Sunday, September 25, 2005

HB Coming To Terms

Seven hundred thirty-one days ago (that’s two years, including a leap-day), "Coming to Terms…" sprang forth from my keyboard to the AOL ether-waves. Well, maybe "sprang" isn’t exactly the word. More like clotted, chugged, and coughed. In those early days, posting entries presented challenges—both electronic and verbal—that are now the stuff of distant memory. For the first few weeks, the words sputtered like rusty water from a long-disused faucet. It took hours to compose a satisfactory work, hit the "save" button, and then run smack into that "2500-word-limit" brick wall. Or hit the "save" button and have the words disappear into cyber-limbo, never to be seen again…

I got my first comment on my third entry. I learned how to post pictures. I learned how to post BIG pictures. I posted my first political entry. All those little baby steps we all remember with fondness…

I soon realized I had become part of a community of diverse people, all suffering from the common malady of wanting, or needing, to write. People who loved "journal land" to death, hyped the community to the point of burn-out and disappeared. People who bitched, moaned and grumbled about AOL and finally sailed off for brighter shores. People who found that they really couldn’t handle the strain of putting themselves out there for others to read and comment on, and flickered out like dying flames. People who wrote fiction designed to mock our general gullibility. People who immediately got hooked (raising my hand) on the experience, and just kept plugging away, no matter who read (or didn’t.)

And so I carry on, firing my political salvos interspersed with the observations of a hippie-turned yuppie-turned reluctant entrepreneur, being dragged kicking and screaming into middle age. Thanks to all of you who come to visit, particularly these, who have been my friends almost from the beginning: Mary (Alphawoman's blog), Kat (Walk With Me), Cynthia (Sorting the Pieces), Christina (My Journey With Multiple Sclerosis), Karen (Jukebox Woman), Lisa (Wearin' My Heart on my Sleeve) and Gigi (Lotus Martinis)  Taking nothing away from my "younger" (in journal land) friends (you know who you are...)  I just wanted to acknowledge and thank these ladies for hanging in there with me for so long. 

It's been fun, hasn't it?

P.S. In honor of this momentous occasion, I have officially shortened the name of this journal.  It shall, from this day forward, be known as "Coming to Terms..."

17 comments:

  1. Happy Happy Birthday to a Terrific Journal!  

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  2. I love your journal
    Marti

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  3. Happy Birthday to your excellent journal which is, in my humble opinion, one of the best out there.  I do so hope I'm included as one of those "younger" friends you mentioned.  Does the change in the title indicate that you have officially arrived?:)  

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  4. It has been fun, and it's been significant somehow.  I'm glad I've come to get to know you.

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  5. Happy Birthday!  I'll hang in there as long as you will.
    :)

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  6. Happy Birthday to you,
    Happy Birthday to you,
    Happy Birthday dear Lisa and Journal
    Happy Birthday to you, :-)

    Jackie

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  7. Happy birthday to Coming to Terms.... Keep writing and we'll keep reading.  ~Sie  

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  8. Happy Birthday! I'm glad you stuck to it...I don't remember how I found you, but now I can't imagine not reading your thoughts :)

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  9. Hmmm....nice lookin' bunch of broads you all are. This is the only way I get to be a "younger" friend.

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  10. Happy, Happy Anniversary!  Many, many more!  I haven't been here much lately, with all that's been happening in my life, but I promise to get back in her w'ya!  Hugs,  Lisa

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  11. Happy birthday to your journal....I love you too.  

    I love your brutal honesty, I love your passion.  

    I love your fire.  

    I love your soul.

    I agree, we ARE soul sisters.   Sisters are never alike, just compliments of one another....mirrors to peer into, relfections to love and find mystical or mythical.

    xxoxxxooo.....

    Christina

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  12. Happy Birthday!!
    Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!
    V

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  13. It's hard for me to believe it's even been over two years since AOL first introduced their journals.  How time flies.  I'm glad yours has been a good experience for you.  It's obvious how much you've grown with the writing; what a good writer you are.  

    I laughed at your categories of has-been journalers.  I know which one is mine!
    Happy Birthday to Coming to Terms...
    Donna

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  14. Happy Belated Anniversary! Would I be considered younger or one of the dwindlers? Or maybe both, or neither.  I hope you continue to pound away at the keys as you come to terms with all that the future holds. :-) ---Robbie

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  15. I'm late again ~ why am I always late?  Is it because I'm one of the dwindlers?  ;D

    Anyway, Happy Anniversary!  I remember those early entries.  We were all kinda...flopping around.  (HOWEVER did we live within that character limit?!)

    It HAS been fun, and will continue to be, I think, for a while....  :)

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  16. I think your journal is one of the ones that makes j-land so great and powerful....

    I know you make me think

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