Almost all of my immediate family can be found on Facebook. Only my parents and the kids that are too young to be using it anyway are missing. And, given that some of her friends keep telling her to join, I can’t imagine my mother won’t eventually sign up as well.

I love it and I hate it. Well, hate’s a strong word but you know what I mean. My family has always been spread out. If there’s one thing I really do miss in my life, it’s the closeness that comes from living in the same town as the rest of your family. There are days I’d kill to be able to pop in and spend thirty minutes shooting the bull with my parents or sisters. And, yes, I can call them instead but, my weird phone phobia aside, it’s not the same thing. That is until someone invents hugging via phone.

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Thirty three years ago, a squalling baby was born in Augusta, Maine. And the baby grew and became girl.^*

I didn’t plan to post much about my history but Babsis very nicely requested more information about my connection to Germany. And, well, knowing a little bit more about my background will serve as a good foundation for some other posts I have planned.

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I’m here, John. A little tardy but here.

Before I get to my hellos, I’d like to urge everyone to consider helping out the folks in Haiti. Tumblr’s got a list of places that providing relief but I prefer the list over at Daily Kos. We don’t all believe in the same causes but, between those two lists, I hope you can find at least one you find worthy. Shit like this scares me but, on the flip side, disaster of this magnitude often brings out the best in us humans. The concern I’ve seen online today reminds me how far we’ve come as a global community. It wasn’t that long ago it’d take weeks to find out what happened in Haiti much less mobilize to get help to the region. But now? Hours after the earthquake people were already donating what they could to the cause. It’s more than a little awe-inspiring.

And a reason to ignore those who think my Twitter use indicates an excess of time on my hands. Sure, we have fun with The Lark and get a little too wrapped up in the results of a reality dance show but, much like the time we spend with friends offline, these things establish much deeper bonds. Bonds that have us reaching out to people around the world because we’ve long since stopped thinking of our neighbors as just those people who we can see from our living room windows.

Anyway. Hi! Guten Tag. Wie geht’s? Despite John’s doubts, it is definitely a privilege to be blogging here. Even when you’ve got a house (or two or, well, he forgot my book review blog and my cake blog) of your own, you’re appreciative when someone tosses you the keys to his house and invites you to make yourself comfortable. Besides my blogs are very topic specific, I’m looking forward to the challenge of broadening my blogging horizons a bit.

Which is my round about way of answering Catherine’s question about my plans. I don’t have anything concrete in mind but I’ve got a few post ideas kicking around. It’s the start of a new year so maybe a little talk of goals and resolutions. Some thoughts on social networking. A few other vague topics of that sort. And after John’s smack talk, I’ve been examining the foundation on my house of cards. He can try to topple it but clearly he’s already forgotten how I brought down Vanalam and Amrie.

Oh, and Catherine, the Buffy and Faith picture just represents my love for Buffy and for those two characters in particular. And for stories about hot chicks who kick ass. It’s actually a picture of a banner at Dark Horse’s Comic-Con booth a few years ago. As for the other pictures, hopefully they too capture some aspect of my personality. Even the Care Bear picture which admittedly was mostly included for John’s sake. If anyone wants to know the story behind any of the others, ask away.

* My parents had a pool put in right before we moved to Florida. If there’s one possession my Dad treasures, it’s his pool. Which is why that’s the first thing out of his mouth when he walks in the door. I’ve long since stopped actually answering the question, these days I just consider it his version of hello. So, how’s the water?

Behold. Rae now walks among us.

As you can see, johncabrera.com is looking a bit different. If you were keeping up with my posts here during the months of October-December then you know all about The Lark.

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