Where’s Morgan Been…?

Ever look back on a year and wonder where the heck all the time went? 2019 was a whirlwind of surprises and firsts for me. The whole depression thing? Yep. Glad to say that’s over and done with. The medication was exactly what I needed. But roughly six months later, being off the medication was also exactly what I needed. Or rather, it turned out the medication was something I ended up not needing at all.

A week or so after posting my last article back in May 2019, I joined up with WW to help me lose some much needed post-2018 hibernation chubbiness. Fatness. Fine—obesity, okay? I was at a point in my life where I felt I had been far too large for far too long, and I finally wanted to do something serious about it.

I can’t really say that joining WW has resulted in a tremendous amount of weight loss success. Here we are in January 2020, and in the last eight months I’ve lost all of eleven pounds. BUT…a change in lifestyle resulted in much healthier eating habits. I mean, at least I’m more conscious about the stuff I’m cramming into my mouth. Probably the most significant change though is the exercising. Five days a week. Like a boss. I’m burning about 3,000 calories per day, and roughly 700 of those are burned in the gym. I’m down two pant sizes and one shirt size, and my body is starting to reshape itself. With my help, of course.

Unfortunately, all that extra time in the gym has eaten up my writing time. I used to spend my lunch hour pushing a pen across a notepad at the library or at Starbucks or at Panera or at a park bench. Now my lunch hour is spent pushing weights and running on a treadmill. I sacrificed my writing time to save my health, and there was very little time for both exercising and writing, so one had to go.

Also taking up a significant part of my time at home was this summer’s adventure with the Discovery Channel and their show Homestead Rescue. Somehow the show’s scouting team found our house’s Facebook page and contacted us about being on the show. I was skeptical at first; I didn’t want the whole world to see the mess we were making in the woods on our property. But I finally came around. June, July, and August—practically our entire summer—was wrapped up in interviewing and filming and post-production work. The Raneys and film crew spent two weeks at our house at the end of July for filming. Those days were brutal, working and filming and interviewing from 8AM to 8PM every single day. I would not trade that time for anything though. It was so much fun.

Our episodes finally aired this month on January 16 and 23. The season’s two-part episode. (Season 6, episodes 3 & 4 in case you want to check them out.) Since the crew left at the beginning of August, we’ve been working practically non-stop on the house doing one project after another. It’s been great. But it’s also been heavily time-consuming.

This past weekend, after the final episode aired, we got a call from Carl Hunnell, City Editor with Richland Source, a local online news channel. Carl wanted to come out and run a story about us and the show and our experience. Carl was great. He loves Homestead Rescue and was excited about our house. He ran a terrific article, which you can read here.

Needless to say, all this activity last year really put a damper on my writing. I stopped going to all my writing groups, stopped writing new stories, stopped submitting, stopped entering Writers of the Future. Shut everything down.

But as 2019 started winding down, I began hearing that far distant call again. “Mooorgaaan…wheeere aaare yooouuu…?”

I realized that exercising every day was going to be my new normal for the rest of my life. Well, I mean, as far as I can shoot quivers of arrows out into my future and make them stick. But I also want writing to be a part of my life too. Because I miss it. A lot. So I need to carve out time for both. Somehow. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like at the moment. No idea what the schedule’s going to be. All I know is I need to find a way to make both work.

Until my body matches the image I have inside my head (think Captain America when he steps out of the VitaRay machine), exercising will likely have the highest priority. But I’m still around, and I’ll fit writing in as much as I can.

So that was 2019. Thank you so much if you missed me while I’ve been gone! You can always drop me a line and say hello if you like. You know, don’t be a stranger and all that. Hopefully you’ll see much more of me in 2020.

What was your 2019 like? Was it full of success? Happiness? Loss? Challenges? Let me know in the comments below.