Today’s the last day of NaBloPoMo and I made it! Woohoo!!! I have Megan to thank for getting involved with this from a Tweet she posted on October 31!

I wrote a new poem today for November’s Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge (PAD) but have plenty more to go. I have a whole bunch that I’ve written and need to type up. The last thing I need is to lose them.

And now, I have Robin to thank for telling me about The Great Interview Experiment 2009 (GIE) last night. So of course I signed up for it. It shouldn’t take nearly as long as NaBloPoMo, so why not go check it out and sign up, too? Be a joiner, like me!

Recently, Disability Alert ™, part of the NJN Network, published my post entitled Disability and Acceptance. It was an honor to have my writing recognized, especially when it’s an issue that’s not only personal but societal. Regular readers (you know who you are!) know that I don’t often address my personal issues in relation to the larger scheme of things because as you also know, I’m still learning to see the forest for the trees in my own backyard woods. But once in a while, I unintentionally write something that…I don’t know…is worthy of a little recognition, because that’s exactly what happened. And for that, I’d like to thank Stephen Pate of the NJN Network. I’d also like to thank the bloggohood regulars, any newcomers, and those just passing through.

To see the Disability Alert ™ version of my post, click here: Disability and Acceptance for Bipolar Disorder

I must really be crazy. Not only am I going to participate in Poetic Asides’ 2009 November PAD Challenge, I, on impulse (surprise, surprise) decided to participate in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) this year for the first time. They even provide you with a nifty little widget you can put in your sidebar (hint: scroll down ).

Like the Poem-A-Day Challenge last April in which I participated, Poetic Asides will post a prompt for each day in November, and you’re required to write a poem that corresponds to it. Unlike April’s PAD, I will not be submitting my poems to the Chapbook Contest. I’m merely utilizing this event as a way to generate poems. Hey, it worked in April. The nice thing was that you didn’t have to keep up with each day’s prompt — you could write all 30 poems on April 30th, as long as you submitted them by the deadline. I imagine it will be the same this month.

NaBloPoMo doesn’t work that way. You have to write a blog post each day of November. They don’t provide blogosphere-wide prompts, although some members will suggest prompts that are just that — suggestions. I don’t honestly know if I’ll be able to complete this because my priority will be the poetry writing.

Many of the poems from my thesis are good, but I’m not satisfied with it as a manuscript. My long-term goal is to write enough poems that I can put together into a decent manuscript, but for now, I need to write poems.

So, it begins.

NYC Watchdog posted my blog, “A Blind Man Boards a Bus and…” for his Sunday Smorgashboard yesterday. Please visit the Smorgashboard and snack on the other blogs included. Happy reading!

I was very surprised to learn earlier that the photo I posted yesterday was chosen as one of “Today’s Photos” on Windy Citizen, Today’s Best Chicago News, picked by Chicagoans. It’s even the first one on the list of “Today’s Photos”! I know I’ve posted this on Twitter and Facebook already and I’m sorry to continue tooting my own horn, but…not really. It was just so unexpected and exciting!