“Oddly enough…”

…I have always been able to make myself feel better by writing things down on paper. I started writing in a diary when I was 14 years old. Back then (in the “dark ages” – circa 1975) a diary was an actual little book you could hold in your hand. My first one was orange, and it had a lock and key (because a 14-year-old has deep, dark secrets to protect, ya know). I wrote in it every single day, whether I had something significant to say or not. I continued this daily journaling for about 3 years, and then decided I would write only when something special was happening: an event, a milestone, if something unique had occurred, or if I just needed to vent. Of course, being me, this was more often than not.

I continued on with my journaling at this pace until November of 1983, when a life-changing event put me in a tailspin and broke my soul and spirit (but more on that later). In the advent of the new age – the dawn of the internet and the worldwide web, computers instead of typewriters, email instead of hand-written letters – a simple thing like a young girl’s diary fell by the wayside. I went about my life – I was deep into my first job, going out with my friends, taking trips. I did what any young single person should be doing at that age – I really had fun during my 20s. Then suddenly came marriage, and a few years later a child, and my world evolved into something I could have never imagined at the age of 14. Technology brought social media, and Facebook became my new diary, so to speak. However, I decided to start this blog because my love of the written word has never wavered, and I feel that this way friends and family can read my feelings, opinions, and thoughts on the world only if they truly want to. You won’t be subjected to my rantings on Facebook if all you really want to do is catch up on pictures of your friend’s new pet or baby. Here, I plan to bare my soul and not hold back. Not everyone will like or agree, but I hope to perhaps give anyone who wishes to read an insight to my heart and spirit. I hope for this to be a safe space for me to say whatever I want and not be subject to ridicule.

So…welcome to my world! I hope you come on in and delve into what I hope will also be a place where my writing talent and creativity can be on display.

For the record (from also back in 1975) the first word of my blog title comes from a unique nickname that my cousins and I thought up all those years ago. But again, that’s another story that you will have to wait patiently on…