Easter 2013

Easter is one of those expectation-free holidays; it lacks the spectacular, stressful crush of Thanksgiving and Christmas. And the weather's better. Yesterday we had an early dinner - Honey Baked Ham, mac & cheese, green beans, more gluten-free appetizers than you can count - we visited, we had wine, we watched the baby, and someone - okay, it was me - brought up the revered childhood memory of my little brother standing with his back to the camera, trying to shield all eight of us cousins from the picture with his arms outstretched. It was lovely; it reaffirmed that Easter just might be the best holiday.

And if you're a nerd like me, yesterday was a holiday twofer: the return of Game of Thrones.

I used to watch the crap out of some TV. When I was a freshman in college, and I spent almost every evening copying notes out of textbooks, I distracted my studies with some primetime show or another. I had a whole card of them lined up, one for almost every weekday. They all inevitably jumped the shark and I found better uses of my time, and these days, I don't watch much TV. I have a few dramas - all of them 8 to 12 episode seasons that don't monopolize too much time, all of them offbeat. Right now, it's Being Human (until the season ends in two weeks) and, of course, Game of Thrones.

While I watched the premier, I reflected on the fact that, wow, it's been a year since last season aired. And then I thought: Man, I've really been out of the media loop this past year. Why? I've been writing non-stop for the past year. A year ago, I was blogging about sunsets - though, I still do that, so I can't say I've grown in that area - and was waiting on GoT to premier and wondering what the hell I was going to do about that writing career I wanted so badly. Today, I'm 80k words into my next novel and prepping for this coming weekend's book sale. I feel like I've learned a lot in that time, and can only hope this coming year will teach me even more. Maybe next Easter...well....I dunno what to hope for. Let's just hope for more inspiration.