the ballot) but I like to own my books, partly cause I like to write in them. To me a book is a dialogue betw writer and reader, not a lecture. Lately I have started trying to transition to digital reading, at least for new books, and older books in the public domain, realizing that at some point I will have to downsize my library. I prefer the feel of actual books (and you cant take the reader in the tub, at least not yet) but the storage capacity of a Nook or Kindle is astounding.
I love movies too. My first favorites were musicals and horror films (odd combinations I know) and I have watched them ever since along with sci fi and fantasy, crime films, romances, and so forth. Neither of my children like black and white movies much, therefore I take every opportunity to inflict such films on them. Someday we may try a silent or two. I am a sucker for a good imaginative concept behind a film, and its enough to get me to watch at least once (The lead actor in really was a vampire? Tell the story of a couples marriage backward from the breakup to the begining? A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman?) LIke my well worn, best loved books, I go back to favorite films again and again, like mental comfort food.
Anyway thats probably enough to get on with....I plan to expound on all these topics and much,much more as we go along. Thanks for dropping by and lets talk again soon.
