I want to say THANK YOU (oh, yes, it’s worth yelling) to three women in particular: Kim Moldofsky, Alli Worthington, and Barbara Jones. When I posted the link to my sad and frustrating day, Kim chatted with me on Twitter about it. I felt better, knowing that she had dealt with similar issues and had worked through it. Then 20 minutes later the phone rang and it was my friend, Alli. Kim had told Alli about my post. Alli’s first words were, “Honey, how can we get you to Blissdom?” And we talked. I cried a little. And I’m going to Blissdom. Thanks to Kim, Alli, and Barbara, I’m going to Blissdom!

That’s a big deal; let me tell you why. Writing the book has been one of the best experiences of my life, but it was also one of the most draining. I was lucky to be able to do it with my very good friend Shannon, but it was stressful even so. That project left me burned out and unsure of whether I wanted to continue being online or not. I went back and forth and talked it to death with my friends. And I decided to stop for a while. But even that was stressful. I worried. And different life stuff happened and I worried more. Then Alli called and said in her soothing voice, “Honey, how can we get you to Blissdom?” And I melted. Because what I was missing were my online connections and being part of something bigger than myself.

I talked with my husband and we agreed that I need the trip to Blissdom. I need it to connect with my friends, to work on some of the ideas I’ve been percolating, and yes, to see Harry Connick, Jr. Because if Harry can’t cure what ails ya, then nothin’ can.

I went to bed last night thinking of ways to grow. I went to bed with a sense of purpose I’ve been lacking for longer than I care to remember.

I woke up this morning with a need to move forward. Today I

• told Alli and Barbara I’d see them in Nashville.
• worked all morning at my daughter’s school being as useful as I could be.
• decided to celebrate my grandpa’s life by remembering his laugh, the way he would say ‘tall instead of at all, and how his voice sounded when he was happy.
• contacted another bloggy friend to propose a business partnership of sorts.
• pitched in to help with some Blissdom projects.

It felt so good to be productive again, to be adding to others instead of taking away and being negative. When I called Shannon today, she said, “It’s so good to hear your voice happy again.” And I owe that to you. Thank you to everyone for being there for me. Thank you particularly to Kim, Alli, and Barbara. I don’t know if I can really tell you how much appreciate you. But I do. Thanks. I’ll see you in Nashville!

(If you’re coming to Blissdom, I’m begging you to come talk to me. I want to see you, meet you, hang out with you. And I’m not one to say it if I don’t mean it.)

• lost my grandpa. The upside is that my family was able to spend some good time with him and the rest of the extended family over winter break. I was able to witness one of his better days, but I was also in the doctor’s office when the doctor told him the chemo wasn’t helping and they were going to stop all treatments and focus on making him comfortable. He held on for two more weeks. I will miss him. A lot.
• saw one of my ideas realized, but not by me. Over the past year, I’ve had so many ideas, but wasn’t able to implement them because I was focused on writing the book (which, by the way, will be out February 22). I thought, “I’ll do that in January.” But someone beat me to it and I’m really irritated with myself.
• got my MacBook Pro back from the shop (it needed a new logic board), but it didn’t recognize the internet connection. (Update: this, at least, is fixed.)
• found out my favorite performer of all time, Harry Connick, Jr. will be at Blissdom. I was supposed to host a Wisdom Workshop at Blissdom this year, but realized I was completely burned out and needed a break. I told Alli I needed to skip this year. And now I’m missing the one guy I’d move heaven and earth to see in concert and meet. Are you kidding me? I actually almost threw up when I found out. You don’t want to know how close it was. It sounds silly, but this put me over the edge.

So, yeah, I say 2010 can #suckit, but I know that the rest of the year is up to me. I just hope I can find my mojo sooner rather than later. I didn’t have control over some of those things (or any of the other things I’ve dealt with over the past two months–trust me, this is just the stuff that happened today; there is so much more piling up), but if I let it get me down, I may not get up. I can cry or I can laugh. And I’ve already done the former.

Dear 2010, prepare to have your ass kicked. You’ve been warned.

When I was a teenager, I *loved* the end-of-year wrap-ups on various news shows. I enjoyed seeing the year unwrap itself with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. It’s been a long time since I’ve sought out those kinds of year-end recaps. As an adult, I find I’m busy and preoccupied. No time to remember! That’s why I take pictures! I’m too busy living life to remember it! (Oh, wait. That may just be the early-onset dementia…) At any rate, just looking at Gwen’s first writing prompt (What was your best trip in 2009?) has me reminiscing and realizing that, wow! 2009 was a great year for travel in the Nelson home. So, even if I don’t go past today’s prompt, I’ve gotten more out of this challenge than I would have by adding it to my doomed to-do list.

What was your best trip of 2009?

My best trip of 2009? I don’t know. How can I choose? I mean, I loved every place I visited!

January: Disney Cruise. BSM Media and Disney invited me and several other bloggers (all of whom I’m proud to call real friends) on a cruise to the Bahamas.

February: Dallas. Every February my dear friend Emily and I hole ourselves up with a few hundred other die-hard movie fans and watch, back-to-back, all of the contenders for Best Picture of the Year. It’s a 12-hour ordeal that is not for the weak. It takes real stamina to sit on your booty for 12 hours and watch some of the finest acting and most interesting story lines of the year.

