Let's Laugh Alone Together

The sun is shining again, finally (or at least it was yesterday), and my batteries are recharged. I want to laugh. I want the world to laugh with me. Click on the title to my previous post (the one about habits). Watch the video and tell me what makes you laugh the most. I can't decide if it's Peter Cetera pretending to know how to play the bass, or the fact that "the Habit" appears to be played by about 10 different women. And then there's the card tower karate chop. If you need a good laugh, taking 4 minutes to relive some dark corner of the 80's will be a good use of your time. Enjoy!

This is Not a Habit

Regardless of what CHICAGO has to say about it, habits are much harder to make than they are to break. Take this blog for example: after my last post (which I had so much fun crafting and posting, thank you very much), I quickly mapped out a plan to craft the blog into a habit. This is something I've been trying my hand at recently, growing habits. Unlike most vegetable seeds, habits have a long germination window. While my tomato seedlings sprouted in under 10 days, habits take a minimum of 21 to rear their pretty little heads (or ugly depending on what you have planted in that fertile soil of the soul). Since I'm not all that fond of weeds--even though they do give me an outlet for my compulsive behaviors--I'm attempting to grow only pretty habits, or at the very least, useful ones.

For example, I've tried to nurture the habit of hanging my clothes (or folding them or putting them in the laundry basket) at the end of each day. The most consecutive days I've managed to do this is eight...and maybe I'm exaggerating that number. At any rate, this habit isn't happening. I've tried it in various locales and different seasons on and off for most of my life. It just won't grow for me.

Also, it was brought to my attention by a well-meaning and extremely efficient friend that clearing the dishwasher immediately after each load is washed is the key to keeping the kitchen neat and tidy at all times. What a simple idea. Unload the dishwasher after each clean load so you'll have ample room to hide the dirty stuff as it accumulates! What could be easier? This one I managed for 17 straight days...then I just couldn't.

Now it's this blog. My romantic ideals told me that if I could just post a simple something each day for 21 days straight, I'd be back to my original blogging glory. I was so determined and inspired by the idea that I mapped out the carrot on the stick: this very post about building habits in 21 days! I even searched the web for the perfect picture of a running nun. The problem is that external motivations hold no weight with me. True grit comes from the inside...not from some silly picture of Sally Fields flying around in a nun's habit.

So...here I am, giving into this habit post. What I discovered is that it won't go away, and I can't get that song by Chicago out of my head. I'm posting, and it's not 21 days or 21 posts later, it's just a catharsis of sounds and images. Not a habit at all.

This is Not a Blog

Right? This is totally NOT a blog because if it was a blog, I would actually blog. Blah, blah, blahg. So, if it's not a blog, then what is it?

UnKnownSideEffect was born out of pangs of anonymity. I brought this blog to life in response to another, much more WELL-KNOWN blog, "KnownSideEffects" which was published by my husband. Don't start forecasting that this blogging business had something to do with my competitive side. I'll admit to being competitive, but I know there is no point in competing with my husband. He has his talents; I have mine, and our respective skills are on somewhat opposite ends of the talent spectrum. His talents just happen to be of the sort that put him out in the limelight. Google him and you'll see what I mean. Google me, and you'll see him. This doesn't bother me, really. What does bother me, the thing that propelled me to make my voice heard in the form of this blog was something I overheard one day at the height of KnownSideEffects popularity: "He's married?!" (This person was asking this about MY husband of 15 YEARS.) "I didn't know he was married. When did that happen?"

So, this is how the unknownsideeffect was born. Initially, it was going to be my clever way of anonymously responding to posts by knownsideeffects. My intention was to be the alter-ego of knownsideeffects. His background was all black. Mine would be all white. When he wrote about racing or about being on the road, I would write about spectating from the sidelines or about life on the homefront. This singular focus turned out to be utterly impossible for me. I'm not the shadow of my husband. And I'm no good at writing about the exterior life. The interior life is much more interesting, to me anyway. Of course, it's my own interior life about which I write, so I'm biased there.

This brings me to this post. What is the point of it? I don't know. But it's not a blog.