It's Story Time

I'm back from Texas and my hair is bigger than ever, my boot scootin' boogie is slightly more full of boogie, and my desire to eat barbecue is a 24/7 obsession.

Yes, I went to Texas and did not tell you. You missed your opportunity to loot my house.

It was a great weekend of family festivities. Sorry guys, but there's one less [my last name]-girl on the market. She's hitched and enjoying a cruise.

It was really fun to meet my aunt's side of her family. I come from a relatively small family so large families always seem so fun and overwhelming to me. Friday night we gathered at my aunt and uncle's house to relax and meet each other. It amazed me that one of my aunt's sisters--whom I had never met and had met my dad just once, about 35 years ago--could recognize that I was his daughter. She lovingly told me that I looked just like him. Big grin.

I had another humbling conversation with one of my own relatives at this dinner. My dad's cousin's wife asked me about the blog and how it was coming along. She told me that she reads it and (gulp!) that she thinks I have a gift for writing. I was mush-mouthed, I didn't know how to respond and I'm pretty sure I blushed. (I did NOT shoot her a finger gun)

She asked me "So what do you want to get out of the blog?" Whoa. Have you ever been going about things in your life--not quite mindlessly but just...on autopilot????--and someone stops you to ask what your goals are? Or what the purpose of a particular endeavor is...and you have to stop to think? The question stopped me. What DO I want to get out of this blog? What role does it serve in my life? Why do I do it?

I jokingly told her that what I want out of it is a contract from NBC to be a writer for a hit TV show. (If you're reading this NBC talent scout--call me!) I couldn't give her an answer and so instead I told her how the blog came about, from reading some other very unoriginal blogs and feeling competitive, that I could write a better blog than just posting song lyrics and saying "This is how I feel today!"

I've given the blog some thought about its purpose. Here's what I came up with: the blog is a way for me to tell stories. I love to tell stories. I think telling a good story is a talent and an art and what I lack in musical and artistic ability, I think I make up for in my story-telling ability. I love to make people laugh. I love to share with people the little moments that I find hilarious or ironic and all the weird little things I observe. I've been lucky to have some pretty good story-inducing jobs, yes, but it also come from being constantly aware of my surroundings. I very rarely tune out.

It circles back to the little quote off to the right of this page, that I don't think I'm more interesting than the next person. I find a lot of things AROUND me interesting. Thank you, to my relative, for making me stop to discern what I'm doing with this thing. Thank you for reading. And thank you to everyone else who humbles me by reading and laughing and commenting and retelling my stories.