One year ago today, when I was a mere fifty-four and a half years old, I started FiftyFourAndAHalf.com. A blog with a stupid name that I decided to keep. So yup, today’s my first Blirthday!
John Lennon is, in fact singing “Blirthday.” He was a man well ahead of his time, singing in celebration of something that hadn’t happened yet. (Kind of like when he sang about peace.)
*****
When I started this blog, well, I figured it would be filled with rants about politics. That was the subject of my very first post, in fact. I was mad as hell that the GOP wanted to end Medicare for folks 55 and under. I took it rather personally, in fact, given that they were going to take it away from me.
So now that I fixed that –
Excuse me? I didn’t? I didn’t fix it? You mean they’re still talking about screwing people 55 years and younger? Damn! I guess I can’t quit now.
Anyway, I found that I was writing and posting kind of a mish-mash in here. A little politics, a little bit of silly stuff, way more embarrassing stories about me than I can believe I have actually put in print. And occasionally a serious piece. Oh, and I didn’t forget politics.
Yup. I find that FiftyFourAndAHalf.com has become a sock drawer of a blog. And I’m OK with that.
Don’t grumble. They’re all clean.
But to celebrate my Blirthday, I need to thank a number of people who have been helpful and supportive:
John,
Jacob
Cooper
Other Family Members who would kill me if I named them
Jen and Keily and Judy and Bao
And to three friends I met in writing classes who encouraged me to blog. They became my first followers in the early months when, um, I didn’t tell anyone I actually knew about the blog. (These guys are all good writers and they need to post way more often):
Delajus at Higher and Higher
Jamie at SleepDeprivedAndInsane
Lisa at Eat Plants said the Cow
And thank you, my bloggin’ buddies, for reading, commenting, “LIKE”-ing and writing such great stuff that I spend all my time reading and commenting on your blogs instead of cleaning my house. Please remember me when the Health Inspector condemns it.
“But seriously, officer, I’ll clean it up as soon as I finish this comment …”
FiftyFourandAHalf 
Happy Blirthday, Elyse.
LikeLike
Not true at all. There are so many blogs out there, it’s hard to read them all carefully. And after all, it was just one little letter …
🙂
LikeLike
Sorry I missed your birthday, Elyse. Hope it was a good one. I’m only a year and four months behind you. 🙂
LikeLike
It was really my blog’s birthday. I am just having so much fun doing it, I felt compelled to celebrate!
Happy Monday to you, MJ!
LikeLike
See, I’m just not very smart!
LikeLike
Hi,
I’m sorry I am a little late in wishing you a very Happy Birthday, I hope you had a fabulous day, and I too love the Birthday song by the Beatles. 😀
LikeLike
Thanks Mags. Glad to see you are back up and around. (And I think we have a similar taste in music; I always like your picks!)
LikeLike
Thanks GOF. You know, I really appreciate a guy who knows not to sing.
LikeLike
And a belated Happy Birthday from me too. Should I sing it….nah…it would spoil the ambience of your party.
LikeLike
We entered the blogging world around the same time. How ’bout that. Now what? Where do we go from here? Ever wonder if you’ll still be blogging 10 years from now? Do we evolve or keep blogging? I shouldn’t worry over such trivialities but well, it’s worrisome and kinda hysterical too.
LikeLike
Happy, happy blirthday, Elyse! So glad to have found you — I love your take on politics (it helps that you think like I do) and the mish-mash of other stuff. I love sock drawers. I keep pajamas in mine too, is that bad?
LikeLike
Thanks, Angie!
There is nothing wrong with keeping pjs in sock drawers. Or groceries. Or classic TV scenes. You keep whatever you like in that sock drawer of yours. I won’t tell.
LikeLike
They have people who will come by and clean your house for you while you’re blogging and reading. lol
LikeLike
Does Word Press provide them? Free? I’m ready!
LikeLike
Maybe if we start a petition on Facebook? lol
LikeLike
Not if we have to buy stock.
LikeLike
Good point.
LikeLike
Happy birthday/blirthday. Since joining Blog World my house has been burried in dust. Ah well, I see I am in good company.
LikeLike
You’re in great company Lori-Ann. Brilliant, clever funny women do not clean houses. Cooking goes next. Then gainful employment. We can all have an agenda!
LikeLike
Happy blirthday! Please keep it up, ignore the cleaning, that’s what I do.
LikeLike
Thanks Darla. I’m too busy to invite anyone over to see the house anyway.
Great new picture!
LikeLike
Thanks. It’s much more cheery than my last one. Plus, I’m holding my most favorite thing in the world: a bag of Dove dark chocolates. It’s how I roll when I blog.
LikeLike
Ohh Darla, get some milk chocolate ones for me!
LikeLike
Oh, wait…I have some right here…nope sorry, just ate those too. I’ll owe you some though, don’t worry….
LikeLike
I’ll get you my pretty ….
