Playing Tag

In an attempt to get my mind off my eye problems, sweet Jen at Just Add Water, Silly, has tagged me with a meme requiring answers in certain categories.   Now normally, I would sit down and think long and hard about all the answers before writing.  But I’ve decided this time to just answer them “on the fly.”  So, hang on, no telling what will be revealed here!

4 Things In My Purse

– A calendar.

– A make-up bag (never leave home without it!)

– A checkbook (still haven’t made the leap to debit cards yet.)

-Hand sanitizer.

4 Things In My Desk

-Printer ink cartridges (I always keep a spare set on hand!)

-Sweetarts

-Calculator

-Rubber Cement  (I love rubber cement!)

4 Favorite Things in my Bedroom

-The tulip triptych on the wall next to my bed.

-My mist fountain

-My flat-screen TV

-Two gigantic brass stars over my bed

4 Things I always Wanted To Do (But Haven’t Yet.)

-Be in a play.

-Be a television star

-Publish a novel

-Go on an African safari

4 Things I Enjoy Very Much At The Moment

-The moment I open my eyes in the morning before my vision goes double.  (Because I think I’ve been healed.)

-Cool breezes whispering through my open windows.

-A big pot of chili I made.

-My Kindle.

4 Songs I Can’t Get Out of My Head

-The “Dexter” theme song.

-The Kindle commercial song “Silver moons and paper dreams, Faded maps and shiny things…”  LOVE IT!

-Whenever I hear that one “Put the lime in the coconut and call me in the morning…”  HATE IT!  My sisters used to sing it to torture me.

-The “Six Feet Under” theme song.

4 Things You Don’t Know About Me

-I’m a bit scared of big dogs and hate any dog licking me.

-I don’t drink alcohol.  (I used to like wine, but turned allergic.)  To be honest, I don’t miss it.

-I have a very vivid fantasy life – VERY!

-I read over 100 books a year.  (Books are my “safe place.”)

Well, that’s it!  I did it!  At this point I’m supposed to “tag” four more people.  But, here’s another thing about me – I’m always afraid to do that because I know that there are many bloggers out there who hate this kind of thing.  So, any bloggers reading this who’d like to be tagged, you’re IT!  Feel free to do this on your blog.  Any of you readers without blogs, I’d love for you to take one or two of the categories and answer them in the “comments” section.  Come on!  It will be fun!   It’s good exercise for your brain!  And whose brain doesn’t need exercise?

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One Year Blogaversary!

One year ago I decided to try my hand at writing a blog and 197 postings later, I’m still here!  It’s amazing.  If only you knew all the diaries and journals I began throughout my life, starting out strong and faithful for a month or two, then tapering off to nothingness.  That’s why this day is special to me.  This time I’ve hung in there!  Wow.

I started this blog initially to work through some hurtful things that were happening in my life and was gratified to discover that it actually helped!  Blogging, for me, is a great form of therapy.  Any of you who read this regularly, know that I never hesitate to use this as a place to vent my frustrations, irritations and disappointments.  (Think bad neighbors, male enhancement advertisements, and other annoyances.) The funny thing is, once I’ve written about something, it tends to sting less.  So I highly recommend “Blog As Psychiatrist!”

But I’ve also found myself writing about a whole variety of other things – memories, smells, bras, clouds, TV, to name a few.  I’ve also gotten to act as a  pseudo-doctor and a  bird sociologist.  I mean, what I LOVE about having this blog is that I can just write about whatever catches my fancy!  It’s a challenge and a joy.

What truly surprises me is the pleasure I receive from the readers who comment!  I look on many of my regulars as friends and am always delighted when someone new chimes in.  But, judging from my blog’s statistics, there are a great many more people who read regularly but, for whatever reason, never comment.  (Yes, Dee, I’m looking at YOU!) But that’s okay.  I welcome and appreciate you all.

So, if you’re reading this today, let me thank you personally.  It’s nice to know I’m not all alone out here.  I hope I’ve made you think or at least, laugh or smile a time or two, even if it was at my expense.  Your support is appreciated.  I hope you’ll keep checking in every other day, and I’ll try my best to keep on keeping on!

It’s nice to be ONE!

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My 100th Post – Woo Hoo!

When I started this blog in September, I wondered if I would have the staying power to keep it up.  Blogging every day seemed to put undue pressure on me, and I wanted this to be something I enjoyed.  On the other hand, waiting too long between posts breaks the continuity.  I know how disappointed I am when I check my favorite blogs and they haven’t posted for a long time.  I finally found my groove by posting every other day.

