Freesia Lane is a year old...

So, Freesia Lane is a year old today. Yikes. Happy Birthday to me.

My goal was to write it for a year to get me writing on a daily (minus the weekends) basis and to see if I could find a voice before doing my book that has been marinating in the back of my head for a long, long time.

So, because I’m a maudlin, weepy-eyed kind of woman, I was thinking about how Freesia Lane came to be and what it’s brought me this past year. All of this leads to Paula.

Paula and I have been friends for fifteen years. We met online. We met in a Compuserve forum and really came together from like-minded interests. It’s a great way to make a friend. Imagine yourself in a sea of thousands of people. How do you pick out the one that should be your friend? Everyone in a forum wears a sign around their necks listing things that interest them. They post items from that list on threads in the forum. This makes finding like-minded souls amidst thousands of people easy. That’s how Paula and I found each other. We wrote a book together (not our finest hour, we are both Alpha girls). We have traveled together. We have talked kids together. She has been through the loves of my life. She was at my step father’s funeral crying in the aisle. I met and loved her father who left a few years ago. Bottom line is that Paula and her husband David are among my closest friends.

The interesting thing is that because of the way we met, we know no one else in common. It makes our friendship such a safe haven to tell all. There is no one else it will affect. Everyone should have a friend like that. And, everyone should be a friend like that. And, this story is one of the great stories of what the World Wide Web has brought to society, and personally to me.

Paula believes in my writing ‘voice’ and set up Freesia Lane for me. She is the smartest woman I have ever met, a loner, and a techie from self-taught tenacity. She doesn’t often let the world in, and I am grateful to be someone who has had the opportunity to see inside her amazing brilliance and incredibly sensitive soul. She has read every book I’ve ever seen the cover of, and she can speak ahead of the rest of us on most issues.

Lest I go too far, Paula’s politics are misguided. We try to stay away from the topic, and I remind myself that even really smart, successful people sometimes get lost in the forest. Thank God I’m around to make sure they find a road back. I have not been able to lure her to the pathway to sunshine in political America, and I’m proud to say it’s not from lack of trying. She would say the exact opposite; that it’s me who is misguided, but all of you and I know the truth.

So, it’s ode to Paula day. Her gift to me of Freesia Lane is, aside from Ms. Sarah, the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten. Thanks Paula.

And, as I read through some of the posts over the past year this morning, I realize that it’s been one of the funnest and interesting things I’ve done. The way it grew was surprising to me. That people would actually read what I write and look forward to receiving the blog, was a side, surprise gift. Putting my thoughts to paper (virtual paper) was the funnest part, and I look forward to the coming year. I actually kept it up, and I surprised myself doing it. I’m a short distance runner, not a marathon girl, and I am so happy I kept my personal commitment.

Thanks everyone for your emails and support. Really do appreciate it all. Enjoy the spring and onward Cyber soldiers.