The first time I had ever heard of or read a blog… boy have things changed!

I absolutely love blogging and have been having so much fun with it.  As a kid I kept journals, well, I started to keep journals and usually lost interest after a month or so.  Blogging has the good qualities of journaling except I don’t have to physically write.  That is the part I hated about journaling. I hate my handwriting so I would always want to keep my writing nice.  The drawback to that is that you can’t get your thoughts down fast enough if you are having to concentrate on your spelling or handwriting.  Now, typing… I’m good at that.  And spellcheck is my best friend.  I adore that little ABC with a checkmark icon.  I panic if I post on a board or somthing that doesn’t have spellcheck.

Ok, back to the subject.  Tonight, I’m not sure why it popped into my head, but I was thinking about the first time I had ever read, or heard of, a blog.

First, a little background info.  I had just moved out of my first husband’s house after our failed two month marriage and my best friend had just kicked out her live-in boyfriend. I did the therapeutic thing and moved to a little bungalo on the beach.  My friend had come over to my house and we walked down the beach bar-hopping along the way.  We spent the evening trading stories of how horrible our ex’s were and making fun of them to make ourselves feel better.  Then, back at my apartment she tells me that her computer geek ex publishes a website with all of his personal thoughts and poetry.  At the time, the idea of doing that was so completely foreign to us that we had to fire up the old dial-up service to check it out. 

This guy was a D&D junkie and a computer geek so alot of the stuff that he wrote about might as well have been written in another language.  Now that I look back, I think it is funny that we were just flabbergasted that someone would post such personal stuff out there on the web for anyone and everyone to read. 

Boy how times change.  I just read all the gory details of my friend’s recent childbirth experience on her myspace page!  Talk about posting personal stuff up on the net.

Lawn Seats at the Pearl Jam concert in West Palm

On Wednesday we went to see Pearl Jam at the Cruzan Amphetheatre in West Palm.  It was awesome, but as usual, I over-did it to the point of not being able to remember much of the actual music.  We went via chartered bus so we didn’t have to worry about driving.  I would highly recommend this to anyone trying to go to a concert an hour drive away!  Get about 30 people involved and it is dirt cheap.

We had beers while we were waiting to load up, beers on the bus and of course, beers at the concert, then more beers back in town before going home.   All that equals an entire day for this 32 year old to recover.

We had tickets on the lawn.  I love the lawn in West Palm because I hate being tied down to an assigned seat.  Of course, the pit is always preferable but not all of the artists even offer it, and most times I can’t afford it.  One of the things about lawn seats is that I always feel sorry for the folks who get there real early and lay out a blanket.  In theory, it seems like a smart thing to do, however, it almost always ends in disaster.

Here is how it goes.  They get there early, lay out their blanket in a good spot.  Call or text all their friends letting them know where they are parked.  Take turns with their friends all afternoon “guarding” the spot.  Everyone is cordial with one another and polite.  Then, the concert starts.  All the people that spent the afternoon hanging out by the beer vendors and the late arrivals start filling up the place.  Things start out ok, people politely walk around the blankets and try not to stand in front of their view.  Then, as the sun sets and the headliner takes the stage, all bets are off.  The die-hards who were trying everything they knew how to do from giving dirty looks to asking politely, have given up on their “seat” are now standing.  The smart ones pick up their blanket, the concert rookies try to stand in front or on top of their blanket. 

So, really, there is no point.  Might as well do what I usually do.  Arrive just as the opening band is hitting the stage, politely work your way in to a reasonably good spot and enjoy.  Or, splurge on the good seats.  No use trying to swim upstream.