Blog Interrupted

26 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by Janell in Life at Home, Mesta Park, Writing

Tags

Blogging, Everyday Life, Mesta Park, Writing

It’s good when friends catch up with one another after a move.

Already, I’ve had friends drop by my new web home. And I must say… it really made me feel good.

After all, think about it. How many times have we let friends slip between our fingers because life has taken us in different directions? How many high school classmates do we keep up with on a regular basis? College buddies? Bridesmaids? Former co-workers? And the list goes on…

So to have friends think I’m worth the effort of tracking down really tickled me. Of course, I had every intention of forwarding my new address. And looking back on it, I probably should have waited to make the URL switch until later — but like a kid at Christmas, I couldn’t wait.

My new web address is AnEverydayLife.com — short for “Stories from AN EVERYDAY LIFE” — which was my original subtitle, when I began my blog, almost sixteen months ago now.

So you might wonder what instigated the move? There’s more than one reason.

First, I’m not the best of Mesta — and to imply otherwise, with a name like bestamesta as my chosen website, was becoming a tad uncomfortable.

Second, I don’t plan to live in Mesta Park — or at least, in this particular lovely old house — for the rest of my life. I want to live in a historic one-story, if my husband I can find one to fit our needs. Because already my knees are a little arthritic — and my bones are growing thin. Not a morning goes by that I don’t think of falling down the stairs, as I carry my Scottie princess down in my arms to begin a new day.

Third, when I began my blog, I imagined I would write more about life in Mesta Park than everyday life in general. But it hasn’t worked out the way I thought it would. Keeping a blog is truly an evolving process — even the name I began writing under, has changed with the times.

Some may recall that I wrote my first posts under my middle and maiden names — remember “Ann Pappas?” — because I thought it might grant me greater freedom to express what I wanted to say, perhaps even open the creativity coffers that I once enjoyed as a child. But within a few months, it didn’t feel right to write under anything but my real name. So quietly, without fanfare, I made the change.

In the end, the best of Mesta Park is, and always will be, the old homes that fill the historic district that I currently and proudly call home. It could never be my website. So when my bestamesta.com URL subscription came up for renewal a few months ago, I began quietly pondering a new name. And after two months of reflection, I opted to return to my original subtitle, albeit with a shortcut version.

The old URL subscription will quietly expire on April 5th. And between now and then, if you drop in at good old bestamesta.com, you will automatically be forwarded here, to my new web address. After that, I don’t know where bestamesta.com will send you… but I hope you’ll eventually find your way here.

May my new URL address stay the same — even as I (and the place I call home) continue to evolve.

What You Do To Me

13 Wednesday Jan 2010

Posted by Janell in Life at Home

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Blogging, Everyday Life, Love, Marriage

Sometimes I surprise myself by how much I share on this web log.

Yesterday’s post may have made for uneasy reading. Everyday Life does get uncomfortable — scary even — when we take off our masks of pretense and dare to share our personal truth. Perhaps a few readers wished to look the other way, thinking, “Oh my .. she must not know her slip is slipping or her soul or whatever is showing. Let’s just pretend we didn’t notice until she pulls herself back together.” But not so with everyone. One dear reader — God bless her soul — chose not only to share a bit of her story — but dared to ask…”are things better now?”

Oh, gentle readers — surely you know by now that if you ask I will tell you. And God help us all if I tell more than I really should, for propriety sake, about my Harlequin Romance life.

The short answer to my reader’s question is this: “Yes, things are better now.”

And the longer answer is what? The long answer is that twelve years later, after making a life bond with Janis in my 1972 Camaro, I ended up marrying that same boy who broke my heart in my second trip to the altar. We have two boys together and this second husband of mine – who is the absolute love of my life — helped me and my first husband raise two beautiful girls.

But how we came back together was not so easy. To begin with, I didn’t know how or whether to respond when he contacted me by letter to wish me a happy thirtieth birthday. It was, by then, eleven years too late by my count and a girl does have her pride.

But after a while, the strange newness of the left-field letter wore off enough to cause me to write back to see what would happen next. And then he wrote back. And then I wrote again. And on and on our correspondence went — fifty letters going back and forth across 500 miles — before he proposed marriage at Surfside Beach as we searched the sky for Halley’s Comet.

