The Emerald Rose

         Well here we are at the 300th blog I’ve written. As I was mulling what to write aboutfor this momentous moment I went back and looked at my first blog, here it is;

I guess I’m useing this as a form of “therapy”, since I don’t realllythink anything’s wrong with me,…BUT we got a whole world that has gone over the edge!
When you don’t have anything wrong with you, you know, you’re childhood was not one of abuse, alcoholic parents, sooooo poor you couldn’t afford clothes, or any other number of “victimization profiles”, and you are now a “grown up” American, but confused as hell about where you “fit in”, read this blog regularly.
We’ll explore things like, “Why isn’t my life my fault?” or not, and “Everything is so unfair?”, definitely not, and the mother of all wrong thinking, “Why doesn’t someone like the government help me?”.
I’ll pen my first “rant tomorrow for your reading enjoyment, but be sure and comment to me. Why, because I think there’s a lot more of us out there and that’s a good thing.

        Like Patsy Cline said once, “still crazy after all these years.” I’m about three weeks short of having been blogging for three full years, beginning in October of 2005 with the above entry. and now? Still loving itof course. I have to think of all the super folks I’ve met along the way, starting with “Lucy” from Sydney Australia. don’t remember how I first stumbled on her blog, but been reading it for at least two years now, and love it. It’s funny how you come to know people, and their trials and tribulations, the joy iof their vacations and friends and just having drinks on Friday and Saturday evenings. Then there is “Right After This” , another young lady from Australia, irreverent, straight up in your face, and a real person, her adventures in Peru or Chile, her “disappearance” from the web for a while, but she’s back, and “Tropical Jordan”, now ” Whine girl” from Orlando, Florida, her life, even though she’s a New York Yankees (the evil Empire to Boston Red Sox fans) she lives life on her terms and enjoys it, “Coffeypot” a relatively new acquaintance from Georgia with a wit that is great to follow, “Mental Meatloaf” from Long Island New York, although I’m inclined to say it maybe Queens, who lives with “Bear” a practicing Monk of great insight and discipline, Jezzy from Australia whose Phd. efforts I’ve followed for several years and who loves to sing in her Church Choir, and Ally, known as “How much would you pay, But WAIT!” she lives nearby in Fort Walton Beach Florida, and I’ve met her and her husband, and their oldest daughter, followed her AirForce career, it’s ups and downs, her juggling act as she and Rob had twins as well,and lest I forget Suvvy Girl, out in the way mid-west the Iowa, Dakota places of this country,….and so many more.

       They are my extended family, at the end of my internet connection. The one thing that blogging has done is exposed all of us who blog to the world, on our terms. some blogs are pompous hot air exercises, some are definitely in need of professional therapy, but most are just real people expressing real lives, “for better or for worse”. A number of folks I’ve read have, for one reason or another moved on, and no longer blog, and still others simply “lurk” (a blogging term where they pop in read your blog, never comment or leave a note),…but they are welcome too.

       I guess in short, this is a great hobby. It’s hard to be so much a part of all the things in peoples lives from their cat, to their careers. Waxing philosophically I must say I like it. I’ve followed a blog of a cancer victim who is a student at Boston University basically from diagnosis to remission. I’ve followed others who did not make remission. I’ve followed young couples through their angst of trying to buy their first home, half way around the earth, and three miles from here as well. They both had the same angst struggles, and ultimate Joy of now it’s theirs. I guess “sharing” ourselves, our joys, our struggles, and ourselves with the world is good for all of us. Haven’t met one I haven’t liked yet. Even the Graduate of Oxford University who came stateside and became a stripper in New York City (Who has written a book that is selling well world-wide). And of course “Waiter Rant”, Steve Dublonica’s blog on being a professional waiter in psh places in New York City. It’s funny, true, and enlightening. Steve also wrote a book whch is on it’s 17th week on the New York Times Best Seller List and in it’s 16th printing, and is taking Japan and China now by storm. It’s like Dicken’s said in David Copperfield, “..T’was the best of times, t’was the worst of times.”

        There used to be an old, old, old TV program called “The Naked City”, and the opening line each week was a deep baritone voice over who said, “There are eight million stories in the Naked City,…and this is just one of them.” Sort of pulls it all together for me.

       Thank you very, very much for all whom I have to share with my little victories and defeats, and even more thanks for allowing me to share yours.

       Happy 300th to me!

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