My July Staycation

So if you read this blog regularly-and somebody must be, since my counter is going up very, very, very slowly--you realize I haven't been writing much since the great long summer solstice day. And that was last month! I wouldn't presume you are missing my writing or have noticed my absence during this brief interlude of warmth we call July in Michigan--but I have made a mental promise to myself to be more disciplined in my writing and frankly, I've been a slacker.

I do have several excuses for my lack of entries:

1. I'm on a 'staycation', which is to say hubby and I have 2 weeks off and are staying at home for the most part. For a hilarious commentary on this great new, soon to be overused made up word, click here (WARNING-there is one offensive swear word in the entry! Please overlook it and laugh anyway!).

2. We have been painting the outside of our house. Please smack me if you ever here me complain that my house is too small. The color is Renwick Golden Oak (bottom right color). My family has called it the following alternative names:
>Honey Mustard
>Inside of a Butterfinger
>Regurgitated Dogfood
>Wet Sand
>Wet Camel
>Goldish color
>Palamino Horse Color
Sherwin Williams won't be hiring them as paint-color-namers any time soon (now there's a cool job!), but we think it looks great, and hallelujah, hubby says we'll just work on the second coat slowly over the rest of the summer. (Side note: We once painted our den/music room a lovely "Sonatina Tan". How's that for good feng shui?)

3. I'm not in my creating phase. I'm beginning to realize that I seem to go through 3 phases in my creativity. I have a consuming phase, where I enjoy a voracious appetite for books, magazines, newspapers, websites and blogs. Anything that reads--I'm on it. Summer is great for this as I have a shorter work week, longer days, more vacation time, and generally just give myself some time to "chill". When I finally have my fill of this gastronomical brain feast, I go into my digesting phase, where it just has to roll around in my brain. It needs time to "crockpot"-- time for the intertwining threads to connect and meet up with my own thoughts and experiences until I can hopefully make some sense of the literal stew. Once this phase is finished, my brain is ready to virtually spew ideas! I find myself unable to fall sleep because suddenly that quote I read days ago has turned itself into an entire witty and unforgettable story which I will not be able to remember the next morning no matter how much coffee I drink. This means I'm ready for the creating phase, where I throw in everything but the kitchen sink and hope it turns out to be something others can slowly savor and enjoy.

So there you have it. A so-so list of excuses. Now sunglasses on, I'm back on 'staycation'.