Suddenly I must give some thought to how much of a public person I choose to be. Before I moved to the Valley two years ago, I had been involved in media/entertainment in a small Deep South city for over 20 years, and I was pretty well known in the community. I had been involved in the same faith community for that whole time, and I suppose I was something of a small-bore celebrity, not that celebrity is important to me; I find my satisfaction in the performance of my duties.

The...

So how is today different?

Maybe I was wrong about the arrival of spring. Today is drear, if warm (72F when I drove by the florist; his clock's usually right, so I trust his thermometer), but the weather droids are saying snow flurries Friday. Bummer.

I suspect that I don't post (and especially top-post) much is that I think anything I might have to say is picayune and sophomoric. And in looking over the drivelous stuff I've posted, I am just as snarky as I was in seventh...

I see that we're already discussing manners and bullying (In the "Just A Suggestion" thread in Getting Started). Feels kind of "Dopey" to me. Maybe there's a raw nerve that keeps getting jangled. If so, we'll get over it. Families fight.

I posted that the redbuds are beginning to show in the Valley (sank like a stone, of course; I'm still coy about just which Valley), but I'm getting excited about spring. All of a sudden, after a Monday morning low of 4F, it got...

Gawd, I was so excited to discover these boards! I was a lurker at SDMB for years, and once-upon-a-time a guest member, but I never paid, and when free membership came along the tone of the board was becoming more intimidating, so the Dope was pretty much only objective, and it looked like it might be coming apart . . .

Comes now Giraffe, with the suggestion that there might be found all the fun of SDMB without the uneasy, walk-on-eggshells baggage of a deteriorating relationship....