Dropping the Ball and Picking it Back Up Again.

I started this blog at the end of 2009 because I felt I had something to offer the world of harried travelers.  I wrote a couple of posts and took a few pictures and then showed it to my Mom.  She was usually very supportive of anything I did with my writing (after all she paid for my college education, she enjoyed seeing the fruits of her labors.)  But she didn't really get it. 

I was disappointed, but I knew that when I was trying to pack stuff up for my monkeys I often wished I had a resource out there somewhere with advice.  Plus, I have a tendency to stop strangers in stores when I overhear they're on a trip and drone on and on about packing tips.  So rather than dispense unwanted advice to strangers in the grocery store, I knew I wanted to dispense wanted advice to strangers on the Internet! 

At any rate, I was steeling myself to forge ahead and then my Mom suddenly died.  I got punched in the gut.  I dropped the ball.  I spent last year trying to figure out who I was again.  I still haven't figured it out all the way.  My cellphone still has my parent's number listed under "Mom and Dad".  My brother and Dad spent a week looking for her Christmas candy recipe just so I could make it.  Every day I wish she could give me advice about my boys. 

And yet still, I think about this little baby blog I started.  I still accost unwary Moms in the luggage department looking at travel bags.  I think I'm ready to bend over and pick up the ball.  Just please don't look at my butt...there's probably applesauce on it.