Because I have a dialogue in my head that goes on and on and on, all during the day and sometimes into the night, I have decided that I should start a blog. I don’t necessarily want anyone reading it, at least not right this minute anyways, but I still think it’s important for me to write it. What is the point of this blog? The point is that I’m at a stage in life that is different than any other one I’ve had so far. I’ve been through the young 20’s stage, the Oh My God I’m So In Love stage, the married stage (still in this one, thankfully), the wow – look we have four kids stage – and I am now in the empty nest, where the hell did everyone go, stage. I’m not necessarily going to write only about the empty nest part. I’m just going to write all these thoughts and life lessons that go through my mind on a daily basis.  Of course now that I’m actually typing in my blog, I can’t remember any of them – but I will. And this will be good. For me, as an outlet. And someday for whoever figures out it exists and reads it. Maybe it will help somebody else. If nothing else, it will get me in the habit of writing so that I can eventually write all the books that are in my head also.

I heard an interesting interview of a writer on NPR the other day. I will probably make alot of references to things I hear on NPR, because I figured out there is a 24/7 streaming of This American Life which is my favorite NPR program. I have it on constantly. Now I have started to fall asleep with it on. I love it. I’m obsessed. But anyways, the writer was talking about how when he was starting to make the decision to be a writer, that one of the things that attracted him to that profession was that he would be able to write anywhere. He could take his laptop to the beach, to a park, a coffee shop, anywhere he wanted to. But the reality of it for him, as he found out when he started seriously starting to write, was that he couldn’t concentrate anywhere except in this little tiny room above his garage, which was away from all the commotion and noise. So that’s where he writes, in isolation and solitude. Not exactly what he had pictured. And that’s the thing about life. It doesn’t always come out the way you imagined. And sometimes it’s easy to forget that even if it doesn’t, it’s still okay because life is still good anyways. And if you want to get really technical, I’m sure if most of us were honest, what we pictured was just not very realistic in the first place. Life isn’t like the movies, it doesn’t start snowing when you put on the Christmas music while you are trimming the tree. But it’s still fun to trim the tree – and I guess that’s my point. Finding the positive and staying with it when reality takes over.