Hello and welcome to my blog. I've tossed around the idea for this blog for longer than I care to admit. Before I get into exactly what I want this blog to be - and what I hope anyone who reads it will take away, I should explain how I arrived at naming it what I chose. The name comes from an amusing night of after work drinking with some co-worker friends - and my fondness for launching into a spot-on impression of Foster Brooks. If you don't know who Foster Brooks is/was, Google it...or ask somebody.
So the story goes, I was out for drinks after work a few years back (quite a few) with Pat C. (my brother in baldness) and Jorge O. - I'm not sure if there were others in attendance that night & my apologies to anyone I may be leaving out.
On this particular night, I was having a conversation with Pat when we notice our buddy, Jorge talking in his high volume-had-a-couple-drinks voice:
Jorge: JORGE, nice to meet you.
Guy at the bar: Huh? What's your name again??
Jorge: JORGE!
Guy at the bar: Huh???
At this point, Jorge goes full phonetics...
Jorge: HOR-HAY!
Guy at the bar: One more time, man?
Jorge: HOR-HA.....GEORGE!!!
I then launch into my best Foster Brooks impression:
Hic...Buy HOR....hic....hay, a.....hic, BUY GEORGE A DRINK!!
And there you have it. Of all the names I wrote down as potential names for this blog - and there were quite a few, I chose this one. Faint memory that the story behind it is, the amusement factor has held up well over the years - and I get pretty good mileage out of my FB impression too. Then again, I am Irish and I manage a bar for a living, so it works rather well at times.
With all that said, this isn't a blog about drinking. This is a blog about joy on this earthly journey - and about noticing it, being grateful for it and sometimes looking for it when it hides in a crappy day. The kind of crappy day when it would be easier to think that there was no joy to be had at all on. My theory is that even the worst of days almost always have at least some element of joy in them, even if that joy is completely overshadowed by things that don't pair well with happiness and joy. I'm not saying there aren't occasional days that simply don't lend themselves to being happy or thankful for anything. My intentions are to focus on all things that bring me joy - whether it hits me in the feels or when I have to chase it down and do my best to find it.
Joy is a pretty broad spectrum in life, and it can be one little thing, one massive thing...or a series of things in every imaginable size. It could be personal, could be shared - the important thing for me is to notice it and appreciate it as much as I possibly can. Some days it may take up an entire day, and on other days it may be just a glimpse on an otherwise crappy day - or anything in between those extremes.
