Friday Five: Friendship

Kathrynzj "spent the better part of last week on a continuing education cruise with a group of revgals", so today's Friday Five is about friendship.

1) Do you remember your first best friend? What did you do together? Are they still in your life?

Debbie D! (That's her on the left at my 9th birthday...)



Oh gee, what didn't we do?! There was lots of playing outside (bike riding, swimming at the pool, etc.) We formed a two-person club, the "N.O." (Nosy Organization) and made a little clubhouse in her garage attic. We played with Barbies (which may explain my cake) and had epic Monopoly battles (notice I did not use the word 'game'!) I lost touch with Debbie over the years and haven't been able to find her! I might have to hire a private eye!

2) Did you ever have to move away or have your best friend move away from you?
We moved in the middle of my junior year in high school from North Dakota to Montana, but Debbie and I weren't "best" friends then, just "regular" friends! I definitely missed the friends I left behind, but made some really good new friends.

3) Are there people in your life now that you can call 'friend'?
Yikes, I hope so!

4) What are some of your favorite things to do with your friends?
Go for coffee, meet for lunch, bop around antique stores, break glassware while transporting it in the van (yes there's a whole story there!), etc.

5) What is a gift friendship has given you?
The gift of 'connection', if that makes sense.

catch up

Yep, I'm going to catch you up on some of the things I did while on my "blogbatical"...

In March the fam went to Las Vegas for spring break (in honor of David's 21st birthday). Here we are walking around the Wynn Casino:



Actually the setting there looks sort of Pacific Northwesty, so I guess we could have stayed home for that! We had a great time though -- went to lots of shows, etc. As a family we broke about even on the gambling (due to the superior blackjack skill of Christina -- Who knew?!)



Every trip my mom usually makes one attempt to do me in.
Blog readers might remember this from a trip to Alcatraz a few years ago:




On this trip, my mom made her move when I got a little too close to the edge of one of the ponds at the Flamingo...



My mom is a wily one! :)

the road has reopened

About 5½ weeks ago I took a blogging break. Both my time and motivation for blogging had been decreasing. Apparently I haven't been the only one. I've noticed on the ol' web that the golden age of blogs is probably behind us.

A June '09 New York Times article cited a Technorati survey that found "only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned..." Why, you ask? Well, there are probably a number of reasons but The Guardian's Charles Arthur gives one of the biggies: "Because blogging isn't easy. More precisely, other things are easier – and it's to easier things that people are turning." --e.g. Facebook (more here)

Here's some advice from a Wired article entitled Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004: "Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug."

Well that's succinct.

So what the heck am I doing back? I'm not really sure. I guess I wasn't ready to say bye-bye to Views from the Road just yet. So I'll head down this road for a little while longer -- at least until I see what's around the next bend for me.

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picture above: one of my old postcards, "Inspiration Point"