Writing my reality

I've had such a nice summer that I've been hesitant to admit that it's coming to an end. But after 24 straight hours of cool and gray and rain (which is just weird in this climate anyway), I've finally closed the last of the windows and put on my favorite pair of wool socks. My toes are super happy, but my brain is still morose. I mean, I know we'll have a lot more nice days before winter settles in, but I might not get outside much to enjoy it, and there's no getting around the fact now that that was pretty much that, as far as summer goes.

It was fun to write about my adventures, though. I've read that one advantage of keeping a blog (or a diary or a scrapbook) is that summarizing and analyzing your experiences actually helps your brain to retain them better—plus, of course, you get that written record. I wonder if it follows that you should write mostly about the good stuff, and the lessons you've learned from the hard stuff, and just let the truly bad stuff fade with the passage of time.

I can't help but think that this would work especially well for me, since I have a terrible memory. For example, I was mortified most of the time at my 20-year high school reunion a few years ago because there were really huge things that I had no recollection of at all (like the fact that one of my oldest friends had been on the swim team with me) and entire human beings who seemed to know me pretty well but whose names didn't even sound familiar. (By the way, thank goodness for Facebook, because it keeps people fresh in my mind and gives me time to do some research before interacting with them, if necessary.)

So, yeah, these lapses are frustrating and embarrassing, but there's a kind of bliss in not being tortured by memories of every single cruel or idiotic thing I've ever done or that's ever been done to me—which I think is how a lot of people's brains work. I think my stratagem for winter will be to use this blog to record more of the happy, quirky moments from my life and fewer rants about work and nutrition. Maybe that way I can have the best winter ever, too.