Happy Birthday to Me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Today January 24th is Virginia Gal's birthday!! In honor of the day, I thought I'd tell my blog birth story. (I was going to include a photo of myself but this stupid blogspot is acting up, I'm actually writing this post again, it deleted my first draft, urgh!).

It all started after the 2004 presidential elections. I was very depressed over the results, having wanted John Kerry to win. I didn't like GW and felt him and his cronies were going to lead the country in the wrong direction. I couldn't believe this had happened and felt all alone. Knowing my misery, I had a friend who sent me some funny forwards about Bush, Republicans and the stupid people who voted for Bush. In one of those emails, she included a site to cheer me up - http://www.sorryeverybody.com/. I loved it! Here were all these other people who were like me - liberals, open-minded thinkers who couldn't believe that Bush had won, again!

Going through the pages of shots of people apologizing for Bush's win, I came across a photo of a guy who had his blog address splashed across the length of the picture. Having heard about this neat world of blogging but never experienced it and desperately wanting to be around similar-minded people, I thought I'd give this person's site a go. He had voted for Kerry so he couldn't be all bad, no? It was the magnificently fabulous Pax Ramano. The blog was funny, a blend of current events, Hollywood, his daily goings-ons and sometimes political rants. I took to reading it everyday, it always brought a smile to my face. Soon I was a regular, commenting and being included in sing-alongs (more Sound of Music please!).

One day Pax wrote a post about a fellow blogger of his, a friend who had just been given some bad news. Pax asked us readers to visit this chap's blog and give him some love. My heart went out to this blogger who had been told at 30, that he had Parkinson's disease. I couldn't even imagine how hard that could be. Even after giving my sympathies, I started visiting this gentleman's site daily, to check to see how he was doing. Soon, I feel madly in love with Adorable Tony. He and I are so much alike, both love strong Southern men (Anderson Cooper, John Edwards), Buffy the Vampire Slayer and watching the idiosyncrasies of people.

After about eight months of being a regular on both Pax and Tony's sites, Adorable Tony began a campaign to get me a blog. I was hesitant, I'm not that computer saavy and I wasn't sure anyone would want to read what I had to say. Six months later, I'm glad Tony was successful in persuading me to do this. This site has been a great outlet for me to vent, to think outloud or just to ponder deep questions about life at al.

From Pax's site, I have found Lost, Merci, Snicks and Piggy&Tazzy. From Tony I've stumbled ontoMaidink and Brenda and through her Laurie and Divine Calm. From P&T, I've found Belinda. From Laurie, I came across Mizbohemia. PissedoffPencil found me (thanks!) and through him I found Random Kath. Random Kath put me onto London Underground and via that site, I found JoeinVegas. Of course there are also my friends who have started their own blogs, Molly Malone and P- . These are my regular reads. However, I am starting to visit other locations and hope to become part of those cyber families as well.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their lives with me. I have enjoyed reading all the interesting posts that have made me laugh, cry or just nod in agreement. I appreciate you visiting this wacky hypenated American, lifting me up when I'm feeling down, getting outraged on my behalf, laughing at my weird sense of humor....just listening. Thanks for including me in this wonderful world of blogging. I couldn't ask for a better birthday gift.