IPO--Initial Public Offering

Here it is: my foyer into the world of online journals.

After months (and many months more) of vacilation between "to have...or not to have" a blog, I finally settled on the former. Then came the arduous task of choosing a site: blogger vs. xanga. While xanga seems more popular, they also seem to lack the aesthetic qualities of blogger--plus blogger (so I'm told) offers the capacity to post pictures at no extra cost.

"So why the reluctance to blog?" you might be wondering. As I shared with Pam in a recent email, I find it somewhat arrogant to assume that people might want to know the inner workings of my mind beyond the banquet of totally unsoliticed thoughts that I spew out daily. Maybe if I were a slightly more ingenious genious I could expect others to be interested...
That you're reading this lays to rest my apprehensions about being accused of egotism. And I suppose the hundreds of thousands of other bloggers can't all be egomaniacs.

My other reservation was that I couldn't share all my thoughts (especially some of the really funny ones) and without offending people, knowingly or otherwise. I suspect that this is essentially true of all blogs. Maybe there's a feature that allows me to restrict certain entries... [Please inform me if you know how to activate said feature.]

Today I picked up my sister from her running retreat. She's a senior at UCI, but still helps our high school cross country team. So there she was, amid about a score of young, sprightly, agile teens who all run between 3-10 miles daily. Though I excercise five times a week, I (regretfully) lack the vigor, energy and enthusiasm of my yesteryears. (Sigh...don't we all?)

This scene reminded of what I will refer to as "my youth", though I have by no means actually escaped that period of my life. [Incidentally, I think one's 20s have become something of a life-stage limbo: not really a kid, but not really settled into a career path or family.] Oh-so-pernicious nostalgia began knocking at the door, but I resisted the urge. For fortification, I reminded myself of the many blessings I now enjoy that I did not have access to in "my youth". Although things seemed simpler then (please excuse the cliche--my eyes, too, rolled when I typed it), it seems wiser to enjoy today rather than lament yesterday's passing.

Oh! And I had dinner with Alvin at Life Plaza. Notwithstanding his arriving an hour late (a feat from last week that he apparently thought was worth repeating), we had a very good dinner: Shanghai ribs, spinich, and overly seasoned chicken nuggets (plus strawberry smoothes, buy one, get one free!) Our culinary bliss was accompanied by animated conversation, and followed by good times in the nearby arcade.

Oh yeah...I was also shamefully ill-prepared to teach SAT II biology class today. Hopefully my guilt will compel me (for the sake of my job and my students' learning) to be ubber-prepared next week, when we delve into photosynthesis and anatomy.