My Social Media-less Life

This blog will be my Bloganuary blog as well as my regular weekly update blog, so buckle up!

This has been a rough week.

It was the first week of the year and for the first time since I started dog-sitting regularly (in 2017) I was not sleeping at my house for the first of the year. Or at least… I was dog-sitting through a large portion of the first week and that’s highly unusual.

Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs and I love watching them, but something about being able to set goals in my own house definitely hits different.

So although the calendar says “January 6,” my mind still thinks it’s “January 1.” Needless to say, I took this afternoon off to try to “reset” my bedroom from being “gone” for several weeks and over the Christmas holiday at that.

Thankfully my usual Friday afternoon client is super chill and has told me she’s ok if I come whenever as long as she knows ahead of time so she can make sure the door is unlocked. So I’m going tomorrow morning.

All that to say… I’m glad I get to be home for a few days before going to the next sitting house.

Quitting pet-sitting is looking more and more appealing these days…

On a different note

I didn’t forget that I said I’d tell the story of how Greg (my new car) got a name change.
Since I mentioned that, he’s gotten another name change.

I mean, he’s still Greg, but he’s not just “Greg the Grey.” And for a few days I called him “Greg the Destroyer.” So let’s talk about that.

Greg the Destroyer came from the fact that he still has a couple of lights on. As I’ve mentioned, I doubted there was anything big to be concerned about, but I really just wanted to make sure. I mean, Penelope had lights on for about a year and a half and sometimes they would go away. There was nothing wrong, she just wanted to be ornery.

So I wanted to see if Greg was trying to live up to Penelope’s legacy or if there was legitimately something wrong. So I went to AutoZone. Plugged in the little diagnostic tool and took it back in so they could plug it into the computer.

The device stopped working. They couldn’t get it to work and apologized for the inconvenience.

So when I got back out to the car I said, “Greg, you’re just a destroyer, aren’t you?” And of course because Greg is a car, he didn’t respond.

The next day I was out and about and decided to stop at a different AutoZone. There was a guy in front of me who was getting his car checked with the diagnostic tool. It worked just fine; the cashier told him what he needed and how much it would cost and sent him on his way.

Then we got to my car. He saw the lights on the dash and said, “Well you DO have lights on…”

And then we took the tool back inside and he said, “It looks like you have a poltergeist because there’s nothing wrong with your car.” And he printed out the sheet, handed it to me and told me to have a good day.

Since I’ve already taken it to the dealership to determine if there’s a serious problem (and they haven’t found one either), I decided… Greg is not a destroyer…

Greg is gregarious.

He just wants me to pay attention to him. And I do. I love my car and since it doesn’t run funny and everything works like it’s supposed to, there’s no reason to be concerned.

So Greg the “Greg-arious” and I just drive around the city, bebopping as we do.

I might take it to the dealership one more time while the lights are on (they don’t always come on or stay on) just to see if they have a fancy tool that AutoZone doesn’t, but… I’m not overly concerned with it.

Now onto the Bloganuary Writing Prompt:
Why do you write?

I think the biggest reason I write is because there’s something to be said about creating a story with words and taking people on a journey with you through the telling of that story.

I have always loved story, and I’ve always loved the act of storytelling. In fact, most of my stories could be much shorter if I would just get to the point, but I don’t want to get to the point. I want to take you on the same experience I had.

Very rarely will you hear me say, “You had to be there.”

Because I’ll tell the story in such a way that you’ll feel like you WERE there. Whether you want me to or not.

And that’s just in general verbal conversation. But writing itself is the same thing. That’s why my Facebook statuses were always so long, or why sometimes I have a very long blog post (my bad), or why I have a million unfinished physical journals. I just love to write.

I write for the love of writing.

So now that you had a story and a reason why the story was much longer than it needed to be (maybe), I hope you have a wonderful weekend! I’ll be back again tomorrow with another Bloganuary prompt!