It's a strange thing when your family goes out of town. For about a day or two, there is a sense of independence, the kind like you had that first week away from your parents' house. But then, as the weeks linger, that feeling of "freedom" becomes oppressive and the walls start closing in. While Julie and the kids were out of town in Ohio, I feel like I slowly lost a part of myself. Three weeks is too long to be away from your family, especially with a holiday thrown in the middle. Not only did I lose my will to write, I lost all sense of routine and felt like I might lose it. This all culminated in bit of an alcohol induced meltdown the Friday before they came home. This is one of the reasons I haven't applied myself to this blog in the past month. I've been trying to regain my sense of being a writer. It's slowly coming back to me. I'm working on some scripts, trying to keep the new country music column up and running over at Popdose, and I've de...