Well, I am taking a bit of a break in my Grossglockner series to bring you this latest breaking news...I am on OS for a year! (balloons are now cascading from the ceiling of the ballroom) While it may be difficult for some of you to understand, this has been a very important part of my life and the life of my friends and family. My friends caught a break from all my political emails and various rants on topical subjects. They no longer felt the need to ask me to a therapy breakfast and see how I was doing, or call me when I wrote something particularly disturbing and nasty about one of the local poopaticians, (that is not misspelled by the way).

I am the youngest in my family. Now, at my age, those who were interested in my writing, the ones who kept telling me to write a book, have mostly died off. My sister who is still alive, at one time fancied herself a writer, though you or I would would not readily agree. My brother wrote a two part novel and had it vanity published probably 20 years ago. I sloshed through it and trust me, it was good, but probably not an award winning piece. I know that sounds a tiny nasty, but they are getting mentioned here and that is about all they are ever going to get from me, if you know what I mean.

My husband remains my greatest supporter and has taken up the mantra of "What about the book?" Varying it with questions about the main character, "Is she out of that room yet?" or one of my favorites, "Did they eat this kind of food back then?" Yup. I am on it.

The thing is my work might not be any great shakes either. I have never got any of my fiction or non fiction published in book form. Oh, some of my stuff has made it into other venues, but I had never focused on my writing. I never gave it any respect.

I just did it. I just did it like I do so many other things, take out the garbage, make the beds, cook the dinner, lambast a politician, get interviewed by a newspaper, build a building. I just did it. Now I am sensing that I can spend the time and the effort to see if what I have been spewing all these years has a broader audience than my dead relatives, my fans er friends, my kids and my husband.

Through my interactions here on OS I have learned so much. I actually have. I have grown enormously (um, not physically, er well). I have stopped all my non productive habits and focused on my own development for a change. At my age, that is kind of golden. I have had the enthusiastic support of my husband, and my children. Since I have done this, I have probably bothered my friends less and entertained them more. 

At the same time I spent doing this, I also invested myself in other social media, broaden my abilities to communicate with people I have worked with over the past several years and had the chance to be retrospective about what exactly I have accomplished.

All this for FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't bothered most of you with too much of my political fanfare, my real name, or with my list of human connecting links, much like that game so popular in the past, a Barrel of Monkeys. I still remember buying that for my dad at about my age now. He loved it and enjoyed the fact that he could still get a toy, something he had not a lot of, growing up.

 So my audition for Second City in the 70's didn't work out, neither did the one for 290 North some 30 years later, nor did the one for state senator, as a matter of fact. But what matters is that my audition here did. I am now a writer, I have been published in other places now besides OS, I am a member of the Chicago Writers Association, I am being read by people I have never met and who have no real investment in doing so, other than to enjoy whatever I wrote. Sometimes I am annoying, sometimes my comments are too brief, or way too long. Sometimes people just ignore them. I am okay with that, why?

I just felt I had to say something and that it helped me personally to say it. I appreciate it when I get a visit and a comment, and I try to answer them back too. Sometimes I miss someone. Sometimes I have to really think about what they said. Sometimes I just have to delete it.

Yeah, I am one of those.

Well, I have grown and I want to thank each and everyone of you who helped me do that. Your world has crossed into mine on many levels. I welcome you as you have welcomed me. I appreciate your gifts as you have appreciated mine and I thank you for being in the brotherhood/sisterhood of the writer with me on Open Salon.

I also thank the powers that be for being. I know that when I first told my friends about OS they did not understand why I would do this. I guess they didn't understand what I was looking for, what I needed. That is the beauty of the internet too, you can find things that provide what you need, the support you need, the entertainment  you need and the debate. I have a number of very intellectual friends. I am in a sense a kind of nerd, a kind nerd. The people who are close to me know I think in many layers. They look for things from me, in the way of leadership and commitment, that often I need a rest from. I just need to be able to be creative and mess around.

In the beginning I wrote a lot of things that I never even published on OS. They were part of that more intellectual side. I decided that I did not feel that good when I wrote that, I wanted more. I wanted to be feel informing, but lighter. So I found things to write about that were simple for me to do, that often were just my own entertainment and exploration that I shared with all of you. I think you didn't mind and enjoyed the eclectic offerings.

Well, Thank You. I needed that. I appreciated that and I promise to keep entertaining myself here, and oh, if you are entertained too, well, you are welcome!!! 

 Balloons 

 Reading since January 28, 2010, writing since February 2, 2010,Hooray!

Copyright 2011 by SheilaTGTG55