Welcome to my blog.  I doubt there will be many followers of my blog but that's o.k. because I don't want to be followed.  I'm not special, I have had a pretty normal life.  I'm not really sure why people are interested in hearing what's going on in my little world, perhaps because when I relate events I am very dramatic, I make things sound more exciting than they really are.  Why?  I guess because I'm high-strung, I talk fast, I make fun of myself and most of all...I say what other people want to but don't.  I don't have a filter.  I'm an open book, what you see is what you get.  I have the belief that my life doesn't need to be kept a secret.  Perhaps something that I've gone through will help someone else going through the same thing.  If we don't talk about things we've dealt with then how can we be an example to others?  I wouldn't be surprised if that reasoning is illogical, my dad often told me when I was growing up that I wasn't thinking logically.  In my opinion, I probably just wasn't thinking.


Since this is my first post I'll start off with a little story about my life so far. I was born and raised in Ontario Canada, in a small town of 5,000 people.  The closest mall and movie theater were 40 minutes away, which made an occasional trip there an exciting event for my older sister and I.  My mom, sister and I would get up early on a Saturday morning so we could spend the day at the mall eating in the food court and browsing the stores.  We didn't buy much but just going there was fun, especially during Christmas.  I loved the sizzle of anticipation in the air as everyone searched for the perfect gift and as I went store to store with my mom pointing out (and begging) for things I wanted to find under our tree.  I remember a cardigan I wanted (which I now recall as being super ugly.  I can still picture it hanging up high on a wall peg. I was so worried that if my mom didn't get it that day then when she came back it would be gone).  I did find the cardigan under our tree that year.  Someone should have stopped me from wearing it in public!! But, alas, my older sister was in her own world of drama so she probably didn't notice her little sister leaving the house dressed in a get up that might have people mistaking her for a school teacher who likes to wear knit cardigans with embroidered apples, or pumpkins, or candy canes or whatever depicts the event they are celebrating. (sorry all you teachers out there.  It's perfectly o.k for you to wear those sweaters because I know you do it for the kids... you do it for the kids right?)


Since we didn't go to the movies very often, because of the distance and also the expense, it was thrilling when VHS players were made.  We were like kids in a candy store at the local video store where my sister worked.  Obviously there wasn't much to do in a small town.  We had no fast food restaurants, no Walmart or Target, and nowhere decent to shop for clothes.  Now that I think about it, why did I not die of boredom?  What did I do all day in the summer and on weekends? I guess when there's nothing to entertain you, you just entertain yourself.  


I remember riding my bike with my little dog in the front basket, playing on the swing in our backyard (for so long that I often fell asleep on it.  Once I put my dog on my lap while swinging, then she threw up. Sorry, Bridget).  My dad and mom would play catch with me and on weekends my friends and I would sleep at each other's houses.  My mom took me to the little library in town once a week.  It was a two storey brick building with wide concrete stairs going up to the glass front doors.  There was a side door that opened up to a tiny landing that had stairs to the right leading up and stairs straight ahead leading to the young kid's area downstairs.  It was a cozy library and I loved going there to pick out my next adventure.  I ended up working there when I was in high school with the same librarians who helped me as a child, arms loaded down with books that I was so eager to get home and inhale.  Who knew that years and years (and years) later I would work in a library again.  Just goes to show you that you never know what life is preparing you for.  There is meaning in your life, if you don't see it now you'll see it someday.  


That's enough chitter chatter for today.  Next time I'll tell you what my young parents did for a living to keep us fed and clothed, what my sister and I had (or did not have) in common and why I gave my sister a lot of my halloween candy.