warning....

So I feel it is time to offer you a disclaimer before I really get going with this thing. I am not an eloquent writer. I am certainly not a talented writer in the “I should write a book” sense. Some of you are, and I wish I could say things half as well as you, but then I wouldn’t be me would I?
There was a time when I did a fair amount of writing. It wasn’t a good time for me, and I’m not sure the writing is any good either, but in re-reading it now, I think it still captures who I was then (and to a large extent still am – despite Alice’s observation in part 1) and what I was going through at the time(s) I wrote them. I am going to put some of that stuff on here for a few reasons. One: Because I have told some of you (if those of you I told this to are actually reading this, otherwise nevermind) that I would let you read it. One-A: Because I made someone a promise many years ago. A very good friend gave me a journal to write things in with the promise that when it was full, I would give it back to her. I don’t think I will ever actually fill it (and considering most of my writing is done when I’m trolling the depths of my soul, that’s a good thing), and I’m not sure that she’d want it anymore even if I could fill it. But that book saved me back then. I have never been good at expressing my feelings except in writing, be it poetry, letters, emails, etc… Having that place to put those feelings, and knowing that no one could judge me for them unless I wanted them to, was precisely what I needed.
Two: It might help get the creative juices flowing to sit down and rehash and re-type some of that old stuff.
Three: You cannot truly know who I am without knowing who I was. As much as I would like to go back and change the things that caused me to write them, those “experiences” made me who I am. There is of course more to it than that, and maybe someday I will get around to discussing some of those things in more depth, but for now let’s just say that while I do not wish to GO back to yesterday, I do wish to LOOK back to yesterday and learn from yesterday in order to ensure that I will be here for tomorrow. And more importantly, to make sure that the me of today and the me of tomorrow are people I’d be proud of and would want to introduce you to. Many of you knew the Brandt of yesterday, some of you even knew the Brandt of day before yesterday, and yes, I was a different person then, but for better or for worse, I am still me.

Disclaimer #2. There’s one thing I like as much as I like quotes… tangents. And bad puns. Ok, two, there are two things I like as much as quotes, tangents and bad puns. And metaphors. Three! There are three things I like as much as quotes, tangents, bad puns, and metaphors, often cheesy, obscure, over-used, at times impossible to follow metaphors. And derailed trains of thought.