Just Off Center

Anniversaries and birthdays, apart from being times of great celebration, are also appropriate times for reflection. Last month Nina and I celebrated our seven-year anniversary. Truth told, we’d gone through a pretty rough patch for a couple months there. No, sir, nothing pleasant about it. However, we’ve worked through all the crap and are doing very well. Those bad times suck, but they remind you to enjoy the good times you have.

This Saturday is my 29th birthday. The funny thing about birthdays that I have to remind myself of is that whenever you have a birthday, the age that you turn is already complete. This Saturday I will have already completed 29 years, and will begin the first day of my thirtieth year. So when I turn thirty, I’ll actually be beginning my 31st year. My point is that as of this Saturday, my twenties are actually over. I don’t have a problem with the aging process. However, it is a good reminder that I need to stop for a moment and reflect on progress and path. Unfortunately, writing a “how’m I doing” post would bore even me to tears so I’ll go with another landmark that’s a bit more interesting.

As of today Just Off Center is officially one year old. It’s been a fun and interesting time since I first decided to join the blogging community. This time last year I was driving back from lunch with one of those crazy and meaningless little revelations bouncing around in my head. I remember that I was thinking that when a woman asks her man to come into a public dressing room to see her clothing selections, she’s unwittingly tempting her man to think adulterous thoughts about all the other undressed women around him. I thought it was a quirky little concept, and I wanted to remember it long enough to tell Nina about it.

The problem was that I knew I’d forget by the time I got home. I always forgot these things just a few hours after thinking them. Then it occurred to me that I could start an online journal. I remember having read a few web pages that people had built just to post their own writing. I hadn’t yet heard the word “blog”. So I got back to my desk and googled “online journal”. As you can expect, I was flooded with information about this growing phenomenon called blogging. Within an hour I had signed up with Blogger, assigned the moniker “Just Off Center”, and was writing my first post.

It was less than a week before Nina found out about the blog. Of course, it wasn’t much of a secret. I was writing a post on our home computer and she walked by. Soon enough I had convinced her to try it out as well, with great results in my opinion. It was just over six weeks before I got my first comments. Then I started surfing around and found other bloggers whose writing entertained me. I started leaving comments that were seen by other readers, who would in turn click on my link to check me out. And here we are today 365 days and 165 posts later. I have a wonderful creative outlet. I’ve shared things on this blog that I’ve not uttered to any friend. I’ve made great new friends in the process and I’ve learned things about myself that I either didn’t know or daren’t admit. I need a way to celebrate this.

When Mario Puzo wrote down that the Don could not refuse any request made of him on his daughter’s wedding day, everyone just assumed that this was standard practice for Mafia folks. Actually he just made it up. But it’s still a good idea. So I’ll follow suit, except I’ll call it my blogger anniversary since I don’t have a daughter. And since I can’t be there to fulfill your requests, I’ll have to limit the siege to answering your questions. Ask me anything you want and I promise I’ll answer truthfully in a future post.

email me

Be gentle.