I’m having a bit of a blogging crisis.

Ok, fine, that was a little melodramatic. But I’m having a really hard time figuring out what I should be reading and when.

Kim mentioned all this the other day when she talked about her audience and blog fame and it got me thinking. My Google reader is out of control. When I find a new blog, I scoop it up and squirrel it away in a folder where it languishes. I’m suffering from social overload. Just look at my list of feeds.

I have Flickr contacts that may not match my Twitter contacts that may not match the folks in my RSS feed or those on Facebook. And don’t even get me started about LiveJournal. I can’t make heads or tales of any of it.

Should I just trash all these people I’ve collected? What if one of them is a gem and I’m missing out? Should I read all these hundred of personal blogs from people I hardly know? Or should I pare my list down to a dozen or so folks that I really love their writing?

There was a blog that I read in my giant “parenting” category. Some mommy blogger. Honestly, I got her confused with other mommy bloggers in that folder. I must have heard her blog name at a BlogHer once. And for the most part I skimmed her entries. Blah blah kid said cute thing blah blah daughter growing up so fast blah blah husband never does the dishes blah blah. But one entry stuck in my head as she talked about trying to explain right and wrong to her son and how this was much harder than she thought it would be. Rich and I still talk about this entry and she wrote it in November of 2008, before I was even pregnant with our first child. So this random woman who I could have forgotten all about affected me. It would be a shame to miss that.

But wow there’s just so much! It’s too much to read! I’m still missing out on stuff regardless of if I have the blogs in my feed reader. Ironically, I never told that mommy blogger that wrote such a great entry how much I like it. So I’m not living up to my part of the deal in this whole community thing either.

Are there people that you read online that you don’t have a personal relationship with? Do those people outnumber your friends? At what point do they become a friend versus some random person you’re reading about? Are you content to read about the lives of strangers or are they all pathways to meet people that you’d invite over for dinner if they were in town?

I should have it so hard that there is so much good writing out there for me to scoop up. I just need a way to better digest it all.

My mother is 72 years old and still works full time. When I told her I was pregnant, she claimed she was going to retire, but that hasn’t happened yet. I’m not sure it will any time soon. She told her friends (who are all retired) that whenever she sees the old lady working at Hardee’s she thinks she doesn’t want to have to come out of retirement to work at a place like that. My father, on the other hand, still talks about getting another job driving a cab or the like. I’m not sure he understands what retirement means.

When Rich was in the Army, he had a first sergeant who had joined when he was 18. His plan was to put in his 20 years, retire and drive a beer truck. He had it all figured out. That was his plan. We’re not really sure if he fully understood that driving the beer truck doesn’t mean you get to drink the beer in the truck.

If you’ve seen the E Trade baby commercials, I’m sure you’ve noticed that planning for one’s future is important. Everyone talks about making sure you have what you need for retirement. But most of what they’re talking about is just the money part.

This brings me to our Living Out Loud theme for the month. Tell me what your retirement plan is. Do you even have a retirement plan? Do you figure you’re just going to die at your desk? Do you want to travel? Do you plan on starting a side business? Do you think you’ll be a Wal-Mart greeter? The point isn’t really about the money. It’s more about where you see yourself when you’re in those “autumn years” or if you plan on getting a head start on those in the summer years of your life. Do you have ideas of what you’ll do in the next phase of your life?

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each issue above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I’m just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org. Remember, if you don’t email me, I’m likely to forget to include you in the recap!

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, March 7th (the first Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

Because it took me forever to pick a theme this month, you’ve got less than two weeks. But if you’re like me, most of you wait til the last minute anyways. I look forward to hearing what your plans are!

I have Quaker high fiber oatmeal and a yogurt every weekday morning for breakfast. I’m fine with this routine. Rich and I have started eating at home more lately and I’m also fine with this. But lunch during the week has become my Waterloo.

Since I’m nursing Ian at lunch every weekday, I’m going across the street to the day care for that hour. Because of his feeding schedule, I generally leave from 12:30 to 1:30. Rich and the others go out to lunch from 12-1. So even if Rich got me something while he was out, it would be very cold by 1:30 when I could eat it. That and I would starve by then.

I’ve been trying a variety of frozen meals from Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine. One day I had nothing but edamame and crackers for lunch. I’m feeling uninspired by all of it.

So this is where I turn to you all. What do you eat for lunch? Do you pack something each morning? Do you have a cafeteria in your office? Do you go out for burgers etc? I have read horror stories of vending machine meals that make me cringe. I don’t want that. I just want something tasty and easy and healthy.

Help!

In case you missed it, I failed to include Rachel from Crunchy Turtle in my initial recap of our 13th Living Out Loud project. I really need to get more organized with these entries. That or I need an intern.

I’m in a surprisingly good mood, which makes me want to write. But I can’t think of much to write about, so I think you’re going to get a brain dump.

