Circling For a Landing

As my plane flew over Queens yesterday, drifting in for a landing at LaGuardia Airport, I had only one thought on my mind.

It's been a whirlwind.

I've been on a sprint since the fall Jewish Holidays began, just a few days after Labor Day. With four holidays over four weeks celebrated in three different places, I'm sufficiently exhausted. September was a delightful month, filled with family, fun, food and travel, but I'm ready for a little downtime, and I'm ready to be back here on this blog, writing away.

One of the best things about this past month was that, for the duration of each holiday, I was forced to disconnect. To turn off my phone, shut down my computer, and to be present.

But there is one thing about being disconnected for three straight days. While I was off the grid, the rest of the world certainly wasn't, and each week I turned on my phone on Saturday night - having turned it off on Wednesday evening - to find that one can miss quite a lot in 72 hours.

No week was that more true than in this past one.

I turned on my phone this past Saturday night, logged in to all my various accounts, and let the e-mails and updates come rolling in. When I clicked over to Facebook and Twitter I noticed that I had approximately 40 missed notifications, way more than the one or two I was expecting.

Because while I was unplugged, the Top 13 for Blogger Idol was announced, AND ONE OF THEM IS ME!!!!

Since the Top 13 was announced on Thursday, and I couldn't respond until Saturday night, the messages trying to find me got more frantic as the days went on. I read through them all and frantically responded to all the Facebook posts and Twitter messages that no, I was not lost, and to the e-mails with some variation of "I'm here please don't disqualify me."

With my very first Blogger Idol post halfway done, and the schedule copied to my calendar, I am a tiny bit nervous, but also unbelievably excited and incredibly honored to be a part of this competition.

September is over, the holidays are in the past, but it seems that the fun is just beginning.

So stay tuned. It's time to rock and roll (and write).