Monday, November 28, 2005

Families...Friendships

And a Happy Thanksgiving it was.

For the first time since Dad passed away, we celebrated Thanksgiving ALL together, at one table, the four sisters, their (available) husbands, my niece and nephew, and my mother. How much it warmed my heart to look around my dining table and see all those faces smiling, really enjoying each other. We so rarely do that anymore.

Friday, we made our annual foray to the "World's Largest Christmas Bazaar" at the Portland Expo Center. Saturday, the sun made an appearance, so my sister D and her husband, my niece, my hubs and I took a long walk down along the dike next to the Channel. We saw cranes, and cormorants, geese, hawks, and a "possible" eagle. Then we stopped at the little houseboat restaurant on the channel for a bite before heading back to the house; where the "left behind" contingent were about to revolt. They were swiftly appeased with a quick trip to Dollar Tree. Battle averted.

Which is not to say that the visit didn't go on for, oh, about twelve hours too long. By Sunday morning, the guests were fairly fleeing the confines. I told my sister, "Everybody's leaving...  I'm so conflicted. I don't know whether to be sad or have a party!" I did manage a quick, two-step happy dance as the little carpool rounded the corner at the end of our street.

Now, I'm on strike, for at least the next twelve hours. I'm playing with the 'puter, half-watching CSI reruns on Spike TV, munching on leftover pretzels, and downing mass quantities of water in an attempt to cleanse the sugar and alcohol out of my system so I can climb back on the diet wagon tomorrow.

I was just visiting some AOL journals (the few, the proud...) and I experienced an interesting phenomenon. SOME of the journals I visited were missing something. Something at the top of the page. Something involving little yellow moving trucks, cel phones, drugs, love match, AOL 9.0. Probably nothing more than yet another wrinkle in the technological fabric of America Online Reinvented. (The incarnation of AOL that worships at the altar of advertising revenue, rather than subscriber dues.) Hmmm... Ads sporadically disappearing. On a few journals. Sometimes. It bears watching, anyway.

And can I just add this thought?

I am here in AOL J-land, and I plan on staying for the foreseeable future. I've stated many times: I write because I can't not write. And I write here because there's no reason not to, though the streets of the community are mighty quiet these days. In the early days of J-land, we put our messages in bottles, floated them out into the ether, waited to see what would happen. And readers happened. And then friends. Then the purge of the unwanted ad banners happened, and Journal-land is back to feeling like those early days. But different...a little sadder. A little bit like we were expected to choose sides, and no matter what side we chose, we were going to alienate someone. I have tried to keep track of my friends who have streamed away from AOL. I added their new journals to my bloglines feeds.  I visit and comment, to let them know I want to keep the lines open. Unfortunately, many of my friends, for whatever reason, have not reciprocated. So I can't help but feel that I have committed some unpardonable faux pas by choosing not to leave AOL.

What I would like to ask everyone is this: Visit your friends, wherever they went. It is simple, and free, to set up a "Bloglines" account. I set up mine a long time ago, when the AOL alerts started getting so "iffy." You CAN follow those who are writing elsewhere now. And leave them a little note to let them know you've stopped by.

And, those of you who left AOL, please come back and see us. Perhaps you have come by, but have not commented. For awhile--until we can sort out these weird aftershocks that everyone is experiencing--why not leave a quick note? Just say, "Hi! I'm still reading!" It would mean a lot to us. The internet is a vast, free, sometimes lonely space. We don't have to let our "community" be defined by which blog site we subscribe to... Do we?

