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Day’?s Verse:
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7
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The weather forecast for this morning had this picture: 
Guess what I did. Actually, you probably know, which makes you at least 50% smarter than a couple of coworkers of mine, who routinely ask me if I rode my bike in. I want to retort, “Did you drive your car in?” and then when they say, “Of course,” respond, “Oooooh, amazing!” as if this were some shocking amazing feat. Yes, I admit, 34° and raining sucks to ride a bike in, especially with over an hour of waiting in frozen wet shoes following that ride. I have more commitment to this one activity than they can imagine, and after a while the amazed comments become tiring. If only I had to hear fewer admonitions not to die on my ride home.
So I rode, of course. Had to try out the toe clips I just installed, after weeks of debating between those and clip-on shoes. The deciding factor: Toe clips cost $7 for a pair at REI, while the shoes alone (excluding matching pedals) cost ?$80. At REI I finished off a $30 gift card with the clips, an extra tube for my slicks, and a cool bike tool from the clearance bin. The total came to $29, and I got the remaining money back as cash.
…Hmm…
Sometimes I read other peoples’? blogs or hear about the valiant bloggers in Iraq, or blind people blogging, or women with breast cancer chronicling their struggle, or 20-somethings in the Peace Corps writing from New Guinea, or something equally exotic and I think, Why not me? Why am I sitting here with nothing to write about but the minutiae of my day that nobody except my Mom* cares about? Today I almost made something up, some exciting event in my life that would never really happen — nothing as mundane as not having to pay my fare on the train, or thinking about switching my cube to one away from the door. Don’t get me wrong; I love my life and wouldn’t trade it for anybody else’s that I know of. It just doesn’t make for that many interesting blogs anymore.
My most successful month of all time, as measured by number of comments and visits, was November 2006, when people devotedly checked every day for the next update in my NaNoWriMo novel and actually became engaged in my characters’ lives. Which makes me think that having a theme and posting routinely on it works. Which leads me to wondering what kind of theme would interest you, my two non-family member readers. What, if anything, would you like to hear or see more of?
*And other female relations. Frankly, I have my doubts as to whether even my mother cares about the details of my REI shopping trips.
Hi, I depend on your daily life stories to keep up on your doings. With out that I would not feel connected. Don,t do away with then. Love you Jane
dude, we visited in november because of the sex scenes.
i think its possible to be interesting even though nothing interesting is happening. what do you think about all day? today i thought about different art projects i could make out of little green army men, how my career in chemistry would be ruined if i ever got a pacemaker, and obsessed for a while about the possibility of dying from a nosebleed. i dont even get nosebleeds. those three things are not all that interesting but you could spin it.
plus all those heroic blogs you mentioned sound boring anyway. “Today i continued to be blind. I fed my seeing eye dog. I had my little letter reading machine read me my junk mail. I may already be a winner.” Everybody’s life is boring. Nobody lives excitement 24 hours a day.
“ChemoBlog: Tuesday
The cereal aisle is full of boxes with supportive pink ribbons on them. The last thing i really want is to have cheerios help me ‘fight my battle.’ What should really be supporting me is Flav-R-Ice. Those things really get me through.”
boooooooooring.
Hi katie! i like seeing what you’re up to.
CRL called me about 15 minutes ago and wanted to interview me but it turns out there’s no flexibility of location, and worcester’s too far from here to commute every day 🙁 I’m sorry about that and I really appreciate that you gave them my resume. I wish I could give you a referral bonus hehe.
I was like “I noticed you had a location in Wilmington” and the lady was like, “oh. there’s no flexibility there. that’s where they breed rats” and I was like “….oh…” poor ratties.
Hi, Katie..
Love your blogs as it helps keep us connected. As to the “ordinary life is boring” phenomenon, we all experience that from time to time. The scenery, the weather, the transportation may be the same for days on end, but the people around us are ever changing and always interesting. What reaction do you get when you smile and greet a tired fellow passenger on the train ride home? What do you think when you see a homeless man? Share what you think, feel, do about the strangers in your life. Was it funny? Sad? Enlighteneing? Can’t wait to hear!
“Its time for the New Guinea update.
I miss toothpaste and toilet paper. And showering. They deep fry guinea pigs here. I wish I had done what my other vegan anarchist friends did after college: sell out and get a desk job.”
I love hearing about your daily life, it is amazing to keep me updated on what’s happening, since we don’t get to talk very often. And, I love reading your thoughts about various subjects, you always make it exciting. An exotic life doesn’t often have time for blogging, and if they do, then they’re probably exaggerating somewhere in my experience.
You’re in the habit of writing very frequently, which is not at all a bad thing, as consistency is one of the most important things in keeping a blog audience. I wish I could have more of it.
But, you may have now created an expectation for yourself that is it more important to write *something* than it is something great. You don’t need to lead a crazy, show-stopping life to have interesting things to say. And in fact, often you do have very interesting things to say and that’s a big reason why we’re friends and why I come here.
You might try relaxing the idea that you have to post as frequently. Give your brain permission to relax, and post whenever you know you’ve got something you can’t wait for people to read. Maybe that’s a few days, or maybe a week and a half. Maybe it happens at a schedule that’s not consistent enough for a blog. But you won’t know until you try giving your brain the freedom to work without an unspoken deadline.