So you
might be wondering why, for the first time ever, you received the RT 20 in an email. Well, there are a
multitude of reasons. Let’s break it down Top 5 list style!
1) I’m a lot less angry now.
Anger and
its frequent bunkmate, sarcasm, were the pillars of what I wrote each year from
1994 until about 2009. But I have mellowed in that regard (and being in a solid,
stress-free relationship for two years has certainly made that possible). So I
found it harder to tap into wherever my creative engine now resides in my body.
2) I wrote a ton of crap this year.
When I went
through all the stories I wrote for the day job this year to compile our Year
in Review, I realized that I wrote close to 3,000 pieces of copy this year.
THAT. IS. A. LOT. Which led to…
3) I’m battling carpel tunnel.
I can
pinpoint its start to mid-June when my job launched a new web platform into
which we upload our copy. There are many more clicks with a mouse than the way we
used to upload stores for the previous nine years, and that put quite a load on
my right wrist. I now own four different wrist guards so I am protected
wherever I go. But -- as any sufferer can tell you -- rest is the best
medicine. My wrist was back to 100% after our lengthy vacation to California in September. But when Sandy pummeled the area, I ended up
writing three to four times what I normally would to fill in for those that had
no power for almost two weeks. Add extra copy for Year in Review because of the
extremely poor time management by another co-worker and my wrist hasn’t been
right for a while.
4) I spent my free time in the fall
working on Sandy benefits.
Hurricane Sandy (fuck that bullshit of calling it Superstorm Sandy, seriously) really devastated this area of the
country that I love dearly. The images I saw in the days after it hit and
hearing how friends and people I’ve known for many years lost almost everything
inspired me to organize two benefit shows in November. All the efforts I put
into to promoting them paid off as between the two of them close to $1700 was
raised. It’s not a lot of cash in the overall picture of how much money is need
to get various areas back on their feet, but it exceeded my wildest
expectations
5) I spent the rest of my free time
in the fall plugging and working on various aspects of my book.
Yes,
nothing like burying the lead. My first book, co-edited with my dear friend Mike Faloon, is called Fan Interference: A Collection of Baseball
Rants and Reflections. The book, due out in June on Blue Cubicle Press,
collects the best of Zisk, the
baseball zine Mike and I have been publishing for 13 years. It’s a project that
has been a very long time coming. And
getting this list done put a hold on my editing our latest draft, so I’m glad
to have this done.
Well, there
you have it. This year’s list might not have jokes about “Gangam Style,” The X Factor or Limp Bizkit, but hey, at least it’s done. Hope you get a chuckle or
two out of this year’s truncated version. I’m shooting for a traditional
version in 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment