Hey there.

I'm back.  Like the ghosts in Poltergeist (which we watched part of on vacation btw - freaky to see now as a parent).

Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment, you were all lifelines during a very hard time.  I did a lot of soul searching (and crying) over the last week and a half.  My family is the most important thing in the world to me.  Hurting them hurt me very deeply.

I have tried to get reflective about all of this.  Interestingly enough, the movie on the plane was very helpful and not just by keeping my mind off my impending death (have we talked about my fear of flying yet?).  It was "Marley and Me" which I hadn't seen yet.  If you haven't seen it, it's columnist John Grogan's autobiographical account of family life with their crazy dog Marley.  There was a point in the movie where his wife (Jennifer Aniston) is looking over a collection of his columns and marveling at the stories there.  Sad, funny, hopeful stories that had one thing in common; they were relatable.

That's all I'm trying to do here really.  Relate.  We're on this earth for such a blink.  This is one of my ways to connect.  To share.  To laugh.  To worry.  To bitch and rant.  It's ironic because I've thought of this blog as my column of sorts.  

I think I've unknowingly put parameters on this blog that only let me share a portion of myself.  I've made it up that if I'm not funny (all the time), no one will want to read it.  So I've left out a big chunk of who I am and that's not authentic.  Don't get me wrong, it's very hard for me to get through a conversation (real or virtual) without cracking a joke of some kind - but if I go into every post with the only intention to be "funny" then I'm not being true to my purpose here.

So I want to keep doing this.  With new ground rules.  I will share more of who I am with you, good, bad, smelly, hairy, scared (OK I'll stop).  I won't write anything about anyone that I would be embarrassed to have them read.  Unless they are complete strangers - you have to give me this one.  I will be true to myself in the sense that I will not filter things to be more "sanitary" or politically correct.

So if you've stuck around, thank you.  I appreciate you very much and have a LIST of things to talk about, so let's get to it shall we?