OK, boutell, I'm rising to your challenge and will make a point of posting here at least once per week during 2014. Perhaps beyond, we'll see.

It's fitting, because 2014 will be a year of big changes for me. Why not chronicle the journey?

As of now, my plan is to make my entries public. I may end up friends-locking some of them.

I need to remember how to use this platform...

microsoft word SUCKS!!!!!!!

it is the only only only program that EVER freezes my mac!

this is a pretty rare occurrence, but it has happened enough that i tend to save my work frequently, which is a really excellent habit in any case since sometimes i work on other computers. unfortunately, it just happened, and i hadn't saved my work since before i experienced a highly productive and inspired 20-minute burst of writing. i can SEE it RIGHT THERE on the SCREEN and i know it is hopelessly lost. the psychotically happy little rainbow wheel is spinning, endlessly spinning, and the program manager reads "Word (not responding)."

i am going to leave it to process while i brush my teeth....

wait...whew! it just resolved itself.

and i just successfully saved my work.

disaster averted. excuse me while i break out into a cold sweat.

man, i really really hate this fucking program. it makes life a little bit too interesting sometimes.

i am completely in love with grapefruit juice. this, after being a hard core OJ drinker for all but the last few months of my 40+ years of life. that early morning pucker/shudder really wakes me up. OJ, when i drink it for breakfast, tastes too sweet to me now. if i wanted cloying, empty promises for breakfast, i'd eat peeps. the grapefruit's bitter edge makes it seem more trustworthy, somehow. it's the juice that will follow through. today i'm having a special treat, albeit unplanned: the store was out of my usual brand of grapefruit juice, so i bought the higher-priced container of odwalla juice. what else could i do? buy OJ? not i. i have to say, the odwalla juice is particularly delicious.

oh, and i'm turning in the latest draft of my prospectus to my committee today. what is it about completing a draft of this huge THING that inclines me to wax romantic about my grapefruit juice?

hey all--
happy thanksgiving! this one has already been action-packed. spent yesterday evening assembling and baking 8 pies--6 pumpkin and 2 cherry (that means 5 recipies of crust, fyi)--with glaucon.

celebrating with him and a huge group of "orphans" today--18 people are expected. crazy!

i hope everyone out there has people to sit down and enjoy a meal with. of all the u.s. holidays of "too muchness," this one is my favorite. most of the others i can live without, but i really enjoy sitting down and sharing a meal and conversation with a group of nice people.

and i'm just going to reiterate a portion of glaucon's thanksgiving invitation: as you sit down to your meal, dig as deeply into your pockets as you do into your food, and if you have anything at all to spare, send a donation to one of the very worthy food banks or homeless shelters around. share the too muchness with those who don't have enough. glaucon suggests the following charities in Seattle, and i'm sure you can find something similar if you live elsewhere:

Union Gospel Mission: http://www.ugm.org (if you're religious or religion-neutral...i'm not sure how much proselytizing they do along with their services...i'm including them here because i know they do good work)
Northwest Harvest: http://www.northwestharvest.org (my choice--because i'm neither religious nor religion-neutral. you can make an online donation with a credit card, which is what i did, but not with a debit card, alas--not sure if this also means they can't run a debit card as a credit card...)

in other news, i wrote for about an hour today, and produced a really solid 3 pages of text! my project is slowly but surely coming together. it's funny, i was able to produce this much writing because i approached it as a "freewrite" rather than as work on a "draft." that let me open up more, and to articulate more clearly what i think, in my own voice.