Our Mommyhood

By Alyson, Contributor, Common Sense, Dancing (@AMLanders)

You can find a lot of information or opinions about what to blog about; seems like everyone has their slant on a subject. Even the so-called personal blogs would appear that they’ve got no shortage of fresh, profound, humorous or life-affirming subject matter. This kills me because I sit in front of the computer, looking out the window, waiting for Divine Inspiration to drop in and have coffee with me.

Actually, I think the reality is that I don’t need Miss Divine I all that much. I, too, suffer no shortage of material, because Common Sense, Dancing is a personal blog and there are topics all around me all the time, every day. Generating the ideas really isn’t the issue. It’s sadder than that; I’ve got to remember the ideas when the cursor starts to blink at me!

For example, I already wrote this post 4 times in my head. The most recent time was about 20 minutes ago in the shower. I was thinking about the upcoming deadline and how I needed to write sooner rather than later so as to get the drafting and editing done ahead of the due date and I started to write the post as I lathered. Then, I interrupted myself and began the chant, “Don’t forget don’t forget don’t forget hurry up hurry up hurry up finish so you can go write this down finish so you can go write this down hurry up don’t forget finish.”

And by the time I had toweled off, dressed, removed the mascara rings from my eyes (why does it never come off in the shower?) and gotten to the computer, the Pulitzer Prize-worthy post was gone. Pffft. History. This happens to me all. the. time. So I’ve given some thought to suggested retention strategies below and why I think I’m just doomed:

1. Write it down. Some writers suggest that you keep a small pad or book handy in which to write down the tidbits of inspiration that float your way during the day. This is a terrific idea; a really good one! However it presumes several things, namely: a) that I will be able to put my hands on the small pad when necessary [meaning, no one has snatched it from me and claimed it as their own, that it is find-able in the pit that is my purse or that it’s not lost in the chaos of the kitchen counter]; b) that I will have a writing implement handy [meaning, no one has snatched it from me and claimed it as their own, that it is find-able in the pit that is my purse or that it’s not lost in the chaos of the kitchen counter]; c) that I will be in a position to write it down and not, say, in the shower or driving the car or the middle of a set of straight-legged dead lifts at the gym.

2. Record it. Some big-time writers (and my orthopedic surgeon, but that’s another story for another time) use a little hand-held recording device to make oral notes. I like this idea and it has potential; it would work while driving the car for example, but not so much in the shower or doing dead-lifts. The other problem, for me, would be a variation of 1b/c: it would be snatched and used for evil, not blogging. I can imagine all kinds of children making all kinds of sounds into the recorder in an ill-advised attempt to be funny, scary or dramatic. Or, and this is a distinct possibility, I will play back my musings and hear things like, “Note to self: the overabundance in the 9th inning baseball Yankees meatball parm.” Huh? How embarrassing to have no idea what you are talking about. Odds are, a good blog entry will not be crafted with that kind of raw material.

3. Ask someone for help. This one was obvious to me; I can get someone with a better memory than me (not hard) to remember what it is I wanted to remember. I can turn to my teen or tween child and say, “Remember this, darling: the overabundance of stink bugs as I’m trying to read at night.” Again, on the face of it not a bad idea. But upon further review this is what would happen: Teen or Tween would say, “Ugh. I hate those things they are all over my room why can’t we get rid of them and you know who else is in my room? Brother and I’ve told him to get out and I can never study because he always is playing guitar and did you know that that girl from the Michael Jackson video plays really good guitar and why did Michael Jackson look like that and…” thus taking me so far afield I would have no idea what my original idea was in the first place and Teen or Tween would be all, “Huh? I was supposed to remember something?”

(Or I could ask the Husband to assist with remembering. That would go thusly: “W, remind me to write about the overabundance of stink bugs as I’m trying to read at night,” to which he would *immediately* say, “Remember to write about stink bugs and reading at night.” Um, I need you to remember that for when I’m sitting in front of the computer, not now when we’re on our way to parent-teacher conferences. But thanks.)

Yeesh, rereading this it’s a wonder I’m able to string even a few sentences together on any one topic. But I can and I do. The real kicker for me, though, is thinking about all those post subjects that are just lost and gone. They come, they’re brilliant, they go, never to be recalled again. It just kills me; I can remember the phone number for Domino’s Pizza on Prospect Street in Georgetown from 1989 but I have no idea what it was that had me so jazzed in the car on the way home from the pumpkin patch yesterday.

What about you? Head like a sieve? Or do you have a Topic Retention Technique that works on the fly? Stop by the Our Mommyhood forum to discuss.

Alyson writes over at CSD, a personal blog about the real and the ridiculous as they intersect in her life. It’s apparent to her that she would be a much more prolific writer if she could just remember what the hell she was thinking about 2 minutes ago. Please don’t ask her what day it is, what she had for lunch yesterday, or the ages of her children. She simply can’t remember. But it doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about any of those things. Follow her on Twitter (@amlanders) or Facebook (Common Sense, Dancing).

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