14 comments:

  1. ::waving frantically, hi there!::  All in all, it sounds like a really good holiday.  Part of the pleasure is saying good-bye to everybody and flopping back with relief.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I never thought my children were happy to see us leave.... we were all crying so hard.... but I bet part of them were happy and relieved now that I think of it... they live so far and we see them so seldom so maybe that is different and we do try not to interfere too much... I suppose I will never know will I... Sandra

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Liza,
    Thank you so much for letting me know you reopened this journal. I am with you when it comes to letting readers know where we are now or if we had come back. I, too, had put  my journal in private for about a week or so..out of confusion and loneliness- can you believe that? I felt the same way. I just turned my aol journal back on right before Thanksgiving, waited a few days then posted. It was  q u i e t...it was deafening. I sure do miss everyone that had come visited my journal before. I have not announced back through email that I am back on. I guess I should do that soon.
    Thanks again for opening your wonderful journal. I have taken a break from reading  a lot for a few days. But I know I need to catch up now or never lol!
    Well...holidays is just around the corner..I hope to hear the happy commotion creeping back up again in Jland!
    Happy journaling~
    Gem :-)
    oh...funny..I just posted my latest entry today..& yes I have blogspot too...but keeping my aol to make it easier to those who's on aol.
    Please visit me soon..I miss 'ya! :-)

    http://journals.aol.com/libragem007/JournallyYours/entries/1025

    ReplyDelete
  4. So glad you're back!  Maybe now I'll be inspired to add to my own journal...

    http://journals.aol.com/playnlearn56/LadyBlogsBug/

    Carol

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lisa,  so glad you're back writing in this again.  You sound like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'm happy that your family was there to share it with you.

    You know where I am and my reasons for being there.  I still have AOL and still read most of the journals I've always read.  I agree that there is a different feel here but that will pass...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lisa, I would have loved to have seen yourtwp0step happy dance! sounds like your Thanksgiving was wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Our computer has been on the frizt so I wasn't able to visit you where ever you were, but I am so glad to be able to get back on line and find you back home again.  I love this journal and I love the words that you leave here.  This may be the nicest Christmas gift that I will receive this season.  Pennie

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lisa, I`m pleased you`re public again!

    Stop over!
    http://deabvt.blogspot.com/
    V

    ReplyDelete
  9. Geez, Lisa ~ I don't know where you're getting this nonsense about having to choose sides.  Faux pas?  Pas de tout!  Speaking only for myself, I know I haven't been anywhere much because what little free time I have has been spent working on the new site.  I suspect so have a number of  others.

    The internet is all *about* individual freedom; to express, to choose.  No one has to explain anything to anybody, or justify themselves in any way.  A community is what you make it.  And it's just a *click*, fer cryin' out loud! ;D

    I'm glad you had a great holiday, even if it did go on a wee bit too long.  Not unlike this comment... ;)  Happy Belated!   :)  

    ReplyDelete
  10. Another great entry here!  Thank you.  I couldn't agree more that we shouldn't let our community be defined by the individual sites; frankly, I don't really understand it, as I still go into my gameroom each day and sit in the same chair, at the same desk, at the same computer, to write my thoughts, and whether I hit "send" or "publish", it all ends up in cyberspace.  I've kept my favorites list on my new site, and so I have links to AOL and blogspot and iblog, etc.  I'm just so glad that you're writing again.  Traffic will pick up, I assure you.  I think a lot of us who've moved are spending untold time figuring out all the bells and whistles at the new place, but gee, it's great to be able to drop in on old friends wherever they are, and to see that people are writing again.

    Judi
    http://emmapeeldallas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey! I'm here. I didn't know, until your email, that you were back writing here.

    Has someone made you feel bad about sticking with AOL or are you projecting your feelings outwardly? Personally,  I think each person must decide for themselves and it is not left for me to judge their decision.

    I love the pics of you and your sisters down below. Wow! :-) ---Robbie

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am so happy you guys had a great Thanksgiving together. I know what you mean about the streets of J-land being so quiet.  I ventured over the the message boards, which is usually full of "it" and it was even quiet...and boring! I still do not know what to think. I will continue to write on both jnls, as I did before the Ad-gate.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi again...

    I hope this isn't a duplicate comment. (AOL burped in the middle of my first attempt.)  I come here often to read, but rarely comment. I'm glad to see you're still writing.

    And, I heartily agree with you about continuing to follow your blogging friends, wherever they decide to publish.

    Wonderfully healing post. Thanks!
    :-)
    Vicki

    ReplyDelete