This February Thing

I'm diggin' February a lot. Committing to Thursday pages has been a good thing in more ways that one. On one hand, it helps break up my long day off by getting me out of the house and into the public for at least a couple hours. It's good to have that nudge.

On the other hand, it ensures that I'm writing. I used to be really good about writing all the time (thanks High School and boring Gen. Ed. undergrad classes), but anymore I'm out of the habit. My writing schedule has grown to revolve around deadlines: "Group's in two days, I need to write something to submit."

Having the fountain pen is fun. Novelty is always entertaining and using resume paper and a fountain pen makes me feel like a more important writer. My words are special enough for special writing materials. I am just that badass.

The freedom is good too. The mindset change has been helpful. Along with the deadline pattern was the pattern of everything I was writing was winding up with an audience. That makes your mind work differently, knowing that everything you write is going to be read by someone else. That kind of audience awareness isn't a bad thing, but I was due for a break.

It's funny, with all this poetry stuff, I'm reminding myself of memories and things I used to know. For instance, in the course of recycling a binder for my February writings, I came across a picture from a couple years ago.

I couldn't believe it. I had totally forgotten about the fridge.