Seasonal Blogging Disorder

I don’t know about you, but I am finding it difficult to blog lately. I’m not just talking about difficulty finding things to write about, although that is true as well. I don’t even feel like reading any of the fabulous blogs that I follow. Perhaps I have been doing it too long, or the heat of the summer has completely fried my brain making me unable to focus on the wit and witticism of my favorite bloggers. When I do read, I struggle to make any kind of intelligible comment. I find myself surfing through blog posts without commitment, or simply erasing them from my inbox blaming it on a weak internet connection which cuts into my time online. (To be fair to myself, I do have spotty internet on the lot and have to seek  alternative locations to get any real work done.)

This sun is from Okoboji Summer Theatre (my summer “home”) so I thought I would borrow it to represent the heat (as well as the drama) that has fried my brain.

I am a summer blogging slacker.Perhaps the amount of ice cream I have been eating to combat the oppressive summer heat has seeped into my brain and turned it into a receptacle of pure sugar and fat, incapable of actually communicating in an intelligible way.

Not that I pay attention to stats (HA!) but it does seem that overall the summer months include a drop of readership. Then again, I haven’t been publishing as many blogs and perhaps my quality has dropped as of late, so I could simply have lost readers. Is this lag a result of the season or a reflection on me and my blog?

It also seems that more of my blogging buddies have disappeared this summer. Perhaps they are simply out enjoying life, soaking in the heat of the sun or relaxing on a cool boat. Many of them have been taking vacations in exotic locations and/or having fabulous staycations in the comfort of their own homes and gardens.

So perhaps the laziness of blogging is simply a symptom of summer.

It’s easier to laze around than blog.

I hope that if and when the weather ever cools, turning toward my favorite time of year (the fall) I will overcome this sluggishness and find my way back to reading, writing, and commenting with enthusiasm and verve.

My apologies to all of you zillions of people who have noticed my lackadaisical approach to blogging this summer. (Who am I kidding, I’m sure many of you are thinking “Lisa who? Didn’t even miss her.”) Also, some of you might have noticed and been offended by my removal of the Blogs I Follow section. I found that it was a mess, as people’s blogs change , so I decided that for the time being I would remove it and make every effort to mention wonderful blogs within the bodies of my posts.

Of course, that requires reading more blogs and writing more posts. Sigh.

Does anyone else suffer from Seasonal Blogging Disorder? Is there a cure?

Celebrating Summer With Thanks and Poetry

Part of the reason I was able to find my voice for my 100 WCGU yesterday came from a surprise gift (and slight kick in the butt) given to my be Midlife Singlemum,  a blogger from Israel who shares her story with wisdom and grace. Check out this post of hers called “The 10 Commandments of Facebook”. Anyway, in her contribution to the challenge, Midlife Singlemum graciously gave me The Beautiful Blogger Award which asks you to thank your nominator (Thank you so much Rachel!) write 10 things about yourself people may not know, and nominate 6 bloggers.

Of course, secret rebel that I am, I am choosing not to pass the award on to others. No, I’m not selfish, I just simply can’t choose out of all the beautiful blogs I follow. Call me lazy if you must.

I also don’t know that I can tell you 10 things that I haven’t already revealed in this blog. I feel like I have been so open and honest here that I only have the deepest, darkest secrets left.

However, as today is the first day of summer, I thought I might be able to come up with some summer themed truths about myself. But first, for your entertainment, a summer acrostic written by the true poet in the family:

Summer

Swimming in the pool

Under water here we come

More free time

Musicals

Entertainment

Reading in the night

by Sarah  KramerLee 6/19/2012

 The poem leads to the first new (summer inspired) fact that I will reveal.

1.  I am sometime jealous of my daughter’s talent. I know, I know, she gets it from me, but she is sometimes so fearless about creating. Of course, at other times she gives up if she can’t do things perfectly so perhaps she takes after me a little bit too much.
2. As a celebration of the last day of school, Sarah and I watched Mama Mia last night. We set it to the sing along version and spent much of the night singing and dancing at the top of our lungs. I loved every minute of it!
3. I loved playing mini golf, especially during the summers when I was in college. My friend Barb and I would meet at least once a summer in a competitive challenge. Sarah and I went to a nearby course this past Sunday, and we each got several holes-in-one. Loved it!
4. I was a lifeguard at pools for many years. And, although I had only minor saves, that job revealed hidden power in me. Or perhaps I should say my inner HULK. Some football players were teasing me one summer, about how I was too short to be able to save anyone and yadda yadda yadda. They were causing a lot of problems, and I lost my temper. I grabbed one of them, twisted his arm behind his back, dragged him around the pool and threw him out the gate. Don’t mess with me when I am angry.
5. I love snorkeling in the ocean, when you can actually see the fish. However, I really don’t like swimming in the ocean at the beach as I am terrified of stepping on some spiny creature. I am most terrified by jellyfish, partially because some boys ripped on in half and threw it at me when I was a child.
6. I am also afraid of firecrackers. I love watching fireworks from a distance, but I cannot stand being to close. Again, a childhood trauma from a cherry bomb thrown a little too close. My favorite time watching fireworks was from a boat in Japan.
7. I like to be busy during the summer. I’m not good with lazing around and sunbathing.
8. I could live on ice cream all the time.
9. I am tired of the heat from my long hair and am planning on chopping it off.
10. My attitude toward this summer hasn’t been great, but I am determined to change that.

Happy summer everyone!

Seasonal Slump

Image via Wikipedia

I’m back. Did you miss me?

I’m back, but I still feel like I have nothing to say.

I was hoping this would be a summer full of words. That I would find my voice, and my story, and my purpose as a writer. That I would find the path to my dreams of writing for a living, or at least part of a living.

But, I am wordless. I don’t have anything to write about. I’m not a summer person, so maybe the heat dries out my brain and turns it into mush.

Or maybe I simply have run out of things to say.

I always accomplish more in the fall. This past year I thrived during the spring, and did pretty well during the winter.

But now I am in the summer slump–physically, emotionally, and mentally melting into the heat of no return.

Any ideas how to break myself out of it?