Sick, For Real

I'm in an unusually irritable state. I am cranky, crabby, mean, surly -whatever you want to call it. In other words, this is a perfect writing mentality, in the same way people look out the window on say, "This is a perfect day for gardening!"

I favor writing in bad moods over happy moods because only in bad moods can you really surprise yourself. Bad moods draw on deeply buried, often primal impulses and feelings, and because our primitive mind can be so feral, we try to dissociate ourselves from it. But try as we might, we cannot completely suppress it.

Writing in bad moods also has the virtue of being therapeutic and cleansing. Sometimes you can write yourself out of a bad mood, even if your writing doesn't address the feelings or circumstances that brought you to that mindstate. That's not bad at all. You can't keep stuff inside for too long, it'll kill you.

So what has me in this mood? I can't really say. I can say that the fact that I've had a cold for going on 5 weeks isn't helping. Oh, and did I mention my in-laws are still here? I actually love them very much and get along with them very well. But they are people, and all people have issues. I am witnessing their issues play out in addition to my own and those of my wife and kids. Yes, even kids can have issues. My two year old's issue right now is taking unscheduled "bulk dumps" [a old IT phrase usually referring to memory, but also applicable here] instead of going to the bathroom like a big boy. I knew coming in that boys were slower and more difficult to train, but jeesh! But see, I have written about it, and now, don't I feel better about it?

No, not really.

I still need to change his stinky behind.