We’re going to start off today with some tidbits. A warm-up, if you will.

Things like the fact that if I use an ampersand in the same, it looks…wrong. As in, there is no ampersand.

Things like my apartment smelling like garlic this morning.

Things like waking up to the sound of labored breathing coming from the living room.

And yes, I’m spacing things out to disguise the fact that I lay in bed for half an hour mentally composing witty entries and now they’ve all left me.

I tend to jump on the bandwagon late, if at all. I refused to buy a Nalgene until I graduated from my Nalgene-infested college. At which point, I bought one with the college’s name on the side. But one day, when the phrase ‘garish and tweed’ popped into my head, I knew I had to start a blog. Just so I could use it as a name. Pure and simple. Ideally, I’d like this blog to resemble the message board in my laundry room (and by laundry room I mean the alcove off my kitchen in which I spend more time than I’d like applying force to the washer to keep it from disconnecting itself from the wall in its delirious joy at being able to wash things). I’d like it to avoid sentimentality, avoid clunky personal revelations, convey information, and occasionally entertain. I’ve certainly never seen a personal revelation on my white board. I’d also like to (God help me) practice my writing. Bear with me, please. Lately, the extent of my practicing has been – get this – listening to people tell stories. Or write them in letters. Collect compelling bits and pieces so that if I ever sit down with a word document, I might have something to give my characters. ‘Here you go, darling, I brought you this anecdote. It’s all yours. Do whatever you’d like with it.’

Some days this might seem like a bad letter. The kind that rambles and doesn’t say anything and the pages aren’t numbered. Other days, perhaps, will be the kind of letter you can drop in the mailbox with satisfaction. Although, as my roommate says, I’m ’so mediocre.’