"You should have a blog."

All my life, people have been telling me I should write a book. Now they tell me I should write a blog. I finally caved. Here it is.

I was writing before I could write. I used to scribble on papers and pretend that the scribbles were words. I think I ruined a few books that way. I was fascinated by the idea that words from my head could be put on paper for others to read. I was the weird kid who liked to diagram sentences while the rest of the class groaned.

When I was thinking of a title for my blog, I wanted something that wouldn't limit me to any one topic. I'm interested in a lot of things, for starters: finance, figure skating, punctuation and pop culture.

I've always been a quiet person. A byproduct of this is that you learn more when your mouth is shut. Observations I collected found their way into poems, stories and journal entries as a kid. When I finished college and got a job writing for a newspaper, I was paid for my observations. Wow. Someone paid me to write about what I saw and heard.

Now I have the chance to write about whatever I want. No editors. No assignments. I'm writing for fun. Even if nobody reads this, I'll enjoy it.

I decided on this blog title because it didn't limit me and it expressed the way I feel about writing. Vitamins promote health and long life. That's what writing does for me -- and probably for lots of other writers. A daily dose of it is good for a writer, but word people don't look at it as a chore. It's enjoyable, satisfying. Writers savor a well-written sentence like a foodie savors a well-prepared meal. We enjoy the taste of it. We delight in how the words feel on the tongue.

This should be fun. And if some friends come along for the ride, so much the better.