Saturday, March 7, 2009

Getting Started

I finally decided to take the plunge into the blogging world. Before doing so I consulted my Unitarian Universalist minister colleagues. Some were surprisingly quite negative, but the ones who were positive convinced me that this was a practice that would serve me well--and hopefully also serve those who might read this.



I had been thinking about blogging for awhile and had already decided on my name. I'm at least a third generation Californian--a rare breed. I left my home state in the 1970s "to see the world" and never managed to go back there to live. But California is still the home of my heart. I try to go there at least once a year. One year I got there four times--and I was in heaven.

Right now, though, it's easy to feel more at home in Massachusetts, since my marriage is legal here and probably wouldn't be there. That's a topic for another post.

At this point, I've now been in Massachusetts for 25 years. In terms of friends and work, I suppose this is my home now, but my heart will always be in California--not San Francisco especially (as the song says), but in the whole state.

I was born in Seaside Hospital in Long Beach, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The problem with Massachusetts is that the ocean here just doesn't have waves, unless there's a storm at sea. I miss the coast of California as much as I miss the state itself.

California is a crazy mixed up place. Anything is possible--and probably exists there. All the extremes. Massachusetts is logical, educated, and sane--which is why they were the first to figure out that same gender marriages are just as worthy of recognition as different gender marriages. I'm glad of that, but sometimes I miss the crazyiness.

Turning 65 this past year has forced me to look back over my life and realize the need to reclaim my crazy California girl inner self. That's what I hope to do in this blog. Born to be wild!

15 comments:

  1. Dorothy, I'm so glad to see that you've taken the plunge! I think you'll enjoy blogging and meeting readers from all over the world. You have a message to offer in the blogosphere and I welcome it! Blog on, woman!

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  2. Oh, the waves. Yes!

    Welcome. We're glad you're here.

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  3. FYI - I have added this blog to http://uupdates.net.

    Welcome aboard!

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  4. Ms. Kitty suggested that we welcome you to the U*U blogosphere so I submitted this crazy mixed up musical welcome for you to her blog before wandering over here. Hopefully you will enjoy the craziness. ;-)

    Wow! One of those California Girls AND An East Coast Girl aka Massachusetts Girl what more could we ask for? ;-)

    Consider the above my kind of musical welcome to the U*U blogosphere. ;-)

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  5. Welcome to the UU Blog universe! I look forward to reading more from you.

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  6. You manage to combine two of my favorite areas, since in my youth I lived in three of the Newtons, Cambridge, and Somerville, and later a dozen years in L.A. (west S.F. Valley), which I came to love in time to leave it. But readers need to know where you are in senses beyond terms of geography and preferred recipocal plumbing arrangements.

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  7. Thanks to all of you for your responses and welcomes. I spent the afternoon listening and dancing to various versions of California Girl and decided someday I need to put a group together to do a lesbian version. I posted my favorites on my Facebook profile. I would post them here but don't know how. I especially like Gretchen Wilson's anti California girl song and the Italian ad. It's amazing that this song has so much of a following.

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  8. There is good advice on Blogger (your blog carrier) about adding video and that sort of thing. It's pretty easy.

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  9. Welcome to the dance, California Girl!

    As another transplanted Californian, almost certainly destined to never return other than to visit, I particularly appreciate your first posting...

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  10. :someday I need to put a group together to do a lesbian version.

    Sounds like fun CGIM but you absolU*Utely *have* to figure out a way to work David Hasselhoff AND David Lee Roth into it, if not California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to boot. ;-) If you could talk Joan Jett and k.d. lang, to say nothing of Montreal band Lesbians On Ecstasy into participating it things could get a little wild and crazy. . . :-)

    As far as posting YouTube videos to your blog goes all you need to do is copy the HTML code from where it says Embed (just below URL) and paste it into the blog in Edit HTML mode rather than Compose mode.

    Looks like you are off to a wild and crazy start anyway CGIM!

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  11. Welcome. Sent over by Ms Kitty. Best of luck.

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  12. Dorothy—

    Welcome to the blog-o-sphere. I hope you will find the neighborhood congenial and edifying. I certainly look forward to being edified by one of my favorite UU historians.

    --WyomingboyinIllinois

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  13. I came here by way of the Rev. Ketcham's blog, and want to say welcome to blogging. As someone who recently moved from WA to MA, I'll be looking for clues from you about how to integrate my "two worlds."

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  14. Hi and welcome to the blogosphere. So you're a historian! I have dabbled in history too.

    (Hampshire girl in South Gloucestershire - that's Old Hampshire.)

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