And that's... something

I've been thinking about blog names recently, thanks to Miss Thystle. Which is nice, since she usually has me thinking about boobs and alcohol. Which makes me keep looking to be sure the husband isn't following her on Twitter. Because that's totally his kind of girl. Almost like I was, before I got boring. Which I will blame on him.

So, blog names. Why did I pick this one? During my first (and last) semester at The Real College I Went To, my nickname was Pearl. Thankfully, this was before Spongebob, who has a friend named Pearl. And she is a whale. I assume she's also adopted, since her father is a crab. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But, when I was 18, I had 7 piercings in my ears, and wore (fake) pearl earrings in 5 of them. I don't know about other schools, but nicknames were all the rage at mine. My best friends were Mickey, Mallory, and Jules. Quentin Tarantino was also all the rage.
There are people in the world right now who have no idea what my real name is. They will forever think of me as "Pearl." Or possibly "That girl who never went to class."

When I started this blog, I didn't really have any specific intent. I mean, my life is pretty boring. In a good way, but boring. I have kids and pets and dirty dishes and I live in the middle of nowhere, where I see more deer than people on a daily basis.

There's often drama swirling around me, but it rarely involves me. The most exciting thing that's personally happened to me this week was being able to buy a barn for My Farm on Facebook.

I used to be full of drama, though. I was the girl standing up in the back of a Jeep Wrangler, holding on to the roll bar while going down the highway at 70mph. I was asked not to return to The Real College I Went To. I've also attended 2 community colleges, yet I have earned zero transferrable credits. I've lived in a cheap apartment in a bad neighborhood and spent my paychecks on shoes and cigarettes. I've also lived in a non-frat house, where very-frat parties were thrown. I danced in cages at a nightclub. After having a baby out of wedlock. I have had a pierced tongue. And I married a guy I knew for 8 months.

I knew drama.

Now I know how nice it is to NOT have drama... for the most part. Once in a while, it's still fun to poke a bear with a stick (metaphorically - I've happily avoided our actual neighborhood bear for over 3 years now) just to keep myself on my toes. But it's mostly laundry and teaching double digit addition for me these days. And it is good.

I do think that my past has made my present incredibly rewarding, and I love the perspective it has given me. I can't claim to have any pearls of wisdom, but there are certainly pearls of... something rolling around in my head. Not every day. Some days are just a bunch of cat pictures or rants about rats with hooves. And the days that produce pearls don't always translate well to print but, if I could invite you to sit in my head on those days, I promise you'd be blown away!

One of my oldest invisible friends (and by oldest, I mean known for the longest, though I will point out that I am younger than she) is one of those fancy-shmancy word people who went to college to learn more about word stuff. I am very jealous of her, because she has a blog name complete with a hook. Silver Linings always signs off with "And that's my silver lining for today."

How cool would it have been if I had thought to sign off with "And that's... something" for each of my posts?!?! But now I can't do that because it seems morally wrong. But I will want to from now until forever.

So I would like for you to start checking out Judy's silver linings, as long as you promise to remember that most of my posts are pure genius inside my head. And feel free to visit Miss Thystle for thoughts about boobs and booze, because you'll rarely find that here. Though, if I ever win one of her contests and empty a flask, I suppose it's possible I might share the picture of the french fry that dropped down my shirt during our Land Of Make Believe trip.

P.S. If you go to Miss Thystle and mention my name, I get an extra entry into her flask contest, which could bring you that much closer to my french fry picture. So do it.