BLOG: Fifty Shades of Absence

Well, hello everyone!  I'm sure many of you are wondering where I've gone.  Has my life gone free of funny stories?  Have my children been so well-behaved I've had no content?  Has dad of the year not screwed up so severely that I just had to write about it?  Well, no, this isn't the case.  However, what did happen to me is completely undramatic.  It just might make you laugh.  You may judge me more than you ever have before.  Yet what happened to me is something that has swept a nation of women - the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.  

Now, come on, I see on Facebook that MANY of you are reading these books too.  I really had no intention of reading it, but I kept seeing people talk about it.  I heard the jokes about a Fifty Shades baby boom.  I laughed at the many posts stating women had forgotten to cook dinner because they were reading.  I cannot lie.  All the hype peaked my curiosity. 

It wasn't until I was out for drinks with dad of the year and some of his co-workers that the topic of the book came up again.  One of his co-workers was happy to let me know she'd read it and would let me borrow her copy.  Hey, what did I have to lose?  It's not like I was buying anything. 

This will sound crazy, but I read the first maybe five pages of the book, put it down and wondered what all the hype was about.  Let me make this perfectly clear, I was by no means reading this book because I'd heard it was known for its literary genius.  However, as I saw more and more Facebook posts, I decided to keep going.  So, I picked it up a few days later and kept reading.  Four days later, I was done with the first book.  Over the next five weeks, I would find myself reading any chance I got.  I started taking lunch at work just to read a few more pages.  I was completely and utterly hooked!  Go ahead, judge me.  

What this leads me to is that while I was swept up in my reading, I did little else.  Therefore, my great absence in writing.  This seems to not have gone unnoticed.  I ran into people at the grocery store, the pool, even at daughter of the year's daycare who eventually all posed the same question, "Hey, when you gonna have a blog post again?"  

OK, OK, your comments did not go unnoticed and I thank each of you for boosting my ego a notch.  I still live in a mindset that I have three very avid readers of my blog and none of those three care when I have a temporary leave of absence from writing.  I stand corrected.  However, I appreciate you hanging with me as I got caught up in a Fifty Shades whirlwind.  

Now that I've finished the trilogy, I vow to try to write more often.  To keep a keen wit about me as to pick up on every hilarious thing my family does.  To smile and maybe even give you an unexpected hug when you ask if I will write again soon.  And lastly, to continue on my endless pursuit for mom of the year.  

For now, I'm off to cook my family a hot meal from something I pinned on Pinterest.  Hey, isn't that what every mom of the year does?