(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 45)

I’ll cut right to the chase here:

This is the last issue of the Sunday Paper in its current iteration.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while and as someone for whom making certain decisions can sometimes be a struggle, this was a relatively easy one to make.

It’s time to put my efforts elsewhere.

Here’s a little bit of my thought process:

As the italics at the top of every post indicate each week, I started doing this about eight years ago. (May 29, 2016, to be exact.)

It started as a creative outlet but for me it quickly turned into something else.

When I was trying to find my footing in comedy and freelancing I was constantly looking for help in the work of other people - podcasts or websites that had information and experiences.

So when I wrote about those things, I thought maybe it would be helpful for other people who were searching for that information to see where I was performing or being published and perhaps what I wrote would be helpful for them as they carved their path.

Of course, a few years ago that all changed and the format of the Sunday Paper changed…and to be honest, I have a lot less going on in my life and it’s more of a struggle to write about it every week.

That’s why it’s become something of a running blog recently.

Which I kind of love…but I also know that’s not exactly what readers were originally promised.

Now, I’m not saying I won’t keep writing about running. I will probably continue to use this space to put out my thoughts every once in a while - but I’m not holding myself to it every week.

There are other days of the week for me to target if I so desire.

I’ve come a long way in the years of the Sunday Paper. Sometimes I think back to when I first started freelance writing and wonder what I was even doing. I am lucky to be at a point right now where I have such steady work each week that the Sunday Paper has become almost a kind of burden.

And whereas it was one of my creative outlets back then…now it is my only creative outlet. It is keeping me from trying a couple of other things that I want to take a run at.

I have one idea right now that I need to put into writing to see how it works. It is an idea that I’ve had for a bit and it hasn’t gone away like so many others do - this one has stuck around and I don’t hate it yet and that’s different.

As someone who usually creates excuses not to work on something…I need to get rid of possible excuses - the Sunday Paper is one such excuse. “Oh I can’t work on that right now, I need to come up with a Sunday Paper idea.”

This frees up a little bit of time and brain space for what’s next for me.

I’m proud of what the Sunday Paper has been. It’s kind of been a really good historical record of my past eight years…which included a couple of important work milestones, four (I still can’t believe that - 4!) marathons, and navigating a global pandemic in our small corner of the world.

I appreciate that so many people read from week to week - I’m always amazed that anyone cares to read what I’ve written and that makes me always strive to put out the best writing I can.

And I am certainly not stopping the writing. It’ll just appear differently.

You’ll be hearing more from me.

For now, I’ll see you when I decide what the next venture will be.

Notes

*Let’s do notes one last time. Here’s a little of what’s going on that I won’t be writing about.

*Last week I mentioned I was watching The Bear. This week I finished Season 1. Excellent season finale. The one thing I didn’t mention was that the show is based in Chicago, which is another thing I really like about it. You know how I feel about Chicago.

*I’m headed down to New York (maybe as you read this?) to watch the New York City Marathon Sunday. I’m hoping to cheer on some of the people I know are running from my Instagram feed and get inspired. Might put together an Instagram reel of the experience.

*Then on Monday I’ll be headed to the Jets Monday Night Football game. Last week was the first time this season I drove down for the Sunday round-tripper to watch the game and they almost didn’t reward me with a win. It was a terrible, terrible game and they were lucky to tie it at the end of regulation and win in overtime. But a win’s a win. We’ll see how they do this week in my return to Met Life for what I’m sure is the first time in more than a decade.

*One thing you’ll miss hearing about this week is the stress I’ll likely have over a new refrigerator delivery. Something’s bound to go wrong. I won’t be writing about that next week.

*I watched Across the Spider-Verse with the girls Saturday night. (2 hours, 20 minutes - but really only 1 hour, 20 minutes when you consider the clocks turning back!) Really good movie.

*That reminds me to remind you - did you turn your clocks back?

*This is a little throwback Easter egg: Since the first Sunday Paper didn’t have a picture with it…I didn’t put a picture with this one. (Maybe you clicked the link earlier and noticed that. Or maybe you think I’m full of it and just couldn't find an appropriate picture for this post. Both things could be true.)

*One thing I’m hoping to do is figure out a way to link the running Instagram with the Facebook page this way the Facebook page doesn’t sit entirely inactive. I am quite active with that Instagram one. I always liked posting more on Facebook like back when I did that 40th countdown or Every Week on Wednesday. So we’ll see what happens there. You can see what I’m up to at the links below.