Life in the Dark Ages
Time passes quickly, doesn’t it? I was just thinking how much my life has changed. Ten years ago, I hadn’t started writing. I spent time on the internet, but it was on a desktop computer and my laptop was not connected to my hip.
I read a lot more. I slept with piles of books.
I did have a little blog! On Diaryland. Cool place. I’m sorry that it never grew big like Blogger.
I finished working, and then I’d start a fire and either watch TV or read books. Or both. I’d get up, do yoga, practice piano if I was able to sit up (that was still when I was sick), teach, and then read more. On days off, I would generally stay in bed all day. Back then, it was such a relief because it was always such a huge effort to try and walk around like normal.
It sounds like a leisurely life, but I was working six days a week, nearly sixty, seventy hours on piano teaching alone. It did not help my illness, LOL.
I don’t miss that life, except for the reading part. The slower part. Man, has my life gotten cluttered with the internet.
On one hand, I’m glad. I’d be dreadfully lonely without someone to chat with or status updates to read while working. But I’d really like to finish working by 6 or so, so I can spend the evening reading.
I miss how fast I read books then, but I wouldn’t want to have a life without writing. I wouldn’t want to give up the friends I have online. Just musing.
What was your life like, ten years ago? Fifteen years ago? How much is the internet a part of your daily life? Reading?
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Natasha Fondren is a writer traveling the U.S. in a camper with her four cats. She is currently enjoying the lizards and desert heat in Arizona.
Ten years ago I started my PhD coursework. WORST idea ever. Fifteen years ago, I was finishing up life in Cleveland, more or less.
I am an internetaholic. And I read a lot, mostly articles and non-fiction.
Whew! That was a huge undertaking, I bet!
I will join you in saying, “My name is Natasha Fondren, and I am an internetaholic.” Except I don’t plan on getting better, LOL.
It’s funny you mention how much time the Net sucks up. I was thinking about that this morning. I wish it was less, but in this age of authors marketing ourselves… we’re stuck.
What frightens me is that I don’t do a whole lot of marketing right now, Susan. It scares me a lot!
Then years ago I was writing, but I was working, too, at a job I hated. I’m glad I quit. I’m not so glad I don’t read as much as I used to. I’ve gone from a book a day to two or three a week. I don’t know if writing changed that or if the internet did. A combination, I suppose, but I wouldn’t give up either my writing or my internet friends.
I’m with you on all of that. I didn’t hate my job, but the dealing-with-their-parents thing was definitely starting to get to me.
I miss reading that much, too, Edie, but I wouldn’t give up my internet friends either.
Ten years ago I was living in an apartment just outside the D.C. Beltway. I hated my job, had given up on being a writer. I got paid literally nothing for dealing with an abusive boss and my husband was being silently screwed over by his business partners. Bi saw no end to that existence and could only hope to one day scrape together $300,000 to afford a decent condo.
Now
Wow, Avery! Ugh, that is AWFUL. You guys have changed a lot. A whole lot. That is so hard, but so awesome that you did!
(iPhone cut me off…). Now, I’m clearly much happier. : )
Yay!
I was a new mother and a new writer. I’ve always been a writer, but I was never serious about publication. I didn’t discover RWA until 2001. There have been many blessings since, but I wish I had finished more work before joining RWA and hopping online. I cherish the friendships, though. Especially the ones that aren’t dependent on my being published or not.
Heather, I agree. I do cherish the friendships I made, but in retrospect, I would tell myself to remain in my writing bubble much longer. I was reading writing books and novels to actively improve my own writing. I can’t say that writing friends, as treasured as they are, have made a difference to my actual writing as to make up for the increased social pressure and awareness of the politics of the writing world.
LOL.
Ten years ago I had just three kids (one under age two), and I was just STARTING my life as a novelist.
Nice, Erica! Nice! *dying to have 3 kids*
Wow! Your life was so different! I’m so glad you feel better, now. I’m also glad you hang out on the internet because I treasure your friendship.
My life is fairly similar to what it was 10 years ago. My kids were little then – 6 and 7 – and I ran around a lot with them. My practice got busy quickly, so I worked about the same amount. I don’t know where my energy came from! The kids’ favorite game was “witch”. I’d pretend I was a witch, steal one of their stuffed animals, and hide them somewhere. Then I’d leave clues around the house and yard – each clue leading to the next clue. Was I on speed at the time?
