I have always wanted to write.  When I sort of retired, I started to write about observations, transitions, life, goofy things, whatever.  Then I would email them to unsuspecting friends who were way too nice to tell me to knock it off.  Someone suggested that I start a blog so I could post and people could read or not read.  Sounds like a great idea.  So how do you do that?

Well you need fun titles, more passwords than I can remember, twitter accounts (what is a twitter?), signs ups, registrations, Flickr, Google accounts, battery backup, external hard drive (don’t want to lose anything!) access to free photos, helpful friends and a photo of yourself.  (If you can sing this to the tune of the current Target back-to-school commercial you can get an idea of how overwhelming it can be. You are fortunate as I don’t know how to make or download YouTube clips…yet!)

Selecting a title was a big deal. It needs to fun but professional, interesting but neutral and of course be reflective of who I am…..whatever that means.  After three painful days, I threw a dart on a list of suggestions and entered that in the template.

About that photo…I hate photos. Even when I think I look ok, the photo says it isn’t so. I had the beloved husband take a few shots with his camera – 400 to be exact.  Here were the instructions:

• It MUST make me look 20 years younger.
• No wrinkles, vertical or horizontal on the forehead (do I have time for a face lift?).
• Absolutely no neck waddle allowed.
• Smooth skin and did I say 20 years younger? Make that 25.
• With the cats? Without the cats? With the coffee? Without the coffee?
• With the wire rim glasses? With the rimless?

Now I have 400 pictures of me. Good grief! Next step is to ask beloved husband if he can airbrush, crop and make it spiffy. After all, he has Photoshop.  After an hour of reviewing the photos with him (and making no decisions at all) he left me to my own devices. Wonder of wonders! I found I, too, have Photoshop which has a very nice tool called ‘healing brush’ that whisks away the wrinkles! Wish they had that in real life. Crop, crop, airbrush, shazzam! Keep in mind that the photo is as big as a thumbnail so it doesn’t really matter anyway.

In the past week (which is the total life of my blog thus far) my life has been consumed with decisions, learning new things, exploring, figuring out how to link different sites, calls to friends, an occasional margarita (that’s for medicinal purposes only)…..everything but writing. Now if I can only find time to write!