Greetings and Salutations, Blog Readers!

For anyone who follows the blog, you know, it’s been a few weeks, if we stay in contact and talk regularly, you likely know why. Shout out to people like Pam and Amber who not only knew what was going on but sent me constant encouragement as I went through it, and tend to faithfully read this blog. I love y’all.

For everyone who doesn’t know, I will gently and lightly discuss – basically, Travis had to have open heart surgery, and then he had several strokes while on the operating table, so the ICU stay was long, and then ended in a two week stay in a rehab facility. He has been home for about a week, and I have been taking care of him full time, in addition to working my full-time job. Basically, it’s been busy and very stressful. All of this on top of everything I have mentally been going through, and of course, writing as hard as I can to somehow manage to do NaNoWriMo.

I haven’t finished my Ludo blog posts, and I don’t think I got to do ANY blogs on NaNoWriMo, despite writing at least one…

Life comes at you fast and it sucks when you don’t get to do what you like. Today, my new journal arrived, and as the year winds down, it has me considering what I want to do in the new year and what changes I want to make. I HATE that I haven’t spent more time writing this year, so naturally, writing more is a big deal.

One of the bid epiphanies I had in this time is that I don’t need everything I work on publishing to be some MAJOR HUGE STORY. They can be small. They can be light books. They can be fun ideas I find fun, so I can work out the many kinks that go into publishing. And I never know what someone may like. I need to take pressure off to have the next thing I publish be some major crazy book, and just PUBLISH WHAT I WRITE. I need to learn the process, and that won’t happen if I always trap myself in the editing phase.

In addition to writing, I want to travel more. I want to travel more, hike more, and camp more. I know that traveling, camping, and hiking all serve many other goals: like being in better physical shape, and being inspired to write more, since I always write more when traveling, hiking, and camping. The freedom of movement helps free up juices in my brain and lets me journal and write more often. I want to write, travel, camp/hike, and be in better physical shape, not per se smaller or lose weight, just be more physically fit. Just in case an apocalypse starts.

But I also want to explore who I am, and what I like, when I am not in survival mode. I have spent so long in survival mode I like the idea of exploring who I am and what I do, when not trying to survive, when simply existing. I want to make sure I am being true and loyal to who I am and what I want.

And I want to get back to these things I want. I know Travis still needs attention and help, but as he heals up, I want to chase my goals and dreams, I have attainable dreams, there is no reason I should keep getting in my own way and not chasing my dreams. I deserve to chase them and see them come to fruition.

So anyways, this blog was meant to be an explanation of where I have been , but has turned into a more public account of my goals for the new year.

Tomorrow, I travel to Boston to attend my work holiday party, which is exciting, as I get a chance to meet everyone I work with every day, and finally meet them in person. I am also looking forward to a quick get away from the responsibilities and stress I have had here, and, of course, to travel. I have always liked Boston, so it will be nice to return there, even if only for a day or two.

So, with that, I also have a LOT to get done, some to help Travis, some to take care of myself…so, I need to stop writing, and go get to my massive list of stuff to do, and hopefully, with any luck, get some SLEEP! (I haven’t slept much in weeks!)

I hope you are all well, and aim to work on writing more of my creative writing, and of course, blogging.

Thanks for reading!

Abbi

P.S. I was formatting and scheduling this blog, and realized this will be by 500th post. Woo!