My Google Reader is officially Out of Control. I literally need to assign myself homework of reading blogs to keep up. And I think I’m going to dole out a little tough love and pare down my reading list. If it’s taking away from sleep or laundry (two of my highest priorities these days) it has to be better than mundane.

Oh, kettle, you are so very very black!

I’ve been working on our taxes lately and let me tell you, it’s a giant pain in the ass. Not only am I delving into the world of depreciation for our rental property, I’ve realized I should have done our taxes last year differently. Hooray amended returns! I am dreading doing that too, but really shouldn’t since it could possibly be enough of a difference to pay for a new refrigerator, one that doesn’t spontaneously wet the floor and has a handle on the freezer door. I could paperwork my way to a new fridge! I just have to get off my ass and do it. Any second now. Just gonna download those forms and hop to it. Here I go. Watch me.

Our entire household has colds. Rich stayed home sick today and I brought Ian home at lunch because he was probably going to infect all the other babies and I didn’t want to be That Mother That Selfishly Spreads Baby Plague. So he slept for four hours in his car seat while I worked. All in all, not so bad.

I think he’s getting a tooth since there has been increased drooling and some general weariness. Here’s hoping he sleeps a little better tonight since he kicked me in the belly all last night. I still love having him in our bed, I just might need to fashion padded booties to put on him.

I am overwhelmed at the number of folks who responded to this month’s theme. Apparently everyone has some sort of relationship with booze, good or bad. We have 15 entries and five of those are from new participants! It’s also neat to see the range of everyone’s interpretation of this theme. You all surprise and impress me every month. So without further ado, let’s check out the entries:

Jeb’s My Old but Rarely-Seen Friend, John Barleycorn
I admire his dedication to the finer qualities of scotch. Personally I think it tastes like dirt. But I also like the image of Jeb throwing back tequila shots.

Gina’s Drinkin’ Buddies – NOT
I can imagine that working as a volunteer EMT, you only see the bad side of alcohol. Moderation sounds like the way to go. It also goes to show you that while drunk dwarfs sound like they would be funny, they’re not so much in real life.

Kim R’s Drinkin’s Buddies
Indeed, it ain’t easy being green.

Rachel’s Without you
Isn’t it funny how the booze can seem like a character all its own in our lives and not always a passive one.

Jen’s Closing Time
Here’s to being a cheap date! I love it too! And I can totally understand using alcohol to slow down my brain without necessarily turning it off.

Candice’s To all the cocktails I’ve loved before
I’m glad your best friend and your husband, who seem on opposite ends of the drinking spectrum, both support you so well. And I’m gonna have to try one of these mythical pear mojitos at PF Changs.

Peg’s Hi, My Name is Peg, and …
You bring up an interesting point of how your kids would react to your drinking. I’ve never experienced my parents even a little tipsy and I could see how it would be hard to explain.

SuziCate’s Jose Cuervo Is Not My Friend
I’m no fan of tequila myself. It just stinks to me! Rich loves it, though. I like the idea of healthy relationships with liquids.

Deb’s I’d Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me
I can’t agree more with the biggest problem with excessive drinking being missing out on stuff.

Karal’s To retch or not to wretch
I laughed out loud at the confusion over retch and wretch (and Googled the spelling for both).

Rich’s Cause I’m Clever When I’m Drunk
My husband is a late bloomer to the drinking scene but quite clever. We seem to make a good team taking turns having a few too many.

Kim S’s But the Bush is Comfortable!
I hear ya about the baby birthday parties being more our style these days than swinging at the club. But yeah, social lubrication makes a big difference in some situations as to how much fun happens. Just look at the dance floor at any dry wedding reception.

Megan’s Straight Edge Girl
The first thing I thought after reading this was “Oh my God, I forgot about mojitos! I love mojitos!” Ahem. Then I realized how it is a big advantage to have time to figure out your relationship with alcohol on your own terms.

Amy’s A Complicated Relationship
You know I’ve never had a tab at a bar. Probably because I feared when it was time to pay up the total would floor me. I’m trying to appreciate food more myself these days so I can see how alcohol helps that. Here’s to putting alcohol in its place!

And my own It’s so good!

As always I had a hard time picking a winner. Everyone did a great job of sharing something personal, and that really means a lot to me. Some were funny, some were touching, some were a little sad. The best one for me, though, was Karal’s since it was a bit of all of them. I laughed out loud over the play on words and I got all verklempt when she talked about disappointing her friend. So Karal is our winner this month and earns a $20 Amazon gift card. (Since I’m way behind on delivering prizes, I’ve decided to keep them simple going forward. I’m sure no one is writing their entries simply for the chance at a prize.)

Thank you all for playing along. Thank you for having as much fun with this as I am. Thank you for reading. Thank you for stepping a bit out of your comfort zones. And thank you for living out loud!