What is a blog?

I was asked the other day what a ‘blog’ is – not wanting to divulge my ‘dirty little secret’ of having a blog, I played half dumb, and explained that it is a sort of online journal to which people can leave comments, similar to a message board. This answer seemed to satisfy the person who asked (I honestly can not remember who that was at the moment) – however, as I heard myself saying the words, I realized that my ‘blog’ is really neither a journal, nor much of a message board. Yes there are other blogs that I read that have more of both of those qualities – but really… don’t you think it’s more of a personal editorial page – perhaps that would have been the better description. Alas, I digress from the point of this post (rofl, like I ever stick to the point), which is to try to bring MY blog into compliance with MY description of a blog (a journal/message board). Okay, so I’m a little handicapped on the whole “message board” portion, unless I make up several aliases (is that the plural of alias? – would it be aliai or some other latinish word?) and begin commenting to myself, which actually might be great for my self-esteem! (or bad depending on my mood and whether or not I beat myself up). As to the ‘Journal’ description, that I have complete control of – not that my life is AT ALL interesting to anyone but my immediate circle – in fact it is really very ordinary – but maybe I can write about the ordinary and make it interesting enough to someone somewhere that they will read it.

So my ordinary life this weekend (I was planning on doing this yesterday but had one of those I cannot get motivated to get up and pee type of days) – Let’s begin with Friday, because Friday was rather out of the ordinary and therefore makes a nice starting place – I had that opportunity to “receive” another volunteer reward from the Avalanche in the form of tickets for pom pom placement (we were cautioned that the seats wouldn’t be quite as nice as the Wed night seats, but really it was game 4 of the playoffs, like seat location was the foremost thing on our minds) – so I allowed two of my children to ditch school – that’s right they ditched, with my blessing, I called them in and everything – and they helped me with the pom poms – three people, 2 tickets each = 6 tickets – oh did I mention that the kids couldn’t go to the game and neither could the husband? – yeah so I planned a girls night out with the sisters-in-law and mother-in-law (she really loves hockey). So I called the MIL (mother-in-law) first and she was quite excited about the whole thing. Then I took the kids back home so they could eat lunch and I could pick up the phone numbers that I had forgotten in my morning haste – one for the tie dye store and one for the HS friend that I had a lunch date with. Then I hit the road again – on the phone nearly the whole time trying to arrange this whole hockey thing, find out where the hippy tie-dye store was, set a firmer time and location for lunch with friend, get back to the MIL re: the tickets a few more times, try to find phone numbers for SILS (sisters-in-law) while in the car, etc – I made it to the hippy store without a problem (good thing I called though, turns out they don’t actually have a sign on their place so you pull into the vacuum store and then keep going to the back of the building). The dye store was kinda fun actually, though I’m not sure I ever met a hippy / fascist before (fascist being loosely translated as dictatorial/belligerent and unhappy) – usually people are fairly happy in my company, I seldom get the impression that I have actually irritated someone – well I got the impression that I irritated him – maybe he didn’t like my “stupid” act – it wasn’t really an act, I really am stupid about tie-dying, because I don’t have to be smart about it, I have a friend who is an expert and I knew she would hold my hand. Actually he seemed to be very take aback by my use of the word ‘groovy’ which is actually my normal vernacular – I think he thought I was a poser – which really I’m not, I don’t pretend to be a hippy at all, I just like the word ‘groovy’ always have, probably always will, well I do have some Birkenstocks, seldom wear much makeup, never do much with my long hair, but I’m not a hippy, nor do I pretend to be. So anyhow, I got my dyes and my chemicals and I was off on my way to lunch with my HS friend. We met at about 1pm, really a little after, and we stayed until like 4pm!! I think I monopolized the conversation, and I was really hyped up for some reason, maybe all the exercise climbing around the Pepsi Center, maybe all the excitement of all the phone calls back and forth trying to put six people together for the game, maybe I breathed in something funny at the dye store… However, I really enjoyed my lunch, discovered that indeed we have an awful lot of the same ideas about kids, marriage, etc. – I learned some about her family, etc. – which now that I’ve had a couple of settled days, I have more questions about, maybe she will be willing to do a lunch again (unless maybe I was just irritating all day and I put her off also?) - well anyhow, I really enjoyed my lunch and it affirmed that some people, no matter how long you go between seeing each other, there is always that basic comfort, we told one another some kinda private stuff – so that trust from Jr. High was still intact, and that was nice to reflect on later. She also got a rare glimpse at my selfish side, that selfishness that didn’t want to stop having lunch to pick up kids, take them to the doctor, or arrange for those hockey tickets much. I managed to get the boy taken to the doctor by dad, the oldest daughter (the one that didn’t ditch) picked up by a friend, and the MIL arranged the 6th ticket. I sat and drank a glass of wine, had a cup of espresso, and thoroughly enjoyed my friend. After lunch, I raced home, got ready for the hockey game, got the girls a ride to their activity, wished the boy and the husband good luck at the baseball game, talked the husband into trading me cars so that all six of us could fit in one vehicle and not pay out the wazoo for parking ($20/car). Got myself to my MIL’s house only a few minutes late, everyone else was there, we had a beer and then we were off to the game. The game sorta sucked, but it was great fun being out with the girls and my MIL really enjoyed herself! HOLY CRAP – Friday took a whole page – and we still have Saturday and Sunday, hmmmph – and I have to get some work done, they are just going to have to wait until well… until whenever. Ciao.