The Blog Begins

OK. Today I turned 45 years old, and I realized that I'm past the halfway mark. People in my family live a long time, but generally not past 90. So I need to complete a few things.

I have always wanted to be a writer. While I have spent several years being paid to write, I have been writing technical manuals and marketing materials. Not much creativity is involved - unless you count devising ways to get along with some extremely challenging coworkers creative.

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes, and several of the books that I have read lately came about because their authors had blogs. Check out www.poundy.com and read her book I'm Not the New Me. It is one of the funniest books that I have ever read, and trust me, in 45 years, I have read a lot of books. Wendy keeps a diary that documents, among other things, her struggles with weight. I can relate, as I have been on a diet more or less since I was 6 years old.

I'm now reading Julie and Julia, also started on a blog. While I would never embark on Julie's project of making every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I'm enjoying her book. I'm a vegetarian, but not a very good one. I eat seafood and cheese. On special occasions, I will even eat beef or pork but never chicken. Chicken is just too gross for me, mainly because of the bones.

My younger sister got a self-help book published over a year ago, and she has been encouraging me to publish the cookbook that I have written and been giving to friends and family for the past several years. I have had many, many rejection letters on the cookbook, so I need another project. Thus, I'm starting the blog.

Even if I don't get a book deal, I will have an opportunity to write something more fun than why my company's product is better than your company's product.

More later...