I've never written a blog entry. I don't really know what blogs are. Confessions? Random thoughts? Stuff you later regret saying in a public forum of strangers? Why do people have blogs? To reveal their unconscious thoughts raised into consciousness? To spout about any little thought that comes to mind and capture it before it floats aware forever like exhaled breath, or hayweed or dandruff?

Here's a thought that just came to mind: Most people might assume I will write blog entries about mothers and daughters, or China, or the solitary life of a writer, or to give very sage Buddhist-like thoughts that float in and out of my literary head as I observe snow falling on trees. But I'm like most peopple, made up of ordinary moments in life, those planned and not, some interesting and others irritating, all those moments I absorb, deflect, and react to.

Today's major moment was discovering my new ski boots did not fit me properly. That was followed by a big moment known as bad skiing. Then came a moment of getting ski boots adjusted. Then a moment of feet going numb. Then a moment of getting ski boots adjusted. Then a moment of hands turning into frozen fronds. Then another moment of etc...etcetera here means boring but essential stuff. (Why are you reading this?)

Now is the moment of sitting in the guestroom of a friend's house on the mountain, a house that requires you have a PhD in wall light switches. There are about ten little buttons you must choose from to turn on the hallway light. I once pressed the top choice and shut off all the lights in the entire house and people started yelling, "Who the *^&$*# did that?" Since then, I have spent most hallway moments walking in the dark. Each doorway opening in a house with many guestrooms is like braille when walking in darkness.

Now is the moment of getting warmed by the laptop on my lap, the doggie on one side, Husband on the other. Actually, I am still rather cold from the previous moments on the ski lift and thus, this moment should be followed by a hot shower. That will lead to warmer moments, warmer thoughts.

Okay. Back now feeling more warmly toward this blog. As you can see, my moments are rather pedestrian. And if you think pedestrians are wonderful, then my moments today were like a car in rush hour traffic. The sage Buddhist advice is this: Try not to sound like a whiner just because everyone else's moments were better than yours.

In about 30 minutes, I will have better moments. It is New Year's Eve. I am predicting good moments to take on a positive attitude. There will be happy skiers who had better-fitting boots, about 20 people eating and drinking, mostly the sliced, or smoked, or medium rare flesh of animals, which I do not eat, being a pescatarian. Then someone will force everyone else to play competitive word games. As always happens, someone will say at the beginning of a word game: "Did you ever think you would be playing [Ridiculous Word Game] with a world-famous author (their words about me, not mine)?" Later, I will look ridiculous playing [Ridiculous Word Game], because I will be the worst player and cause my team to lose, and inevitably someone will say, "Can you believe this is a world-famous author and she does not know that the answer is Britney Spears' sister?"

The other night the World-Famous name I wrote down that people had to guess was Willa Cather. That is a hard name to provide clues for, I have learned. Someone said the first name sounded like that of the pig in Charlotte's Web, then he tried the wife of Fred Flintstone, then the name of a dog that was in the room. That led to people guessing Willard, Wilma, Willy...no one could bridge those names to Willa. I have learned I can win this Ridiculous Word Game by writing down authors with unusual world-famous names! Like Colm Toibin. Quick!--what´s the clue? Your have twenty seconds! Tick, tick, tick... Rabih Alameddine. Bharati Mukhurjee. Those would be good , too. By including the names of World-Famous Writers in the ridiculous game this will encourage really competitive people to to come to Redroom.com to become more skilled at thinking up clues ahead of time. The other world-famous authors in this website will benefit from this name game, too. If you are an author reading this, you're welcome.

After a suitable amount of revelry, but not too much considering many of us are getting on in years and no longer think that getting drunk is fun, we will hail in the New Year by pretending we are on East Coast Time. We will go to bed and spend moments in blissful dreams. Unless Husband has moments of snoring...

Okay! That was it! My first blog entry. I realize now that blogs, mine specifically, are for writing about stuff that no one would ever listen to face to face. They are meanderings, totally ridiculous, like those word games I was talking about.

Wishing you many happy moments in the New Year.