Happy Anniversary to Traislínge's Blog!

On a sunny day in 2005, I'd gone to the mailbox as I'd done so many times when I got home from work and retrieved my mail. In there among the cheesy adverts and myriad bills was my guilty pleasure, People Magazine. And inside the magazine was an article on 40-year-old virgins. The movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Steve Carrell had just come out and that engendered this article. I was sufficiently motivated by the article that the half-idea of joining a blogging service suddenly became the whole idea.

So on Sunday, 21 August, I sat down in my home office in front of my desktop computer and found Blogger, opened up my account, filled in the information about myself (which does get updated from time to time) and finally, after inputting, designing, mulling, and selecting, I was finally at my first posting ever!

The first post was not "First Topic: 40-Year-Old Virgins". The first post was actually entitled "All About Tr'Aislínge" and went like this:

All About Me/Basic Traislínge Blog Rules

"Yes, that's me - Aislínge. The "traislínge" thing will be explained at a later date (everlasting love and thanks to "Smells" for that one) but it is not a put-down. The other person there is my husband, Luis, who will get (willingly and un-) a lot of mention.

I should explain that Luis and I have been together for nearly 16 years now (we consider our anniversary 22 March [1990]). We are not legally married. I am not religious and therefore not bound by any ecclasiastic reasons to be bound to anyone, however, the legal marriage is not there either. However, calling Luis my "boyfriend" is patently ridiculous and just a little tepid. We have been together longer than many married couples and have been to a few weddings that have since ended rather acrimoniously... so. You see where "boyfriend" simply doesn't work. He is not my "domestic partner" and he is not my "little friend" (a grandmother's description) and certainly not my "roommate". I suppose POSSSLQ works, but I believe the government has discontinued that term (it means Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Same Living Quarters and used to show up on some government form[s]). And most don't know that term. I like to say that we are living in sin... just to be difficult... you can decide how you feel about it.

My name is pronounced "ash-lin[g]" - it's a hard "g", like in "girl" or "gout", not soft, like in "gel". It's Gaelic and very typical of it - extra letters with no seeming purpose and missing letters.

I'm 37, born on 26 January, and I am 5'4" and approximately 189lbs - subject to change, of course, althought not usually for the remarkably better. I have gotten as high as 205 and as low as 170 (last August, thanks to a upper digestive illness that allowed me to keep nothing down - not a recommeded way to lose weight!). However, up until I was in my early 20s, I was my correct weight. I miss it and while I recall being thin and if I don't see a mirror I feel thin, I'm not. I'm not quite morbidly obese, but I'm most definitely Rubenesque... sounds nice, right? (I am fortunate that for the most part I am evenly distrubuted in my excess weight and so while I'm not slender, I'm not oddly shaped. Although I hate my upper arms - but those are from my paternal grandmother and likely they'd look flabby no matter what...)

I have a multitude of interests - I read voraciously, love my "Word-a-Day" e-mails, consider a well-rounded vocabulary a key neccesity, love almost all the sciences, write long, detailed letters to people in other places: currently Czech Republic, Germany, England, France, Malaysia, Dallas in Texas and Keene in New Hampshire. I love to write. (Maybe that is why a blog makes so much sense for me.) I regularly read science fiction, fiction, "The Complete Idiot's Guide To ..." and "... for Dummies" books, and always get Discover, National Geographic, and People magazines. I have not one but three atlases and one globe (that I desparately wish to upgrade - it still has Czechoslovakia on it, along with USSR). I have some many books that they are not just in our library (the downstairs bedroom) but also in my office, Luis' office and our dining room.

I collect: Sensa pens, writing paper, crystals, seashells, organising tools, CDs and DVDs. I also collect foriegn and old bank notes and coins. I love getting bank notes. Most have a very low value but they are just so wonderful. American money is dull as dirt, although nice to have - in my wallet...

I am a Human Resources Generalist by profession. I am a volunteer EMT by vocation (there is, to me, difference). I am also a wench at the New York Renaissance Festival, where I have been now for 19 years. It runs every weekend from the first weekend in August to the last weekend in September. It is a fun thing and I do enjoy it.

A few things will never come up in this blog: my professional life as regards current position (when I have one) and current work-related stories. That may change once I am no longer with that employer but even then it will only be in the extremely abstract. I will admit that in my line of work, I would most certainly become employee-non-grata if I were to discuss issues - being in Human Resources.

Another item that will not be discussed are details about people I deal with in the line of my volunteer EMT work. It is unethical and illegal and although I will freely discuss my personal feelings on the various things I encounter, no names, addresses, specific times or associative details of any patient will come up.

All friends will have made-up names to protect their anonymity. That's only fair. I probably will keep any friendship-related gripes out as well, just so that no one can say anything about a situation that they know is about THEM and see my personal feelings on it. No one likes that.

I suppose other rules will come up as I go, this being an all new experience. For now, we will start with those."

This went up at 17:27 and was promptly followed by two more posts: "First Topic: 40-Year-Old Virgins" (posted at 18:15) and "A Day in My Life" (posted 18:45). One thing to know about the post time is that it actually reflects the date and time one opened a new post, not when one hit the "publish post" button with the mouse. So that can be misleading... especially when several days has elapsed since I opened the post and subsequently complete it and forget to update that information. I can also post-date or pre-date any posting, such as this one, to go live at the time I wish. While there is a better than high chance that I will be up at 00:01on Friday morning, one of two things will be happening: I will be on a call or I will be getting ready to go to bed. Either way, I will not be posting at that moment.

Actually, I think I will amend the time. Instead of going live at midnight, I will have it go live at 17:27, when I posted my original, first-time ever post in 2005. That is even more fitting! And as we are getting together with friends for dinner, that is a time I'm unlikely to be available as well.

Happy Anniversary, Tr'Aislínge's Blog!