Diary: Life these days, these times.

It has been a long time since I've posted here, but of course, these "intermissions" are not unheard of in the history of Blue Skies Falling, and they have become lengthier and more frequent in the last few years. In the first few years that I kept this blog... basically from 2003-2005 and from 2005-2007, I posted a great variety of content with few interruptions. There was a long interruption in 2005, 2007, and a six-month break in 2008. There have been more breaks since then, and the current lapse is, I believe, about three months.

I enjoy blogging and given the current line of work I am doing, media consultation, it is not unhelpful to my career. But it is also very time-consuming, and with so many major life changes underway, I have to rank this a somewhat low priority.

That said, a lot of the damage has been in the sheer disarray of the last several months. From around Thanksgiving efforts for the 2009 Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia kicked into high gear, and I didn't really have time for anything else through mid-December.

After that had concluded, there was actually a lull that lasted for about a week, but I wasn't going to spend it blogging. I was enjoying the fullness of a long and mild autumn giving way to a white and wet and gorgeous Chicago winter... I was reading books, watching movies, catching up with my friends. Dealing with very important preparations for not-so-future events. And getting ready to move. There was a trip for Russian food. There was a trip to see the Nutcracker. There was a Christmas tree which I bought and dragged home even though I had only gone out for a wreath. There were meetings and consultations with new clients (that's right, now I have "clients" instead of "bosses").

In the two or three days leading up to Christmas, I packed two years of frenetic and memory-drenched things (like the first season of Taxi) -- I've been back in Chicago for almost as long as I lived in New York -- so that when my parents arrived for a visit on Christmas day, the furniture was all rearranged and the boxes were stacked high. Early the next morning, the movers came and we absconded to the new place in glamorous Edgewater Beach.

The week between Christmas and New Years was completely consumed by moving. There was a lot of stuff to clean and take care of in the old place... the purple and blue and shamrock green and salmon pink walls had to be painted back to the same shade of dull bone white. By by the time New Years Eve rolled around (and after a particularly dizzy all-nighter), I was sleeping in very late, and the old place was locked for good.

New Years Eve and Day were a delight, surrounded by friends from Chicago (where I haven't celebrated that day in years) and a good friend from Flint who made the trip down for the holiday. We celebrated from a loft in East Garfield Park with a spectacular view of the Skyline, but got home easily. The next day, we met with friends for brunch, a trip to the Garfield Park conservatory, and pizza and games. Two days later, a two day trip to Kentucky. Two days later, I had a hospital procedure that has knocked me somewhat out of commission for the last week. Although I did manage to make it down to Hyde Park last Saturday for a magnificent 16-hour marathon of the extended version of the Lord of the Rings movies.

It was worth it.

This isn't just a prolonged excuse... or even mainly. I know the numbers show that not many people stop by here anymore, and it isn't likely that any of these excuses for my hiatus will ever be read.

But I also think it is important to document times like these... the frantic, inescapable, mazey, insomniac times that (thankfully) only seem to crop up for a couple months once every year or two. The feelings that bubble to the top when you move around heavy and fundamental things deep down are, of course, a very peculiar sensation and they generally preserve the atmosphere of these times far into the future. But the actual steps involved... the craziness from one day to the next... this is also worth remembering.

It's worth taking the time to write down for that reason alone.