Serendipity
On Cruise Control
I know when I'm in a rut when I spend five straight hours just looking at the blank computer screen and spend another six hours googling and still come up with absolutely nothing to write about. The title above does not in any way bamboozle you to think that this article is about you-know-who, a.k.a that guy who jumped up and down Oprah's couch without regard for the upholstery. This article is actually about the fact that I'm in a deep rut. Yeah, as in majorly deep. (I hate using slang in my column, and "majorly" is as slang as say, "yo" or "what's up?", but I'm in a rut, so who cares?)
You know when you're in a rut when you do the exact same things you did the day before and the day before the day before. Don't worry, that's not a typo error, it's just me trying to make a point. "I'm in a rut" is another way of saying "I need to go out more often". These days, "going out" for me means wearing "mom shorts" (shorts with minimal leg exposure) to buy my groceries. At this point in my life, I just don't see the point of partying, or of primping up to drink coffee at some wi-fi ready café when I can go to the kitchen and drink all the coffee I want until I get palpitations.
But see, there's a downside to my anti-social behavior. I realize now that because of my hermit-like existence, I've pushed myself to the point of ultimate boredom. I'm not experiencing enough variety, change, and excitement in my life, and for a writer, this could be very dangerous (unless I decide to write the obituaries). For a blogger, this could result in blank pages and skipped entry dates. And for a single woman, it's tantamount to joining the nunnery (although that would probably be a better option than marrying some imbecile guy – check out my column last week). Thank God I'm married, but as for being a writer and a blogger, I think that at this point, I'll probably be needing more than just a bottle of vodka and a medical degree (a la Chekhov) to take me out of this writing rut. I think I need to get myself a "life".
How does one get a life? Here are a few suggestions for people who, like me, find themselves driving on cruise control. If you're bored with eating hot pandesal for breakfast with your coffee, go for day-old bread, dump the decaf and go barako. If you're a fashion victim and your 4-inch stilettos are giving you hematomas, who says you can't go barefoot? Tired of driving to work and looking for parking? Take the jeep, a pedicab, or hitchhike. If you hate Friendster because you think it's the work of the devil but all your friends seem to love it, hell, create a MySpace account and find new friends. If you're spending too much time online (like I am), I advise you to shut down that computer now and go out into the real world where real people live.
There are of course, a thousand more we can do to escape from the rut that we're in. But the first step to freedom is acknowledging that we have a "rut problem". The next step is of course to find ways to "exterminate" the problem (there is nothing punny about bad puns!). Now if that involves adding some cheese to your salami sandwich, go ahead. Just get a life!