What do I say?

Sometimes you have to do something and you don't really feel like doing it. But you get to work on it and hope that something positive can come out of it anyways. That is today's blog post.

I don't have a lot to say. All this posting every day seems to be using up all my stories really quickly. Maybe I just need to get out and live a little more? I don't know. But I feel totally dry today.

Maybe that's because I came up with a big idea yesterday and I'm focusing all my creative energy on that. Maybe it's because I haven't been sleeping well lately and I'm getting tired. Maybe it's because Tim and Cory left and I feel sad. Maybe it's because I'm distracted by other things happening in my life. Maybe I've just been listening to music that is too melancholy.

Whatever it is, I apologize in advance for not having anything interesting to say. Well, especially interesting at least.

Last night I had some homemade puppy chow (if you don't know what that is, I pity you). I don't know the last time I had it, but it was probably last Christmas season sometime, nearly 11 months ago. I ate a single piece, since I'm trying to cut back on sweets lately. But my reaction was unexpected.

You know how sometimes you'll be walking down the street and catch the scent of a stew that instantly triggers memories of nights at your grandma's? Or how when you smell a girl that wears the same perfume as your friend, you're flooded with nostalgia? Well that happened with taste. That puppy chow tasted like Christmas.

Maybe it was the proximity of Thanksgiving. Maybe I'm just feeling homesick on the tail end of my longest uninterrupted time away from my family yet. But the second I tasted that puppy chow I was back home in Minnesota, 4 years ago at the last Thanksgiving I spent with my family. Thanksgiving/Christmas I should say. Because my grandparents spend the winter in Arizona, my dad's side of the family celebrates Christmas at the same time as Thanksgiving. After a big Thanksgiving dinner, we put a tree and spend the evening by the fire, doing crafts, playing games and putting up Christmas decorations. And eating Christmas treats. We snack on all kinds of holliday treats, pies, cakes, popcorn, my grandma's mint cookies... and of course, puppy chow.

Then I was back, at the home of my Bible study leader and his family. A lovely place, to be sure. But thousands of miles (and several years) away from where I really wanted to be.

Maybe that's what it is. Maybe I'm just still sad from that.