Confessions of a Blog Slacker

I started my blog because I thought it would be fun and a good way to use my writing skills creatively. It was a lot of fun at the start when I wasn't working (as in paid work) very much.

However, ever since I took on a new, supposedly part-time role in August, the blog has suffered. Instead of being fun, most of the time it is a source of guilt. It is like a child I don't pay enough attention to. Or, more accurately, who I am not spending quality time with. Gone are my well thought out and funnier blogs of the beginning months. Here to stay for the time being are my quicker, quirkier perspectives.

Just add it to the list of things I have to be guilty about, like the magazines I subscribe to which I never seem to get around to reading, or the recipes I cut out and then forget about or realize I lack the energy to shop for and then make. No wonder blogging is such an attractive thing to we women, it is a way to release energy, and another thing to add to our massive to-do lists.

Skirting The Issue

Last night I locked myself in the closet and tried to clean the mess up. It was total pantamonium. That is no spelling error. It looked like a wild beast had charged through all of my dark colored pants, leaving a trail of destruction. Well, at least the beast part was true.

It was the sad remains of trying to find a pair that would fit me after the gluttony of the holidays. Gone arethe guilded days of eating. Here lies the sad reality. None of the pants fit. Okay, well, some of them "fit" only in the most technical sense. But, wearing them outside of my closet would have resulted in a serious fashion felony. I would have been guilty of gross distortion as to my actual body image.

I cleaned up the whole closet, but I couldn't bear to hang the pants up. I mean, why bother? They don't actually fit now, so why hang them up again. Hanging them would be a sign of hopefulness. Did I mention it was 10:00pm at night? I am very pragmatic when it comes to expending any energy when it comes to my clothes. That is why, back when I used to have clothes that needed to be ironed, I would only grudgingly iron them immediately before wearing them. My mother would constantly lecture me that I should set aside one night and iron all of the clothes that needed to be ironed. That struck me as overly confident that I would definitely get the opportunity to wear them. If I was going to get into a car accident tomorrow that would put me out of commission for a while, I imagined that while I convalesced, I would be extra bitter that I wasted those hours ironing clothes that I wasn't going to be able to wear.

So, you see why I won't put the time and energy into hanging those pants up now (so what if it would take only 10 minutes? That is ten minutes of valuable time doing something else, like whining about this issue in a blog post). Maybe I will have the confidence to hang them back up today after I polish off the last offending bit of Christmas excess-the peanut brittle. Then, no more temptations and no more excuses.

In the meantime, I have relied on the most wonderful fashion accessory of all time. The skirt. Sure, it gets a bit drafty in the winter time, but when all of your other options make your legs look like cocktail franks, you embrace the skirt and brace the wind. The only thing better than the skirt in these dire days of post Christmas reality, is of course, the skirt with the elastic waist band. Talk about a true friend, with you through thick and thin, literally, though thin hasn't been around much of late.

As for the pants, I hope to get back to them and not have to buy a new set. I am going to the gym again and not scarfing down all kinds calorie laden tidbits (at least not regularly). I am getting back on track. So, I should probably hang those pants up before my daughter reminds me that I promised to make homemade cookies with her this afternoon.

Ho Ho Go!

Okay, I am so over the holidays. I can't wait to pack Christmas back up in its box. I got yelled at last night by hubby for taking down all the candles in the upstairs windows. So what if I am a party pooper. Enough with the excess, it is time to get right back to the recession and the grim prospects at hand.

Speaking of hands, if I could get my hand out of the 2 lb. box of See's candies that our friends Susan and Eric brought over, I might have a better chance of getting my butt back in the pants that seem to have shrunk as small as my wallet. It isn't just the See's. There is also the homemade peanut brittle, the homemade bread (well, it did save money to bake it, too bad it now beckons me to eat it and thereby threatens any cost savings be transferred to a new larger wardrobe) and the banana pecan streusel muffins I decided to make yesterday when hubby prodded me to do something with the frozen bananas falling from the overloaded freezer.

As the guy said in that commercial for Ronco, "but wait, there's more." There is also the leftover lemon almond polenta cake which I made for my daughter to have a piece of for dessert on Christmas Eve. And the homemade cookies that hubby's Aunt sent us.

If all that fails to tempt, there is always the usual snacks, cheese and what I like to think of as "food mines" to be had. So yeah, I just want to be done with all of these things and start a new. Except I can't. Throwing out these once a year goodies would be very wasteful, especially in this economy. I know, I may as well strap them to my thighs. But, I can't bring myself to get rid of them and those nuts and chews from the See's box sure bring a measure of comfort in these uncertain times.