What an adventure it has been – conquering the learning curve, making new friends in the blogosphere, and having a place to vent my frustrations and joys.  It was first suggested that I try this by my dear friend Iris, who knew I was going through a difficult time in my life.  She thought it would be good therapy, and it has been.  Thank you, Iris!

So anyway, when I saw that my 100th post was coming up, I checked around to see what other bloggers had done to celebrate this milepost.  Often they post a “100 Things About Me” list to give readers an insight to the “person behind the blog.”  So that’s what I decided to do.  I personally love reading other people’s lists and find them fascinating, but 100 things are a lot.  So rather than include them in this post, you can read them HERE, if you so desire.

Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone who is reading this, some who have just found this blog and my beloved regulars.  And I’m sending a particularly warm fuzzy thank-you to everyone who takes the time to comment.  Those comments mean so much!  You guys rock!

Star

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Finding My Place

I started this blog back in September of this year, but I have been reading blogs for a long, long time.  The ones that I have bookmarked on my computer are written by a range of different kinds of people – college professors, a stay-at-home dad, an old Irish grandpa, young mothers, a deaf man and all kinds of doctors.  The beauty of the internet is that we are all able to take a peek into the lives of people we’d never otherwise know about.  I think it’s wonderful…and fun!

But the problem I run up against is when people hear I write a blog and ask, “What kind of blog is it?”  What, indeed?  I’ve become very aware lately that most blogs have a primary focus.  There are hundreds of “mommy blogs.”  There are “house blogs” where people document their renovations of old houses.  There are thousands, if not more, of political blogs.  Some blogs focus on entertainment.  Others are photo blogs.  Still others are strictly humor.  But when I try to categorize mine, it’s like I’m some Jekyll and Hyde person.

As I look over what I’ve written so far, it’s like a mixture of a bunch of different blogs.  Due to family circumstances this year, there are a few really sad entries like “The Way It Is” and “That Autumn Feeling.” But, on the other hand, there’s also the extremely sarcastic “Letter to My Deceased Stepmother.” Sometimes I write about nature and insects and other times just rant. I do like to write (and hopefully laugh) about aging like I did in a post about brain freeze and one called “Aging in Little Bits.” But all these very different things and moods make it difficult to pigeonhole me.

I think my favorite posts to write are the humorous ones like “The Mole and Me,” “Did you Smell That?” and “Secret Agent Gnats,” but it’s hard to be funny all the time.  Real life often gets in the way.

So, what kind of blog is this?  I guess I could just say it’s about life, but that’s pretty blah-blah.  I could call it a “miscellaneous blog,” but that’s neither here nor there, and who would read it?  Since I don’t fit in any of the big categories, the thought occurred to me to call it an “orphan blog,” but then, when people searched Google for orphans, they’d get me.  Technically I am an orphan, but that’s not what this blog is about.  Weirdy blog?  Bizarro Blog?   Blog of the Rising Sun?  As usual in my life, I don’t exactly fit in perfectly anywhere.

So, what kind of blog is this?  I guess it’s just the “Star Simplified” kind.

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Entering the blogosphere…

So, here I am, starting a blog, like many others have done, wondering if it’s going to result in a major change in my life or end up like so many of those “As Seen on TV” products which sound so good in theory, but end up being used once or twice and then somehow get stuffed into the back of the closet.  My intention in this blog is not to lecture or force people to my way of thinking, but rather as a place to voice ideas, ponder the oddities of life and this world and also to capture some of those moments which just need to be recorded.  Also, I want to explore how my attitudes, values and perspectives have changed as I’ve traveled the road from being a “sweet young thing” to a “boomer” to someone who sees a sign up ahead that reads “Truly Mature Woman.”

The past six months have presented me with some difficult challenges, the worst of which was betrayal by the last blood relative I had, someone I believed in and would have sworn loved me.  This set me back a lot, and it has taken many tears and real work to pull myself out of a black hole and begin to totally reconstruct my life.  But you know, life has a way of compensating us if we’re patient enough.  And during this same period, a cherished friend whom I thought I had lost forever, came back into my life after several years.  So, what I’ve learned is – I have to walk away from the sorrow and not keep replaying it in my head, and look forward, anticipating the potential of each new day.

My intention is to make this blog a place where I can vent, but also celebrate, where I can talk about the serious, but also the silly things that fill our lives every day.  I am learning to embrace the simple things in life that we so often take for granted because I have learned the hard way that anyone’s life can turn on a dime, and all we have for certain…is today.

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