Friendship, Wine and Laughter

Friendship, wine and laughter....three things that can get us through the ups and downs of life. They can make the hard times bearable and the good times even better! A few weeks ago I started debating whether to jump on the bandwagon with this whole blogging thing. While I enjoy reading my friends blogs, I didn’t really think my life was that exciting....certainly not blogworthy! :) I don’t really have a focus, goal or hobby to write about. My friend, Michelle, keeps us posted on her adorable kids. My ridiculously creative and talented friend, Jaime, always has amazing craft projects to write about, as well as her super-cute son. My other friends, Marisa and Nicole, are amazing cooks, and share their fantastic recipes with the blogosphere. I don’t really have any of those. I don’t cook that much (or that well for that matter!) and I’m not particularly crafty. I don’t have kids (though sometimes my husband may qualify....sorry honey, love you!). I do have four cats, although I don’t really foresee creating an entire blog about them. Actually, those of you that know me might argue that I probably could. Yes, I am the crazy married cat lady at age 26. But I digress....

So I struggled with what to write about and whether I should even write or not. I used to love to write, but somewhere along the line of growing into an “adult,” I lost many of my creative hobbies. There was always something else to do....college, then marriage, then a master's, then moving, then working, and of course the ever-present housework. I think I kind of lost the things I enjoy, the things that used to make me “me” along the way.

Yesterday, I decided to take a step towards joining the blogging bandwagon. I created an Blogspot account. Then I tried to come up with a blog name...

C’est La Vie

Taken.

Counting Sheep

Taken.

That’s Life

Taken.

Just Another Military Spouse

Taken.

C’est La Guerre

Taken

Seriously?  (could you tell I was just a wee bit frustrated at this point?!?!)

Yes, even that was taken!

On and on it went! I must have gone through a good 20-30 blog names and everything was TAKEN!!! Argggghhhhh!!!! So in my classiest, most eloquent manner, I said “Screw this” and logged off of Blogspot, deciding that fate did not want me on the blogosphere.

Then today there was a little “family drama” and I got fired up enough to do something about it. Thus the “SMSD” blog was created (and subsequently deleted) as an outlet for me to vent. However, writing the little venting session about my family drama reminded me of how much I use to love to write and of how therapeutic it can be.

It made me kind of sad, though. I wanted a happier blog, not one entirely devoted to getting certain family members to make smarter decisions. While I was in the midst of typing up my first posting for the SMSD blog, I got a message from one of my closest, most amazing friends. I just said goodbye to her and her husband yesterday. They are getting ready to move back to the States, and it was a very hard goodbye. They are in Italy at the moment, taking one last European vacation before heading to Boston. Her message said something to the effect of “I miss you, I’m consuming mass quantities of wine, and I wish you were here to consume them with me. Thank you for the last two years of friendship” Reading that, especially when I was so wrapped up in the negativity of my family drama, made me laugh. And that is when the lightbulb went on. She encapsulated three important survival tools to life in one short comment: friendship, wine and laughter!

So now I had my blog name (amazingly enough it was AVAILABLE), but what to write, what to write? I certainly don’t have anything exciting and dramatic to add to the existing body of blog literature. But sometimes the most mundane things in life are the ones that we can relate to the best. So that’s what I am going to write about....the mundane things in life. These are the things that shape us and our families, sometimes without us realizing it. Although, I have to admit...I may work the cats in there every once in a while..... ;-)

So as I write this, I’m raising a glass....to this new blog (we’ll see if I ever actually update it), to life, to finding myself along the way, to change, to the mundane.....and most importantly, to friendship, wine and laughter!