Uberbabyboomer's Blog

Is this really blogging?

    For some reason, getting started on writing for this blog keeps getting away from me. Where does it keep running away to and why can't I seem to run after it, grab it and just start writing?  

    My mind wanders to having big papers due when I was a kid in 7th grade and my teacher demanded that I outline my paper BEFORE I wrote it. What? How can I outline something I haven't figured out yet.  I thought that was such a dumb idea that I refused to hand in any outlines, just gave her the finished paper instead and sat back to see what she would do.  Well, she responded, directly, via phone to my dad and it was not pleasant.  So, since I was kind of a bratty, defiant kid but I hated getting in trouble, it occurred to me that if I *secretly* wrote the paper at home, then wrote the outline based on my already-written paper, and handed in the outline, everyone would be happy.  And, not only did it work, I was forever after the very first person to hand in my "final draft papers" since it didn't take me long to finish it - the teacher thought she had won - and I confirmed my suspicions that she was really not too swift. 

    It is not good to learn that you can fool teachers when you are only 11 years old in 7th grade. Changes your perspective for a long time.  

    So, what does this have to do with my inability to get started blogging? Probably you are saying by now, not much, let it go and just start writing or I am out of here. But this is important to my ability to write so I am writing about it. I may figure it out by the time I finish.

     My real ability to write finally happened when I got to take a creative writing class in high school from a guy who was a ghost writer for the early TV show "Gunsmoke".  Very cool person who did not demand outlines and gave us credit, and good grades, for handing in our ideas, plot thoughts and musings each week. Wow, my writing exploded.  Still not connecting these thoughts to blogging - okay - because I want my blog to be public, it seemed like I was going to have to follow my 7th grade teacher's rule of outlining first, perfectly of course and finally, much later, actually writing a post to my blog. 

     Enter Twitter - 140 characters - that's all, no outlines, no final paper draft, etc. Just 140 characters and I was off and running with it. Just like what happened in my high school creative writing class. Yes!

    I love Twitter, I have become addicted to Twitter and I have twittered instead of blogging for weeks now.  But a funny thing happened on my twitter road to blogging - I started feeling empowered as people responded to my tweets, sent me cheerful dm's and sometimes even retweeted my tweets!  Wow!  My 140 characters actually were listened to, amazing. Maybe I can become a blogger after all!

   And suddenly I started feeling guilty and lazy that I had not started blogging. So is this post actually blogging?  I think so because I am on a journey here and in my intro, I warned/promised you I would describe that journey and part of my journey is becoming a blogger, so thanks for listening. I believe I have begun to blog.  We'll see what tomorrow brings :)

Uberbabyboomer's mostly true bio

The name of my blog says it all, well, mostly all, since I haven't really thought of myself as a babyboomer forever, in fact it actually took me awhile to figure out that it was my own generation that the media dubbed "babyboomers". 

This generation I belong to has been called more things than most probably because we have always been kind of out there and those that are out there generally get called names, right?

So, why am I blogging and who is this persona that I have created to send out my thoughts, musings, rants, raves and maybe even a little poetry across the ten million fiber optic cables into every nook and cranny of the world? Of course, all those corners of the world may not notice my blog, but I'm good with that since this feels more like an opportunity to have a few or many conversations with myself about where I am, where I have been and where I'm headed. 

Yes, in spite of being a babyboomer and an uber one at that, I am most definitely not sitting around knitting which I never could figure out quite how to do anyway so why learn now; macrame was my thing until everyone I knew that had received one of my works of art gently suggested that perhaps they wanted other items for birthdays, Xmas, etc. so then I took up crocheting. And yes, you're right, the same folks got tired of crocheted goods too. (however, my daughter tells me that she secretly has kept every ounce of crocheting I ever, ever made for her and her Cabbage Patch kids and a few kitties along the way) Now I send Godiva since they are nice enough to remind me by email that it is time to give, again.

My place in time: My mom saved my ration stamps from WWII and my dad drove one of the first Model T's when he was a teenager so that plants me in time.  I was studying for a US History test in a small private college the morning that JFK was shot and heard Martin Luther King give a sermon in Grace Cathedral in San Francisco the Sunday before his march on Selma. Yes, that one.  I went to UC Berkeley when the People's Park was still a war zone and the troops were sent to Berkeley to calm us all down. And I was invited to go to Africa with the Peace Corps but stayed in the states and became an educator instead. And, I forgot to mention that I knew Alfred Peet, the father of Peet's Coffee, who used to offer us free cups of coffee and asked us if we thought that his very young coffee business would succeed.  We gave him our sip of approval and I have never stopped drinking Peet's.  

Time to move forward - I have had this blog sitting around since this past September when I dreamed up the name and bought up all the versions of it thanks to Go Daddy, but I couldn't find my voice until today. Why today you ask if you have read this far :)  I know, I was an English/History major in college and just never knew when to quit writing so if you come here, relax and get ready to read a lot. Or not, your choice.

Back to the search for my voice. A few years ago I knew that I needed change in my life, a big change, so I semi-retired from education, but kept doing it, a little.  Well, doing what you have always been doing, a little, does not equate to a big change.  And that has really been bugging me.  So, about 48 hours ago, really, only that long, my daughter and I were talking about some big changes we want to make in our respective lives. She has some things she wants to do that are in the category of if I could be anything I want to be when I grow up and it occurred to me that I have a few things that I want to be when I grow up too.  Things that totally fit in the category of if I could be anything I want what would it be.  And, suddenly, I thought I could write about this latest pursuit of becoming that elusive but ever-present if I could be anything I want to be even though most would agree that I am definitely grown up and then some. But why stop now?

So, this is who I am today, right now and probably for an hour or so. I will let you know when I think I am about to become someone else.