Dear Diary

Ah, yes. It is all coming back to me now. The reason why I had at least 15 diaries to read through as I cleaned out my bedroom chest of drawers. In junior high and high school I would buy a new diary in December, pour my heart out in January and February, and to an outsider I must have died on a bitter cold, winter day because the rest of my diary is blank. Oh, but wait, here's the next year's diary! She's alive for two more months this year too.

No, I wasn't very good at keeping diaries. Pouring my heart out is not really what I did. What I did record would make you weep with boredom. 
January 22, 1967 "Went to church. Charlie smiled at me. It was a good day."
February 16, 1969 "Babysat for the Kadel's last night until 2:30am. Went to church today. Smiled at Charlie. It was a good day."
March 10, 1969 "Can't remember what I've done since February 16th. Must not be much going on."

One year I actually kept my diary during the summer.
July 24, 1970 "Meet Carol at the pool today. Laid in the sun for 2 hours. Burned. It was a good day."
August 5, 1971 "Rode around with Regina tonight. Saw Joe at The Banner. It was a good night."

I kept diaries during my working girl, single parent days too. Mostly it consisted of "Went to work. It was a not such a good day." Or my 8 year old son revealing that he was in a gang. "What do you do in your gang?' I wrote. "We ride our bicycles, look at girls, and hang out" he said. (Smile). I could never get the jest of recording the weather, or admitting and documenting faults and failures, or telling other peoples secrets, or my own for that matter. There was a little bit of that but not nearly all that I remember experiencing. Always, always, it was in the back of my mind that someone would find that diary.

So, now I have the blog. I almost fell back into that bad habit of recording the first two months and then letting it go. Nope, not this year. I've made it to March! There are places to go, things to do, people to see. I will keep it up. I will keep it up. I will keep it up.

March 3rd, 2012 Woke up, smiled at my husband, wrote on my blog. It's a good day.

Downsizing Tally - I realized I haven't updated thise for awhile either. The messiness of downsizing has now been confined to two spaces. Anything that doesn't belong in the "show" spaces of our house now sits in the third bay of the garage and a large, unfinished room in the basement. Hey! At least I know where all my junk is.