But oh… was writing that first letter hard! I didn’t want to love this guy. After all, who wants to love someone after being discarded once before? But as much as we might wish, we hold little power over who we will love over the course of our lives. And ultimately, love won out over pride and even public and private opinions. What mattered most was what he did and does to me….

I confess to a few regrets. I wish I hadn’t hurt my first husband… and I wish I hadn’t hurt my two girls by separating them from everyday life with their father… because even “amicable” divorces cause scars.

But mostly I’m grateful. I’m even grateful to my sister who had the audacity to reveal my deepest darkest secret — when she said to my husband on their first and only date — “You know, Janell never did get over you…”

So he sent a birthday card to see if sis knew of what she spoke. And the rest, as they say, is romance history. And about that first and only date between my sister and my husband…?

If you don’t ask, I promise not to tell.

Christmas Greetings

25 Friday Dec 2009

Posted by Janell in Life at Home, Mesta Park

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Tags

Blogging, Christmas Letters, Mesta Park, Writing

This year I’ve traded paper and pencil for digital pages and keystrokes. Everyday life is now carefully preserved in the blog that Kyle encouraged me to begin last Christmas. There I rewind and hit pause to really see and listen to everyday life — it keeps my days from slipping into a sea of lost memories. I find peace by anchoring sleep-robbing thoughts to a line of words — to write is to mutter sleepily to my worries, “Now stop your whining.” Deeper thoughts and feelings lie beneath the easily spoken words of, “We’re doing fine.” — which are resurrected through writing, from the depths of unconsciousness.

To pull up a post from last January is to again see two gorgeous standard poodles frolicking in the snow. I smile as Maddie and Max, coated in icy rhinestones, make their own snow ice cream — all from scratch. A story in February makes me laugh at my own Lucy Ricardo moment. Once again, I stand trance-like in front of the oven watching Kyle’s 21^st celebratory birthday meal go up in smoke, while nearby, Don remains his unflappable, supporting self. Much smarter than Desi Arnaz, Don knew no amount of “splainin’” would avert the dinner party crisis staring us in the face.

The food that doesn’t burn up in the oven continues to set the stage for everyday life. The blog is becoming a repository for all our favorite recipes. Recorded are recipes for comfort foods such as Oatmeal Cherry Cookies, Potato Soup, Sure Shot Rolls, Meatloaf and Firehouse Chicken Enchiladas. All recipes are prefaced by a story of the recipe’s origin; the first names of friends and family always receive screen credit.

The joys of everyday life are there, like the stories from last March, born from our trip to Las Vegas for Kate and Glen’s wedding. Downhill days, including the five weeks in late April and May when Don worked in China, live here also. While Don kept close watch over contract negotiations for Dow, I kept my own watch over Dad’s sharp decline in health. After four ER visits and two hospital stays, Dad now lives in a nursing home. Every Tuesday afternoon, my brother Jon and I share our lives with our greatly diminished father.

And on and on everyday life goes. The boys will soon graduate. Kara and Joe settle into married life, shaking wanderlust from their systems. My list of “grands’ has doubled with Kate’s remarriage. Yet importantly, we count each and every day a miracle. To wake up to the sounds of Don brewing his morning cup of tea makes me thank God for the life we share together. And with our supporting comedic cast of three dogs, including a new Scottie I call our holy terror, it sometimes feels as if Don and I animate life in a cartoon.

Everyday stories are sacred. It’s ironic that we remember the days where certificates are handed out – like for marriage, the birth of a child, a college graduation or some other milestone – yet forget that the best of real life is sandwiched in between. Don and I are better people for knowing and sharing everyday life with you. Even now, we carry you within us.

It is good to celebrate life while we can. And there is no better way to celebrate than with a good old fashioned face-to-face visit. Facebook may do in a pinch, but when I can’t have the “real deal”, I like the good new fashioned visits which come through my blog — my front porch to the world. Here I welcome old friends and new. I tell my story and my guests share theirs. And sometimes… life slows down enough… so that we can really take in… a “long loving glance at the Real.” “Meet Me in Mesta Park.”