#AtoZChallenge Reflections and #IWSG

The #AtoZChallenge has come to a close and now it's time for me to leave some reflections on the challenge. At the same time, I've decided to join up with another group of fun people who post just once a month, but I'll go into more detail on that in just a bit.


This was my second year participating in the #AtoZChallenge. The premise of the challenge is to post 6 days per week (Monday through Saturday - with Sundays off for good behavior) Each post is to represent a letter of the alphabet, starting with A and ending with Z on the last day of the month.

Last year, the theme I chose was simply music in general, but by the end of the challenge, the theme was more of a 'Daily Earworm'.

This year, I still wanted to stay close to home in the music category, as that is the premise of this blog as a whole. My theme this year was "Women in Music". I knew this was going to be a bit of a challenge finding something for each of the letters, so I literally started doing my research for the topic beginning in May of last year. By the end of February of this year, I had managed to pre-write and schedule all of my April posts. YAY!



I can't stress enough how that little feat of having all the posts written before the start of the month was not only essential but crucial for me this year. I had already set a goal to find and visit new blogs during the challenge, as well as keep up with responding to comments on my own posts. Everything was going great... right up until the 14th of April. That morning I received a phone call letting me know that my mother had passed on, and that services would be held on the 16th.

The morning of April 15th, my cousin and I buckled up and drove from Portland, Oregon to Southern Idaho. That evening, I made the mistake of taking the wrong medication. I had intended to take a prescription for dizziness, but instead I took a prescription that is essentially a water pill. So, I spent all night being dizzy, running to the bathroom, and because I was low on potassium, I had various leg and foot cramps to deal with. Let me tell you, this girl knows how to have a good time!

The next morning, we got up and drove another hour or two to our destination. My brother and his wife had flown in from New York, and we met up with several other friends and relatives to pay our respects to my mother. That evening we spent the night with family. Keep in mind, that I still had not taken my meds for dizziness. We were exhausted when we arrived at the location we were spending the night. I went to the back of the van, and started lifting out our luggage (just two small carry-on types with wheels) Simple, right? Well... we were parked on an incline (at least a 9% grade) and as I turned and set the luggage down, I lost my balance... and fell on my face. Actually, I think the luggage broke my fall, but I was face down on the pavement after all was said and done. I was so stunned, I just laid there for a minute.

My cousin: "What was that sound?" a short pause, then "Oh, that was you! Don't move, I'll be right back"
She grabs her jacket from the van and says put this under your knees to cushion for when you get up.
I start to bring my legs under me so I could attempt to stand up, but all of a sudden I get toe cramps. I quickly straighten out again and the cramps work themselves out. While I was doing this, A pillow appeared in front of me, and my cousin quickly disappeared again. Just as my cousin was coming out with another cousin to help. I had managed to get my feet under myself and somewhat upright. But thank goodness they were right there afterward, because we still had that steep downhill to get inside.

The only damages I had to show for my fall was a tiny scrape on the palm of my right hand. All of the other aches and pains were internal and they didn't show up until morning. The next morning we drove the 12 hours home. I still have not fully recovered from that fall.

But, my blog posts went out without any issues, and I was able to catch up on commenting and visiting.

I met some new faces and got to know others better during this challenge. I would encourage all bloggers to participate next year, as it really is a great way to let your voice be heard and find new blogs to follow.

I've rambled on a bit here (more than I intended) but I did mention early in the post about this new group that I've decided to join up with.  They call themselves the Insecure Writer's Support Group  or simply #IWSG

The first Wednesday of each month we post about our struggles and triumphs, our doubts and our fears that we have conquered as writers. The purpose of the group is to encourage and support. As I have been giving some thought about actually writing, I thought this would be a good group to join in and who knows, I may actually get something done, other than daydream about it.

I've rambled on enough for today. Did you participate in the #AtoZChallenge? Did you enjoy it? Was my theme enjoyable to you? Have you thought about writing? Did you enjoy my tale of woe? Tell me in the comments.

What does tomorrow bring?

May 6 brings us a memorial post - stop by to pay your respects

Don't forget to stop by Battle of the Bands post
to vote
Hopefully your favorite contender will win!
Results will be posted May 9

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