Yeah, wow, Robin! You had major energy! That is so… involved, LOL! No wonder they grew up so smart!
I’ll have to file that one away. That sounds like a fun game!
Why has no one asked the obvious and glaring question – how old were you ten years ago? Like, 19???
(You don’t have to answer that, it’s just weird for me to think that ten years ago I was an actual responsible adult – wahhh. I feel old.)
LOL, Aerin, I sure wish! Boy, do I wish! No, I was 26. Three months away from 27. Which only matters now because I’m freaking out at how little time I have left to make three kids…
ten years ago my marriage was coming to an end and I was working 60 hours a week and hardly writing at all. I was reading, some. and drinking way too much. Life is a lot better now.
Wow! That sounds stressful, Charles. Things have got to be better, LOL!
Oh, my. This brought back memories – most of them bad.
Ten years ago my daughter was just 8 and badly adjusting to the fact that her father had remarried and had another baby on the way; I was working a job that kept us in poverty (literally), we were living in an ancient, crappy apartment over a flower shop, and didn’t see the future as ever getting any better. I had just discovered the internet a year or two before and spent a lot of time there, but not nearly as much as now. Like you, I also spent a lot more time reading. I wasn’t writing or doing any artwork because I didn’t have time, energy or money, but I remember that I had made the comment to someone on the internet that I wanted to start my own publishing company some day.
Now, my daughter is doing well, getting ready for college, we live in a nice condo, I make 4 times as much money as back then, have been published a couple of times, sold a lot of artwork over the past few years, and still want to start my own publishing company.
What a difference a decade makes.
Eek, well, even if they’re bad memories, Kate, you’ve made huge, big, and positive changes in both yours and your daughter’s lives. That’s awesome!
A lot can change in a decade! When you’re looking at “now,” sometimes I have trouble remembering that.
I was gainfully employed ten years ago (in a “real” job, lol). Two years later I quit, sick of the type of work (legal secretary) – too sad for words. I’m almost ashamed to admit that thereafter I was a Sims-A-holic before I delved into fiction writing.
Fifteen years ago I was house shopping with my soon-to-be hubby. And here I am, fifteen years later, the owner of two homes, and I say that in a non-bragging way.
Kath, my mother was never so happy when I was legal secretary, LOL! It was only for six months, LOL. And I LOVED Sims!!!!! I still play it, now and then. Not much. But it’s why I’m addicted to Farmville on Facebook. I like building and designing stuff.
I hope you sell your house soon!
10 years ago I was a newish mom. Still not writing. (I’d given it up in my 20s.) Happy as a clam.
Still happy, but life is richer now. I heart the intarwebz and all my bffs there!!
Awww, Betsy! Babies! I didn’t find writing until my late 20s, I was so focused on piano.
I love the internet and my friends there, too!
Ten years ago I was in a hospital waiting room with the kids.Looking back as one crisis followed another, I suppose I could say it took my husband ten years to die. But I prefer to think instead we had the gift of a decade against the odds.
The internet and the people I’ve met (like you, Natasha)helped compensate for the strain of constant care and the endless anxiety of those years. And he always encouraged me to write.
Much was taken, but much is left.
Eek, Bernita. That kind of support is wonderful! Glenn is pretty good at supporting me, although sometimes he makes it hard without realizing it.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that Lillie St. Claire is going to be published. Wait? Is that today? The 28th? I gotta go check!
Ten years ago I was… still in a lot of trouble!
LOLOL, Rick! Trouble is the spice of life!
I journaled more. I wrote by hand more.
On the other hand, I know more now with the advent of the internet about publishing. Most days that’s a good thing; other days, it makes me covet more
Internet and computers are very much a part of my daily grind; more than I would like them to be. Some days I just go home and sit with my eyes shut for a LONG time just to soothe my tired eyes.
One thing I *think* I could give up is TV. So much nothing on there, you know? I miss being able to just sit and talk with people; I only do it now with Tim and Nick and my family.
PS: Have you started Bernita’s book? It’s pretty cool!
10 years ago now I was a complete wreck, mostly. I’m glad to have gotten through that alright. It was really rough & lonely.