Another Day of Gremlins
So, here we are again.
The day we write about anything EXCEPT that chronic condition that we are living with. No D Day, some might know it as. An annual tradition that's the brainchild of our own bacon-loving Ninjabetic. This means no blogging, Tweeting, or Facebooking statuses on that subject.
George describes it this way: "We are more than a disease, a lot more and tomorrow is a day to share some of that. There are many facets to each one of us and since we do talk so much about our D lives, we maybe miss some other cool stuff about each other. It’s not easy. It is a serious exercise to avoid all D talk but, I think it is a positive step in seeing that life is more than diabetes. We are more than diabetics or People With Diabetes. We give diabetes a lot of attention, let’s spend one day and give the rest of ourselves the spot light."
George describes it this way: "We are more than a disease, a lot more and tomorrow is a day to share some of that. There are many facets to each one of us and since we do talk so much about our D lives, we maybe miss some other cool stuff about each other. It’s not easy. It is a serious exercise to avoid all D talk but, I think it is a positive step in seeing that life is more than diabetes. We are more than diabetics or People With Diabetes. We give diabetes a lot of attention, let’s spend one day and give the rest of ourselves the spot light."
Many articulate No D Day posts can be found here.
But for me, it's a replay from the Corner Booth back in 2010, apparently.
Just like last year, I'd neglected to mark this on any calendar and didn't even remember it until earlier in the week, and I had little time to get my sass in line for a specific Non-D post. My mind rolls through ideas, trynig to find the best one: Pull one from the past? Write about journalism, or the future of newspapers? Politics? My Faith? Our homestate of Michigan? An Ode to Diet Coke? That Crazy Shadow Cat or Riley Dog? My Hoskins Family Genealogy Project that traces my roots back to Bartholomew Hoskins who came to America back in 1615...?
So many topics, but I couldn't settle on one as the time rolled toward the deadline.
This exercise began at 12 a.m., and as the midnight hour rolled around some questions began surfacing about how this all would practically play out: Is there a specific hash tag to use? Can we mention "diabetes" in our posts without actually writing about it? How much can we delve into this concept without crossing some line of actually delving into the topic we're meant to avoid? Oh, the mind games. And then there's those pesky time zones, which meant some of us in the Eastern and Middle parts of the country would hit the "No D-Day" roadblock before those to the West...
I began to feel like a Gremlin.
Instead of not being able to feed the cute little Mogwai after midnight, I wasn't able to post or write about my health. I thought about the food-stuck-in-the-teeth issue from the movie, and wondered what happened if I wrote something before 12a, but it got lost in cyberspace and then actually went online after the deadline. Pondering these issues and still struggling to pinpoint a particular post topic, I even managed to spill a glass of water on myself.
Luckily, there were no adverse effects as was the case with Gizmo and the Gremlins.
Up late, I wished I had thought about this earlier rather than dealing with it at such a late hour. With work deadlines hanging over my head, I staying up to write stories and the pressure was weighing down on me. At that point, it became painfully obvious that I was in need of a Flying DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor, to rewind time and got back to an earlier point in the week.
- Coffee, have lots of it. Sleep, need more. Stress, cut it out please. Oh, laughter makes it all seem better.
- Words: My life is about writing, journalism. And at a twice-a-month newspaper, doing some freelance writing, blogging here, and doing countless emails and comments and Tweets each day.... my mind kinda melts when I think of how many words I must create each week. Sometimes, I just want to stop writing and not craft letters together.
- But one combination of words that made me smile -> "cartoon ninja throwing spammers." That was a search time for my blog recently, and it made me grin. While I'm assuming this searcher meant to search for "spanners" or those ninja-hand tools, I couldn't help but picture it the way it was written. And yes, I do often want to throw email and tweet-feed spammers around... and having a ninja do it would be golden.
- #simonpalooza. Two continents. Three states. An awesome Australian and many many friends. What more can one say??? Yes, I am traveling TODAY to Kansas City to meet with Simon, who is traveling to the U.S. for the first time ever. There's about two dozen of us in the Midwest, traveling from that area and surrounding states, and the epic adventures are guaranteed. Some tweeting is expected, so watch for common hashtags: #simonpalooza #BluntLancet #imintheband ... craziness will ensue. Follow some of us, including the star @STroyCrow over on Twitter. Blogging updates will be following before long, too.
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| Sadly, our last Tigers game back in 2009 |
- Detroit: GO TIGERS!!! You knocked off those NY Yankees in the single-elimination Game 5 on Thursday evening, and now you advance to the American League Championship Series (ALCS). And of course, that first game is on Saturday... while above-mentioned #simonpalooza is ongoing. I'm a proud Detroit import, and am wearing the D logo with pride. Here's to hopefully getting to the World Series for the first time since 2006!
- I love my wife, and while I'm very excited to be getting away for a weekend from real-life to hang with some great friends, I am sad to be away from her. She is one of my heroes, and I don't tell her that enough. Except on special occasions such as our anniversary, the sixth we celebrated back on Sept. 24. Miss you, but see you soon!
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| Who's that? Dean Martin and a Barelli sister...? |
- All of this talk about Detroit, hanging with my wife, and relaxing to watch some good TV made me reflect back on the recent three-part PBS series Prohibition... which we watched with interest and absolutely enjoyed. See, we grew up in Southeast Michigan in the suburbs not far from Detroit - our roots are there. I love history in general, and topics such as The Purple Gang from that era fascinate me. In fact, this all took us back to our days in the D and even a Halloween gathering about a decade ago where we donned our 1920s attire - we were straight out of the Prohibition era! Since it's now October and Halloween is quickly approaching, this seems like a good time to toss out into the public realm some photo evidence. See, there I am, a muckraking newspaperman with flask in hand with my lovely flapper by my side! And yes... I still own that hat.
Um, I think that's it. And my clock is after midnight... and all appears OK. Just gotta go downstairs and make sure there's no Gremlins hiding out in the kitchen.
So that's that.
Happy Weekend, my friends. See you on the flipside of KC!
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GO RANGERS!!!