December 31, 2009

Say "au revoir" but not "Good-bye"

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken    

This is it, folks. The final Writer's Plot blog. Finito. Done. Or not...

Writing a weekly blog was a lot like writing a weekly column, which I did for 22 1/2 years. So the past not-quite-three years was like Old Home Day for me, except on Wednesday night instead of Thursday or, when I was really pushing the deadline envelope, Sunday night.

It does seem, though, appropriate, that I get the last word, because 2010 is probably going to be a transitional year for the Brackens. I plan to retire next summer and kick back, relax, sleep late, and write the projects I've been researching for years. And besides that, I have other plans:

  • finish two quilts I started (including a "quilt-in-a-day" quilt)
  • make quilts using the bundles of fabric I bought in Alaska and Hawaii
  • knit lots
  • find a volunteer job rocking babies (since no grandchildren are on the horizon)
  • clean the clutter and downsize (yeah, we've heard that before)
  • Write write write write
  • do oral history interviews with elderly folks
  • volunteer at the Library of Congress
  • volunteer at the Women's History Museum
  • spend more time with friends and family, including cousins all over the place
  • visit Iceland, Prague, England, Australia, Germany, and Alaska again
  • go to concerts and plays
  • write write write write write with my writing partner Nancy "Coop" Cooper
  • learn to play my keyboard
  • join a choir or chorus
  • learn to play a hammered dulcimer
  • volunteer at my alma mater the University of New Hampshire
  • grow a mound of nasturtiums and put a flower on my summer salads
  • drink enough Guinness or white zinfandel to sing "Proud Mary" at a karaoke bar
  • read read read read read
  • find or develop a group of friends to play cards (not bridge!) or board games
  • read The Gulag Archipelago, all thousands of pages of it
  • take up jigsaw puzzles and do crossword puzzles to my heart's content
  • drive across Canada and visit all the states in the northwest I have missed (6 in all from North Dakota to Nevada)
  • get another dog
  • read a daily newspaper the day it's printed
  • write write write write write with my friend Margie Hilton
  • join a health club and actually go, swimming every day

Since I have not yet run out of opinions to share, I will continue blogging; my new website has a blog feature I will figure out and use. (www.jeannemunnbracken.com if you're keeping score)

DSCN2266

Happy New Year to All, and to all a Good Blog.
 

Jeanne Munn Bracken
By Jeanne Munn Bracken
Dec 31, 2009 12:07:00 AM | Jeanne's posts

7 Comments

Edith Maxwell

I'll miss your comments, Jeanne, and will look for your new blog. What a great set of projects you have lined up!

Posted by: Edith Maxwell | December 31, 2009 at 06:57 AM

Sheila Connolly

What a fabulous list! You go!

And I have at least fifty real wood jigsaw puzzles you can borrow.

Posted by: Sheila Connolly | December 31, 2009 at 09:26 AM

Bill Crider

So long, Writers Plot. It's been fun.

Posted by: Bill Crider | December 31, 2009 at 01:19 PM

Angela (signlady217)

Good luck with everything! See you around the bookstores!

Posted by: Angela (signlady217) | December 31, 2009 at 01:51 PM

Jeanne

Thanks to all. Sheila, I'll consider the loan of those puzzles, although I have found quite a collection in various closets around the house. I like the ones that have words on them--words are easier to put together than pictures, says the writer.
I'm sure all our paths will cross again. Jeanne

Posted by: Jeanne | December 31, 2009 at 02:05 PM

Ruth McCarty

We should all sing "Proud Mary" at least once in our life. I'm gonna add it to my bucket list. Thanks Jeanne, and all for entertaining us in between your books.

Posted by: Ruth McCarty | December 31, 2009 at 05:16 PM

The older sister, Pat

Mom has a bunch of puzzles too - remember the mind boggling ones we used to give her.....he he.
Will look forward to following your blog on your website.

Posted by: The older sister, Pat | January 03, 2010 at 05:17 PM

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So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye.... Kate's Post.... Believe me, you do not want me to sing to you. No one does. Much as I love to sing, when I start in, cats howl and neighbors call the police to report a monster in the woods. But those words from The Sound of Music seemed to fit this last week of posting with the other ladies here at Writer's Plot. I just don't know what I'll do with myself without a Wednesday morning deadline. I might just sleep in instead of hurling myself out of bed at o dark thirty (whatever the heck that means) and slipping silently into my chair, sitting in the gloom and staring at the shiny silver screen, waiting for my brain to come on line and start tossing out words. Today I went back through some of the old posts, copying them for posterity, or at least, until this computer dies. Reading through a year of them, I was struck by something that had never occurred to me before. For many years, my mother wrote weekly newspaper columns on gardening and country living. I was always awestruck by her erudition--she knew so much about so many things--and by her ability to have a fresh idea to write about every week, year after year. When I went back and looked at my own blogs, I realized that in some small way, I am following in my mother's footsteps. It is a pleasing thought indeed. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've become enough of an old fogey that I really hate change. I don't like to have to learn to use new appliances--those stoves that require a Ph.D to operate, the microwaves that have control panels that look like they belong in the cockpits of jets, the fancy new flat screen TV that requires three different remotes to play a DVD, unless you have a child of twelve around to help out. I hate the new energy saving bulbs that make it feel like I live in a cave for the first few minutes that they're on and won't fit in many of my lamps. I don't want my cell phone to come with a hundred apps. I just want it to work in case of emergency. So of course, I hate to think about the end of writer's plot, even though I've always considered myself as a temporary sub for Doranna. Without Lorraine to drag me out of my cave, I'm bound to retreat to my former luddite status. Thanks to her, I've got a presence on Facebook and My Space and lots of nice friends. I've enjoyed the kindness of all my sister bloggers. It's bound to feel different next week when Wednesday rolls around. But change happens. This Christmas, amidst the usual chaos of relatives arriving, boxes piling up at the door, and the mandatory dozen extra trips to the grocery store, I went out with my son and his lovely fiancee, Robyn, to scout wedding venues. It means that sometime in the next year, my son will take that next, rather final feeling step away from this family as he forms a new family of his own. It also means that after thirty years of sons, I'm going to be getting a daughter. It was exciting to walk through several prospective wedding venues and imagine Robyn in a lovely dress and Jake in a tux. To imagine our family and friends and neighbors gathered to watch the handsome man they've watched grow up marry his beloved Robyn. The young couple were even kind to me when the sentimental old mom played them Kenny Chesney's "You Had Me From Hello." So I guess this IS goodbye. I'm off to Egypt in a few weeks, and I'll be thinking about you as I see camels and pyramids, temples and gods. As I cruise on the Nile, feeling slightly guilty because I'm not at my desk working. And maybe, when I get back, I'll start blogging on my website, www.kateflora.com, as I set out to do several years ago. Perhaps you'll drop by? I promise not to sing.
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