Today is February 24th, 2026. I went for my second run of the year, doing day #2 of Walking to Running. I got two in one, because on the run I went to drop off some brand new art supplies I will never use for some kids I work with. I asked the mom if her boys would like them, and she said they would, so I'm happy that the kids will enjoy what would otherwise spend years hidden away in a dresser.
I'm feeling a lot more cheerful than I did the past few days. I dove into my book and it cheered me up big time. I started writing it a week after I broke up with my ex, mainly to try to keep myself from the temptation to get back in touch with him (it worked for two months! and now it's just fun!), retelling the story from when I met him til when I finally broke free and all the drama that went down with our friend group (don't get me started) and all the friends and family that were by my side and helped me through it all, and even though it's a true story, it reads like fiction, with foreshadowing, complex motivations, backstory, plot all over the place, all the elements of a REALLY good story. I talked to one of my friends, and we solved the problem I've been having: I'm going to fictionalize it, that's all. All the main plot points will remain the exact same, but all the details will be changed. If we were having a conversation about koalas, well, it's a conversation about kangaroos now. If we were talking about donuts, it'll be croissants instead. Anyone trying to track down the original conversations online using keywords from my book will be completely lost. "Lightly based on true events" is allowed, and I have a very legitimate reason to choose to write a half-fictional, half-true story. I'll keep a full true version for myself, then go through it, rewriting it for potential publication. But I'll have that real version for myself, even some my family and friends maybe, and a version that I'll be more comfortable publishing, best of both worlds really.
I'm going through other people's logs, but I'm kind of slow at it, and read maybe five or ten a day. So I don't get to all of them, even though I wish I could.