Giggler01 reflects on her journey as a Times Writer.

(or, Giggler01's attempt to regain her former glory and her subsequent failure)

Let's just get this rolling by saying that I am 19 years old. I am well aware that this is indeed much older than most Whyvillians. That being said, I have (not-so-recently) embarked on a journey to try and get my health in check - not just my physical but my emotional and mental health as well. So far so good - I don't smoke, I exercise, I'm young and I floss. But one thing I really miss is writing. I used to write so often! I've had 200 and some articles published in the Times. That is a lot - or at least it used to be, I don't pay much attention these days, as you'll soon find out. In a bout of nostalgia I have decided that I should start writing again to clear my mind. The adventure has been less than successful to say the least.

The first challenge when writing an article is come up with a topic. I recall this part being fairly easy - after all, it's not as if I was struggling for something to write about if I churned out 250 articles and who knows how many perished in the Editor's inbox, unfit to publish? That being said, cranking out an article is rather a struggle at the moment. For motivation, I decide to check out what I have lurking in the archives - this turns out to be an epic adventure in itself as it takes me over an hour to remember my Whyville password. (I also don't seem to recall which parental e-mail I used 7 years ago when I registered.) So that's an hour gone and still no article written.

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DrRabiah writes about an important day in astronomy.

It's been slow moving getting back to work, but it's time to get going! 2009 promises to be full of exciting scientific discoveries, political developments, economic changes (yikes!) and, of course . . . awesome Science Chicago events!

So I totally forgot that yesterday (Jan. 4th, 2009) was the Perihelion, which is the day of the year when the Earth is closest to the Sun (peri meaning "near", and helion, for relating to the Sun). It's true - yesterday morning, just as I was hopping into the shower, we were just over 91 million miles away from our closest star. Hard to imagine, given that my wet hair turned into crispy frozen curls when I went outside.

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