To blog or not to blog?

This is it. My first official blog posting. Ever. I have high expectations for myself, but I am mostly doing this because I promised friends I would have 250 pages written by December 31, 2009. We made that "bet" in September. Uh-oh. I'm late!!!

I have a few posting ideas in the back of my mind. The idea is to post at least three times weekly until December 31st. Now does that add up to 250 pages? I loooove writing mile-long emails to friends to update them on my life, to make them giggle. I have been doing it since I've had access to email (1998?). I figured sending an email to 5 or 10 of my friends at a time was much faster than calling each of them individually. (That sounds cold, doesn't it? It isn't. Keep reading.) Of course, there are things or stories which are only shared with certain friends, but any good friend/family member wants to know the basics: relationship status (single, brokenhearted, dating, shopping for a man, in a relationship, single and benefiting from Air Canada perks, etc.).; news on the family, health (I promise - the subject of at least one of my eventuals blogs), workload, etc.

I started writing those "news emails" mostly due to work. Almost 10 years ago now (ouch... that dates me!), I started traveling for work. Every night, I was in a different Canadian city. So I would write an email to my closest friends and family members to let them know what was going on, what happened. "The airline left my luggage on the ramp. For TWO hours. It was snowing. I got my luggage at 6 in the morning the day after I flew in and had to litteraly hand-squeeze the water out of my clothes. Which were IN my now soaked suitcase! Ingredient dictionary? In the recycling bin now because the water made it triple in size and it's no longer readable." I can still see myself, in my pjs', drying my work clothes with a hair dryer. Ah, the joys of life on the road!

Later on in life, I became lactose intolerant (note to self: another blog topic). (This paragraph is for my sister, who always gets a kick out of hearing this story). I had had no time to munch properly before taking a direct flight from Montreal to Saskatoon. The only thing they were serving on the plane that night was pizza. I had a bottle of Lactaid pills with me so I took 3 or 4 caplets (suggested dose is 1 or 2 - but I didn't want to take any chances - I already knew the symptoms of eating lactose). I figured... one slice of pizza can't be that bad, right? Ate the pizza. Wow... no bloating, no nausea... we happy. Later on that night in my room, I went to the little girl's room. As I am zipping up my pants (keep in mind that I am by my lonely self in a hotel room in Saskatoon), I let what I thought would be an innocent one pass (the joys of lactose intolerance). "Ah crap!". Precisely. That night, I sent an email out on the newfound techniques of washing jeans in a shower with shower gel and shampoo. The most difficult task was drying the crotch. My pants' crotch, that is.

After a few years in a great relationship that didn't work out in the end, I found myself single. In the words of Trina: "I'm single again, back on the prowl...". The dating scene is, you already know it, the source of many, many conversations! A certain someone seemed to pop in and out of my life repeatedly. Let's call him... BT. To this day, and I have known him for over a decade, he remains a mystery for almost everyone close to me. "Does he really exist, because we've never seen him!" We joke and call him my imaginary friend. Every time he would pop in or out of my life, he would be the subject of a news email. He was so mysterious, so difficult to understand. So I would write up an email and make my cousin (who knew him) crack up. Every once in while, my cousin would ask if I had news on BT. Of course I did.

So this blog will allow me to keep my friends and family updated on the latest news. It will also allow me to share memories. Upcoming blog topics? My grandma (already in the works), lactose intolerance, my health (whatever illness you never heard of - I've had it!), my oh-so-simple-love-life (because it's healthier to laugh about it once you're done crying about it), my love of rodents (wabbits, groundhogs and squirrels) and my travels - both work and leisure related. I have kept copies of certain emails and I will definitly bring them to life again. Until then... tchau miaow!

Pour ceux qui préfèrent me lire en fraçais ne désespérez pas! Certains articles seront bien entendu in French. Selon le sujet, je veux tenter de répondre aux besoins de mon lectorat (pouhahahaha!) et écrire dans la langue de la majorité. Vous savez que je préfère toujours faire ça à deux langues, non? ;o)