April: Dallas. We attended the Sally Ride Science Fair, an event geared to encourage girls to stick with math and science to be all they can be. Of course, we stayed with Emily’s family and they attended the fair with us. The next day Chili, Jr., Emily, and I stormed the American Girl store and had a lady-like lunch with very large, un-lady-like portions.

May: Walt Disney World. I wasn’t able to take my family on the Disney Cruise in January, so we had to make up for it with a family trip to The World in May. Come to think of it, I still owe y’all a recap of that one. While we were in Florida, we took a day and visited Husband’s old neighborhood, his dad’s grave, and the ocean. It was cathartic on many levels.

June: Dallas. My first WordCamp. My BFF Emily graciously watched my kids for me while I braved my introversion and aversion to crowds. Hmmm. I’m noticing that “introversion” and “aversion” are very similar words. I doubt that’s a coincidence. As an introvert I have an aversion to many things. Among those is the act of meeting new people in a crowd.

July: Colorado. My dad and Robin are the best hosts. This year Husband and I flew the kids out a week before we arrived. That maneuver was a huge hit, both for the kids and the grandparents. I look to try that again next year. When Husband and I did arrive, we had so much fun. I was already stressed about writing the TypePad for Dummies book (our first chapter was due asap and I had to write while I was on vacation!), but I found time for my first hot-stone massage and some reading. My dad treated us to fabulous seats for our first-ever MLB game. Since I detest sports, I was sure I wouldn’t enjoy myself and considered more than a few ways I could excuse myself. In the end, I went and–would you believe it?–enjoyed myself! I cheered and rooted and laughed and sang and danced and embarrassed my kids mightily. It was a sweet night.

August: Norman, Oklahoma. We traveled with friends to meet Emily and her crew at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. How is it that I’d not visited this museum before? It’s amazing. My kids love museums and this was one of their favorites. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that we had our best friends with us? Those kids have grown up together and, as we all grow older, it’s harder to find time for us all to connect. When we do, though, it’s like we never missed a beat.

October: Las Vegas. I attended Blog World Expo again this year and, though the conference itself was fine, I hated being away from my family for five days. I was the most miserable I’ve been all year. My depression can be seen in this photo:

November: Iowa. I attended the first annual I_Blog Conference and, I have to tell you, it was the best conference I’ve attended to date.  It was very small–about 30 women (and a few men) and those women reminded me why I started blogging in the first place. I enjoyed meeting them all and learning from them. It was fun to meet them (where was my introversion aversion?) and it was fun to see my extended family (who happened to live down the road).

Wow. I hadn’t realized that I’d done so much traveling this year–and I had been cutting back because Shannon and I were so busy writing the TypePad for Dummies book! How can I choose just one trip as my favorite? It’s impossible. I love my family and my friends. I love spending time with them and am just happy we have the means to do it as often as we can.

Thank you, Gwen, for being the brain behind this project. My writing is rusty; I hope this challenge will encourage me not only to remember the year behind me, but also to remember my narrative writing skills. For those of you who made it this far, I promise I’ll try to remember those skills sooner rather than later.

I wrote this post last summer, but forgot to post it. I found it this week and thought I’d share it with you. Next week I’ll be writing about our family reunion in Iowa. I’m late, but whatever.

When I was a little girl, I loved my summers in Iowa. As I grew older I didn’t spend much time there. I had college to attend, jobs to work, life to live. Now that I have children, though, it seems incredibly important to show them life in a big family and life in the country.

When you live in a city—even a city as small-town as mine—you miss out on certain life experiences: counting stars, catching lightning bugs, freedom to run around without fear of strangers and dangers.

I have been trying to take my children back to Iowa at least once a year. They love it and I love it. Chilihead, Jr. keeps an eye out for “corn fields and dirt roads.” We know we’re close then. When we see the Iowa state sign, we know life can move a little slower now and we savor each activity without worrying about being late for the next.

When we visit in the summer, Max and Chilihead, Jr. love to catch lightning bugs. They are in awe of the sheer number of lightning bugs seen each night. They think it is hilarious that we used to pinch the butts off the bugs and stick them on our fingers as diamond rings. As I told my son this story, he laughed—until I wiped my hand on his cheek like I was wiping bug guts on him. Then it wasn’t so funny.

When we left the farm the first night it was just us on that dirt road. Max looked out the back window and yelled for Chilihead, Jr. to join him. “You can’t believe how many lightning bugs there are out here!” Wild Thing responded, “But look out the window! You can’t believe how many stars there are!”

I used to think the exact same things.

My love of Iowa is well-documented. So don’t give me any grief about giving them grief.

Iowa is the land of the casserole. They will vehemently deny it, but I have yet to visit that state without being fed several casseroles on my visit. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good casserole. Every meal, though?

They even like their chips to be casseroles. Case in point: Walking Tacos. It’s basically a bag of chips and you dump everything to make a taco into the chip bag. You have your little bag of Doritos and you dump in meat, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, etc. and eat it with a spoon right out of the bag. My husband was instantly in love; why couldn’t we just buy Fritos instead of Doritos and dump in chili? Instant Walking Frito Pie! Genius.

Also? I was informed that the Iowa version of tuna noodle casserole is to make Mac&Cheese, dump in Cream of Mushroom soup, and add tuna. Wow. Of course, this is also really easy to make as a one-person casserole: you just use the single serve microwave Mac&Cheese.

Again, WOW.

Amazing minds come up with this stuff.

Picture courtesy of Benimoto’s Flickr group via CC.