Starting Again With "B" Is For Belated Beginnings

I'm going to trust that the blog post I wrote and lost was a stinker and the cosmos saved me from myself.  Yeah, that sounds like a great way of easing the frustration of staying up late and writing an entirely new post so my first day of this challenge won't be wimpy. 

So here goes.

"B" is for Belated Beginnings.  On the small stuff in life, I'm never late.  In fact, I've always considered myself neurotically punctual.  Too bad there's no such thing as "neurotic" these days due to everything being changed around and re-categorized as a disorder of some kind.  I'm rarely late, but I do have a terrible time finishing things, probably because I'm always in such a dither making I'm sure I'm early getting to whatever I've got going at the time, or starting something new I've so I can get in on a good thing while it's still (wait for it) early.  Last time I checked, TPTB hadn't yet stamped a disorder on people who are always early but never leave, as in finishing things and making an exit.  Having slipped through the cracks of contemporary psychology, I stand with those who are simply peculiar. I like that.

And I like that neither my husband nor I are afraid of taking risks, like the one we started after being married just a few years and we left behind familiar territory (Los Angeles) for the sake of  Big Dreams. Our aim was New York City, with several planned stops along the way to make money, build a network (formerly known as friends and connections), and spend time with family.  Our first stop was Las Vegas, back before it exploded and became the fastest growing city of the Twentieth Century.  We had planned on staying there two years before the next leg of the journey, but somehow or another we ended up staying longer.

We stayed for thirty years. Yeah.  Thirty.  Years.

And that's what's called Another Story For Another Day.  Right now I've got to get us down South to Arkansas and the beginning of an adventure neither one of us ever thought we'd take.

Adventure?  This isn't an adventure, it's a major shock to the system!  It's a new beginning (called a belated beginning for the sake of sticking with the "b") because we have to learn just about every blessed thing all over again.  And I'm talking about everything from the small stuff of putting coasters under our beverages because humidity makes a cold glass sweat, all the way to re-thinking and re-inventing our faith as it's lived and practiced down here in the Bible Belt.  It's been maximum culture shock, and right here in our own country with our fellow Americans. 

Okay, that's enough.  I've gotten us down to the South, which is what I'm going to write about, so I'm going to consider that part finished (and the crowd roared for the girl who's always early but never finishes as she finishes, in one hasty blog post, getting to the point of the blog) and move on to the real reason why I'm taking on this challenge.

I'm a writer.  It's not what I do, I just am one.  Always have been.  Quite a few years ago I was making good progress on my way to writing in such a way that others would notice--won some big contests, had an agent, ran with other writers, was managing editor of a university cultural arts magazine, and other stuff like that--but I quit.  Didn't finish.  There's a reason for me quitting, but it's irrational and sounds like an excuse, which it probably is, so I'm not going to bother with any of that right now.  I'm just going to stick with forgetting what was and consider I'm making a belated beginning at writing.  Doing it.  Actually writing, just like a real writer does.

I've been tinkering with this and that sort of writing since we got down here and I couldn't find a job, but the thing I keep coming back to is this experience of shifting from being a big city woman to a Southern country girl, so this is what I'm going to write about...when I'm not moved to write about writing. And this "A To Z Blogging Challenge" is the perfect way for me to bust my writing chops after too much time thinking rather than doing. I'm sure there will be plenty of fumbling ahead as I get myself organized and figure out blogging  here on Blogger, and I get a stomachache if I think of the rotten writing I'll dish out along the way, but this is my second chance at a belated beginning, and I'm taking it. 

Why the heck not.  The only thing I've got to lose is a bucket of excuses, a whole bunch of mistakes that need to be made, and possibly a few friends because I intend to tell it as I see it.  As the master Kurt Vonnegut said:

And so it goes.

Happy blogging to all, and to all a good night.