this january...

...was weird.  please review the month's weather history, taking note of the lowest low, the highest high, and the rain.

wouldn't it be incredibly poetic if i said that january's weather was perfect aligned with how my life was during the month?  poetic... or cheesy.  the truth?  my january wasn't really poetic at all.

that being said, it was pretty great.  but could you have known that up to now?  probably not.  needless to say, my blog has taken a hit this last month.  there are a couple of reasons for this fact.  (i haven't felt like it, staring at a computer screen at work all the time makes doing it at home less appealing, i'm taking an online class which also requires being on a computer, etc.)

but the biggest reason is that i have been all up in my journal's business as of late.

i've been overwhelmed with a desire to write in my journal all.the.time.  i mean, i could be a model mia maid right now and make them laurels want to step up their game.

(are they still taught about journals?  i'm only vaguely aware of the new teaching plans.)

(is personal progress still a thing?  has it changed again?)

(do they still say the theme every sunday?)

(has it changed again?)

(am i old?)

on many occasions lately i've genuinely felt upset when all i want to do is write in my journal but i've already done it four times that day and can't think of anything else to ramble on about.  i've been trying to come up with a name for this "phenomena."    it's not really writer's block.  it's something more like, you've juiced all the juice out of the orange but you need more orange juice or else you'll die.  i meant it to sound dramatic because it feels that dramatic.

after my first fiction workshop, i looked up information about graduate programs for creative writing.  when i saw that the majority of all of them were MFAs and not MAs, i though a lot about the odd placement of creative writing studies in a liberal arts college as a BA program and not a BFA.  (today, i believe it is correct that creative writing first be a BA program and then an MFA.  the liberal arts influences and mode of thinking are really important to building a foundation on which good, solid writing can be written.  in a liberal arts setting, you can judge if a piece of writing is good.  not, is this a good story?  but, is this a good piece of writing?  by the time you get to MFA level, you don't have to worry about whether or not your writing is good.  you have to worry about if your material is good.)

ANYWAY, i tried to incorporate the art aspect into my studies where i thought it was appropriate.  when i looked to the works of others for inspiration and further learning, i didn't just look at other writers and literature.  i exposed myself to paintings, music, dance, theater, design, etc.  learning about and forming a connection between myself and those other mediums helped me find inspiration a lot.  and if i participated in the creation of any of those things, i found inspiration a lot quicker.

this is all to say, i'm trying something similar in february to help myself when the juices run dry.  i'm hoping that my idea will be a solution for blogging and journaling.  because i do love both, it's just hard for me to be dedicated to each of them at the same time.  hopefully february is fun for me and for you!