Today I am going to start blogging-officially. I know several of you have had the good fortune of stumbling on my previous blog concerning the labor unrest and environmental concerns in China. But alas, that is all in the past and this semester I have moved on to the mating ritual of the fruit fly in my biology class. But, I will just have to wait until another day to share that steamy bit of knowledge with you.
You will notice that the title of by blog is no long The Year of the Rat but rather A View from my Laundry Room. I chose this title because, even though almost half of my family is now out and about and hopefully doing their own laundry, I still spend an inordinate amount of time standing at the counter and folding socks. And while I fold, I think and stew and ruminate (I use big words now that I am back in school). I stand and get irritated with the stupid things that Whoopie blurts out on national television. I need a place to share my views because, believe me, ninety percent of the time my view is certainly not the view of the women around that table. I need a place to post pictures of my cute grandchildren. I need to place to threaten my teenagers that I will also post pictures of them. I need a place to update my views on things I have learned since writing my last two books now that I am a little more humbled by motherhood and marriage and life.
Early in our married life, when we were shopping for our first home, I would find myself looking past the kitchen, past the bathrooms, past the living areas to the laundry room. Did it have a view? Would it be a place I could spend a lot of time? Steve would tease me, “get over the laundry room already, this is getting embarrassing.” Luckily, my laundry room phobia has always had a happy ending. My first house looked down the street. It was perfect. I could see where my kids were playing. My second laundry room looked out a little further. I could see out over the valley. My third laundry room faces my courtyard. It doesn’t look out, it looks in. My books and writing have been the same. First, I watched my kids and wrote about them. Then I looked out, which gave me some unique experiences. Now I find myself looking inward. So welcome to my blog, a view out and a view into my life. Isn’t the Internet wonderful! (For your reading pleasure I have retained my previous entries from “The Dragon Awakes: Modern China”)
