Oh Now She's Just Going to Talk About Her Book

Yes, yes I am. No, wait, no I'm not. Well, ok maybe.

This is going to be one of those diary-like posts that I hate to write but damned if I don't just keep writing them. I am occasionally an idiot, I swear.

Let me tell you, writing a book is hard. Keeping it quiet for a year is harder. So, let's start at the beginning.

When I started blogging a decade ago, I always intended what I wrote to end up being published in a format that...well...wasn't on Livejournal or OpenDiary or Blogger or Wordpress. Yeah, I am a blogging slut, I have been around the blogging block about 4 times now. The funny thing was, every time someone I knew discovered one of my blogs, I would instantly hit the delete button. But not this time. This time, I told every single person I knew that I was blogging and where to find my blog.

And there have been some pluses and minuses to that little bit of honesty. The plus side is a readership base that already knows my weird little quirks. The minus side is that sometimes I have to be less than honest in order to avoid offending anyone. Or to avoid getting sued. I mean really, I don't want to willingly contribute to your beer fund, let alone unwillingly and court ordered-ly contribute to it.

So, on with writing the book. I started writing it, and would rewrite my blog posts and add new stories. And I sat there and thought about adding stories that I knew would end up pissing someone off.

I turned out to be a coward and didn't write those stories in the book either.

Or, if you will, I Russed Out.

Russ, don't sue me, I promise I will buy you a beer.

This book came at the most perfect time it could have. It almost feels like the first half of my life has been ...imperfect. Not to say the whole thing was imperfect or that I am seeking perfection in my life, but more there have been a lot of things that have completely kicked my ass in this last year, and previous years.

And it feels like today is the last day of my imperfect life. I am actually excited about what is coming up. I am going back to school in the fall, Eric is moving up to a better position, our house is getting refinanced to a more affordable rate, my book is getting published, we will be leaving the country again on a grand adventure, we're going to Phoenix soon, and BY GOD it's SUMMER OUTSIDE! Summer revives me like nothing else. I don't know what it is about summer nights in Chicago, but there's this electricity of hope that just reverberates right into my soul.

What I hope you get from this post is the same feeling of hope that I have right now. I am walking out of the darkness into a very bright future. I know it isn't going to be all sunshine and roses, but even if it's not, it won't even come close to the muck I just waded through.

This post is also for someone else I know.  Welcome to the better half of your life too.

Now, I will leave you with a little song that has been picking me up as of late. Sorry for cutting this feel-goodery fest short, but there's a Chelsea game on! And if you don't know my soccer motto, here it is: It's not Man U, but I'll make do.