Everyone Has A Story — Year Two

Everyone Has A Story has made it through it’s second year. I’m kind of surprised. I get bored with my hobbies within days. I’ve taken up leather-working, only to quit after designing one disastrous bracelet, cross-stitching until I grew bored halfway through the picture, knitting…oh, please. Who knew that required coordination? I truly didn’t really think much about this new blogging hobby at first. I figured I’d probably get bored with it and move on to something else, just like I always do. Happily, I still enjoy this, and I’ve saved a ton of money on hobby/crafts inventory these last two years.

When EHAS was originally started, it was formless and void, kind of like the earth on day one but without the majesty and potential for greatness. As life will do,though, I was thrown some curve balls, and this place became more focused on the very painful realities I was experiencing in my life. Suddenly, my life threw out an actual plot, with characters and suspense.  As one insane act would end, another would begin. Good for the blog. Exhausting for me.

I do sometimes long for the earliest days of blogging, when the slate was completely clean, and the direction was subject to change as quickly as my whims would. One day I would be chastising Dr. Phil’s approach to parenting, while the next day, I was leading a campaign against men wearing nipple shirts. I wrote a post about me and Chef never getting divorced for my kids mere months before we ended up separating, and what our secrets to our happy marriage were. Oh, the irony!! I cringe each time I see that someone has read it. I’m embarrassed by it’s existence , but I leave it us as a reminder to myself that I tend to wear those Rose Colored Glasses like everyone else.  I glanced at those literary gems not long ago, and I have no idea why you people came back. My writing has become so much better because, seriously, it had no where to go but up!

A year ago, my most popular post was The Ministry of Mike Warnke. To say that this man made a huge impact on a lot of lives is an understatement. He brought laughter to me at some of the hardest times of my life, and despite his fall from grace, I still root for his success. That’s 5 Talents from the Lord if I’ve ever seen it. The fact that this topic, which I’ve written about only twice ever is still one of the highest search engine terms at EHAS speaks volumes about the following he still has.

The sad fact this year is that while Mike Warnke still ranks pretty high around here, Satan’s Favorite Drug Ever — Meth has now become the most searched/read post I have these days. My search terms are riddled with people who have found this drug in their own lives. Below is only one small sample of my stats this year.

The funny thing is, I came very close to never publishing that post at all. Forget the very personal nature of it, it was very, very, very long. I’ve often been encouraged to keep my word counts down. It’s nothing for me to sit down and type 3000-word posts, but we all know most people don’t read those really long ones. I follow so many blogs now, I’m lucky to visit each one monthly. So I know exactly how trying it is for readers to keep up with their friend’s writings when they have to read tomes instead of articles. The long, rambling posts like I tend to write aren’t going to be read by many people. And we all know, our readership is very important to us bloggers. But the message back then was important to me, and I published it, assuming that my close friends would read it, the others would would skim it, and most people would skip it altogether. It didn’t matter to me, though. Some of these posts are written for me specifically, and that was one of them.

It would seem that Satan’s Favorite Drug Ever — Meth didn’t suffer the fate of longer articles at all, nor does it suffer from that today either. When Chef and I were going through the madness of his addiction, I felt so isolated and alone. I was so shocked at what was happening around me, I assumed no one would believe me. I could barely believe what I was witnessing myself. I’ve learned now, though, that my story wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination, the worst one. Daily, I receive comments or emails about either a person unable to stop using meth, or a loved one who is terrified at witnessing it’s use by someone they love. The despair out there is rampant, for both the addicted as well as their loved ones. I wish there was a way to comfort all these people, and to give them hope. All I can offer is the knowledge that what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger. A cold proffering on the surface, but I think the addicts and their victims understand exactly what I’m saying. One way or the other, it won’t last forever.

I hope this year brings something happier to focus on than drugs, adultery, and divorce. I miss Nipple Shirt Days and Three Boob Nights, Tweezer Mornings, and Ghetto Girl Afternoons. And I miss the Blogging Awards we all used to circulate to  each other. I have a bunch I have never collected. I miss the simplicity and the innocence of this blog as it once was in the beginning, but embrace the hard-earned wisdom I’ve gleaned from here as well. Sadly, we always gain one at the expense of the other.

It’s been yet another interesting year, and I’m betting, this year I’m going to Blow.Your.Minds.!!! 🙂

~Bird