Survivor Journals

Bob of If I Die Before I Wake has invited nine journallers to participate in a Cyber Survivor Adventure.

Every couple of weeks, the group will be issued a "challenge entry". The site will post a excerpt from the challenge entries, as well as the link to the complete entry found on the journaller's own journal site.

After the challenge entry is posted, the nine journallers will vote one of the writers off the site.

The "ousted" journaller will actually remain on the site, but rather than posting further challenge entries, they will act as a judge and commentator.

The first challenge entry has been issued, and can be found at the Survivor Journal website. The actual entries should be completed by
October 1, 2000.

Please take the time to visit, especially once the challenge entries are posted. There is a message board to post your thoughts/comments and also a instant poll where visitors can vote for who they would want to see kicked off the site.

The reasons behind Survivor Journals are simple.

1. To try something new.
2. Increase the interaction of the journal community.
3. The challenge.
4. Increased exposure to all journals involved.

So take a look around, explore all the journals involved.

If you would like to take part in Survivor Journals, Year Two, let Bob know!

TEARS AND LAUGHTER

We joined hands around the table and Walt's mother asked Tom to give the blessing. He gave a lovely blessing and then broke down, saying how much he missed David and Paul. It was an inevitable moment. This is our first holiday here without Paul. And it's been difficult without Dave for these 4 Thanksgivings.

We all cried a bit, but then it was time to pass the potatoes, and, as this family does, we kept on going. What sustains us is the love that surrounds us. And laughter. So much laughter. I don't know what there is about this family, but laughter has been an integral part of our lives forever. Whether reliving Walt's family's years in Hawaii and childhood friends with odd names like "Cubby Steinwasher" and "Bosco Wongham," to discussing the 49ers, or just debating the merits of gravy, this family has always found something to bring joy and laughter into the conversation.

I have, in this journal, often talked about my father's shortcomings as a father. But if there was one thing for which I am eternally grateful it was that I inherited his sense of humor and that it has been passed along to the kids (as well as a similarly wonderful sense of humor on Walt's side). My mother has always said, even remembering the bad times that "nobody could make me laugh like Al."

As is typical of many alcoholics, my father could be the life of the party. He stopped short of wearing a lampshade on his head, but he did have a rather eclectic assortment of hats that he would pull out as the sitation seemed to warrant (funniest was some old German military hat). I have photos of him dancing in a grass skirt (and little else) on the beach at Strawberry Point, just over the bridge from San Francisco. He knew how to tell a joke and he kept dozens of scrapbooks with funny headlines (Jay Leno would have loved him!).

I loved looking around the table last night, watching all of us convulsed in laughter over little things. The laughter gets us through and past the pain. And the nicest thing is remembering how much Paul and David loved to laugh up here.

* * *

My laptop is giving me fits and I'm never sure when it's going to cut me off, so I hadn't intended to write any journal entry while up here, but it's 3 a.m. and I can't sleep so I decided to try it. But if there is no entry tomorrow it's because the computer finally won. And I'm sure that it's laughing too, knowing how frustrated it's made me!

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