Dry-anuary

Blog No. 61

Before I get into what is sure to be a riveting expose on current culture trends and my acceptance of them (or rejection of most of them) I want to talk about writing.  You may be shocked that I am going to once again spend time writing about the writing going on, but it’s important to me – so there.  Christian from Adventure Worlds has started his very own blog.  It’s aptly called ‘Fed to the Lions’ and it can be found here: (http://christianlaforet.wordpress.com).  It went up on Tuesday and I think that is going to be his posting day though he may not be posting weekly.  We’ll see.  Either way, go check it out now to get some real info about it (I don’t listen to the group much when they aren’t talking about me) and look for the next one some upcoming Tuesday I don’t know of yet.

Back to me.  December is a particularly gluttonous time for many people.  It’s no different for me.  My mother bakes trays of cookies, I have dinners and parties to attend and I am out on the town more than any other time.  I really don’t take very good care of myself at the end of the year.  Over the last few years my brother and I have taken part in Dry-anuary.  Initially the practice was abstaining from alcohol for the month, but since we are not heavy drinkers we have taken it one step further – or possibly several steps.  During January we don’t eat and junk food and only drink healthy things.  We see it as a time to recover from the last month’s debauchery and as a place to start living with more healthy habits.  We push each other to be more active, we try to diversify our diets and we try to cut out some of the crap.

The month itself is arbitrary as is the New Year.  (I’ve gone over than one more than once).  Much like the Catholics with Christmas the timing comes from the already established event of a different nature.  We have known friends to take part in the customary Dry-anuary experience and started with that event ourselves.  It also has to do with all that over-consuming I mentioned that comes with December.  What better time to clean things up and make a change?  With that said, we don’t make it a habit to specifically go overboard right before the month.  Sometimes it happens, but it’s purely coincidental.  With that kind of thinking I suppose I could say that the original idea of Dry-anuary has become coincidental to what we now do too.

In fact the cutesy renamed month is a social concept that I don’t always buy into.  For me it’s all about the local aspect.  Who of my friends are doing what and am I at all interested in taking part.  Sometimes there can be other aspects that make me interested in these movements but usually I can’t be bothered.  (It’s that whole not playing along thing I’ve talked about before).

Mo-vember is a movement that I have signed on to pretty completely.  Other places I’ve heard of No Shave November, which is one I can’t even get my head around.  In Mo-vember, men grow mustaches (we really do apologies for that) and raise money and awareness for prostate cancer.  No Shave November is about people not shaving in November for some unknown reason.  The there is Decem-beard, Truck-tober and Septem-bird.  (That last one could have just been a dream I had).  There are even more than that and it can get completely ridiculous.

I suppose what I am getting at it I can get behind a ridiculous social movement (or whatever you call it) as long as there is something I feel is important going on behind the scenes – or if it benefits me in some way.  Now that I think of it that makes me sound really selfish and a bit of a spoil-sport.  But then again, I will readily admit to both of those (so I’m not really all that worried).

However I appear Dry-anuary is a time that I’ve co-opted and I try to make use of it in the best way I can.  The health aspect isn’t the only thing I put under the microscope.  What may be more interesting for you (and maybe I should have started with it, but it’s too late to go back now) is the writing.  I would say that writing is a side goal in Dry-anuary, but really it’s always my main goal, so it just becomes a goal.  The month is as much about doing things as it is about abstaining from other things.  I’m getting up a bit early to make breakfast before work instead of buying it, my brother and I are walking more and of course I (along with the rest of the Adventure World writers) have redoubled our writing efforts.  It’s funny, now that I think of it, the things I wanted to change and do when I was in high school are the same as this year.  I don’t know what that has to do with Dry-anuary, but it’s something to think about.

Make sure to go check out Christian’s new blog and while you’re at it stop by and see Justin’s newest post over on his blog.  The links are at the side of the page.