For Reals

That is what the ladies are that I had lunch with today. (I'll explain later on in my post.)

Thanks to Danielle for hosting this blunch in honor of her blog's birthday. We totally forgot to sing Happy Birthday to her blog though. :(

I drove an hour in the pouring rain just to get there. And I showed up a half hour early, didn't realize it, drove around lost for that half hour, showed up on time thinking I was a half an hour late. Good start.

Kristina was there first and she and Danielle and I had a little bit of a chance to chat. Then Amber came in followed by Jillene and her friend Tina, who Jillene is trying to woo over to the dark side...or more so. She has a blog but I guess doesn't blog much and Jillene was trying to remedy this by introducing her to other lovely bloggers.(I hope her name is Tina...that's what my allergy befuddled brain is remembering...if it's not I'm very, very sorry.) Then in comes Motherboard and Sher. And last but certainly not least came Jo.

It was all types of exciting.

We chatted and ordered food by phone and harassed the workers, over the phone, and laughed at the workers as they tried to answer our phone but couldn't. Good times. Good Times.

Then we discussed everything from SuperDell, to Obama, to the blogosphere and bloglifting (my cool new phrase for plagarism of blogs. I'm probably not the first to use it. So does that make me a bloglifter?) To evil primary presidents, to drills to run if someone breaks into your house, to how the closer your house is to the mountains the more righteous you are, to Chacon.

It all comes back to Chacon somehow.

It was a well rounded conversation. I mostly listened and asked "Now who is that?" because I obviously do not read as many blogs as I should, and was entertained.

The title of this post comes from the conversation. The phrase "for reals" was said off and on throughout the lunch. And I loved it.

It is also a description of those ladies. In a round about sort of way. They were all very real. Every one so much like they are on their blogs. Some a bit more talkative or a bit quieter but all very real.

I learned some things from them today. Good things. Just as I learn from them each time I visit their blogs. And this, my friends, is one of the reasons why I love blogging.

For reals.

What's in a Name

As I've surfed the blogging world I love seeing what every one comes up with for the names of their blogs and I wonder the thought process that went into it.

For instance. When I first started this blog I called it the Lilly Pad because that's a name that I've used on bulletin boards that I frequent. But then I changed it to Slacker Mom because I've felt like such a slacker as a mom off and on.

Then I decided to go with Just So. Why the jump from Slacker Mom to Just So? Because the So in Just So are/is(?) my first and last initials. My blog is about me, S.O. It's not because I have to, or even like or want to have everything "Just So". Far from it.

Most nights I go to bed with dishes in the sink. There is a large hole in our linoleum in the middle of our kitchen and another in the floor by the dishwasher that is held together by duct tape. My kids often have hot dogs or cereal for dinner. My laundry piles up and beds don't get made. I yell at my kids more than I should. I get my feelings hurt. My husband and I disagree on things. I love my kids even when I yell at them. I love my husband even when we disagree. I get my feelings hurt and get over it (most of the time).

In short I'm human. I'm just like most women. My life is not Just so. This blog is. It's just me.

A place for me to put things down that I probably wouldn't otherwise. I have a bad memory and I should keep a journal but I don't. So it's nice to have a place where I can go back and look and see what I was doing or thinking at a certain time. Like when I had back surgery. I can never remember that. (The actual dates...I can remember the surgery itself thankyouverymuch) But I can go back to an older blog that I have and see what the dates where when I posted about it.

That's the long and the short of it. What about you? Did you pick one name for you blog and stick with it or was it an evolution of sorts? You can comment about it here or post on your blog and let me know so I can come and read.

Putting it out there

So I guess this is my first "official" blog here. I've tried other places and haven't been very good at this. So I guess we'll see. I do believe I've even had a blogger account before but gave it up. It may very well be floating out there somewhere in cyberspace. Who knows?

I do love the internet. It's an amazing tool that has helped me meet many wonderful people across the country and some of the world. Thankfully I haven't ever really had a bad experience with it and hopefully that will continue.

I hope that karma has something to do with it. I try to put nice things out there and to respect those who I have contact with. If someone annoys me or upsets me or offends me I usually try to move out of that area of cyberspace and on to something better. It's worked for most of the time. As a mom I really feel that it's important for me to kind of keep up with the technology that is available so that I can relate to what my kids are doing. Or just be able to keep an eye on them. I'm probably not as tech savvy as I should be but I try. I'm sure that I'll have more to worry about as my kids get older.

So there's my first post!