LikeLike
Happy blirthday! If I’d known about it earlier, I would have blaked you a cake.
LikeLike
Thanks, Laura. Yum. I will enjoy virtual blirthday cake for breakfast!
LikeLike
Happy bloggy birthday, Elyse. I love sock drawer blogs, variety is the spice of a social life! Your socks always entertain :).
LikeLike
Thanks, Judy! I’ll keep the socks clean but not necessarily matched!
LikeLike
The office where I worked, before deciding to stay home and care for my mom, had a unique birthday tradition. We’d stand around the birthday person, and sing the Oscar Mayer Bologna song. You know the one… “My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R. Many people dislike their birthdays and are grumpy when you sing Happy Birthday. When you have a group of people standing around, singing about B-O-L-O-G-N-A to you, it’s impossible to maintain that birthday frown. So, I’m singing this song to you for your blogs birthday. Your blog makes me smile, and I hope my song gives you a smile as well.
Here’s to another year!
LikeLike
John, your song absolutely cracked me up!
Celebrating my blirthday is fine. But my actual birthday, not so much. (One of my sisters died at that time of year and, well, kind of spoiled the fun — the bitch.) So I normally just try to get through the day. I will think of you and your Oscar Mayer Bologna song from now on. It is a brilliant technique!
LikeLike
No, no, no, Les — you should have wished me a ha-pooh birthday. I have Crohn’s, not UTIs!
LikeLike
Ha-pee Birthday to you!
LikeLike
Happy Birthday! I’m so glad you’re house is messy and you’re dance card is full, a much better way to walk through life! x
LikeLike
Well, my house is messy but my dance card remains, sadly empty. I tell my husband on occasion all about what my second husband will do. Dancing is tops on that list.
Oh well. I do believe in reincarnation!
LikeLike
Well, I was speaking a little metaphorically 😉 Your dance card of life is full! You have friends, cyber-friends and a writing career second-to-none. (Only people who love you stay around, and mostly people say kind stuff). As for the literal dancing, perhaps in the afterlife you’ll be hanging with Fred Astaire?
LikeLike
Actually, I used you, Karyn. I told my husband I was going to post about my second husband because he is watching baseball on TV. I hate baseball on TV. Golf is probably the only thing more boring!
I would not turn down a dance with Fred Astaire, but I was always more of a Gene Kelley kind of girl. He always seemed more normal. And his partners often got to wear shoes that I have a hope of walking in!
Thanks for stopping by, Karyn. Twice!
LikeLike
Happy Blogirthday and best wishes for many more! I’m so glad you decided to blog and left the dust bunnies alone to fornicate and multiply.
LikeLike
Thanks, Tops!
Yes, there is a lot of that sort of behavior going on in the house. You know, of course, that boring women have clean houses — and no one has ever accused me of having a clean house. Apparently, I am fascinating.
LikeLike
Well at least your aren’t a “Bloviating Ignoramus”……sorry couldn’t help it.
Happy Blirthday..Happy Birther Day…..Oh I am so bad today.
You blog is one of my favorites so I know you will be here for long time to come. I love that you have mismatched socks!
LikeLike
Wait a minute. Now wait just one minute, missy. I’m NOT a “Bloviating Ignoramus”?! That’s been my secret goal this year. Damn.
And I wish I could “Trump” your birther card. Alas, I can’t.
Thanks for your nice comment, and for getting my back so often when I have to actually work!
LikeLike
Happy Blogging Birthday to ya! Hope there are many, many more!
LikeLike
Thanks, Renee. Yes, I plan to ignore the rest of my life for an unspecified period of time!
LikeLike
Hahaha, love it!
Congrats, Elyse! We are so lucky to still have ya around 😉
LikeLike
Thanks, Janis!
LikeLike
HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY! Keep up the good work!
LikeLike
Thanks, D&O.
LikeLike
Happy Birth Day to “fiftyfourandahalf”. It’s really wonderful that, with in one year you have so many readers. It’s possible because you have the ability to make people laugh out of nothing with your sense of humor. So I wish lot more proud moments for your blog “fiftyfourandahalf” in coming years.
Bu the way your this post’s title made me laugh. As you know “It’s my birth day too”. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks, Arindam. I think I got a few new readers through your recent post! But I am having a lot of fun doing this blog. I find I am looking at the world and finding more humor than I was before I blogged. And that’s always a good thing.
But Happy Birthday!!! I hope you had a wonderful day (It’s already Wednesday for you) So I guess I need to wish you “A Very Merry Un-Birthday”!
LikeLike
Happy Bloggy Birthday, and Happy 55th Birthday! You are waaay more brave than me …. no one I know, (in my life outside of blogging), knows about my blog. About two blogs ago, I told one of my sisters about my blog, but other than that, I’ve never been comfortable sharing my blog with anyone in my family.
Funny this subject should come up today. I may have been accidentally discovered by one of my nieces, and it has me seriously contemplating shutting down my blog. It’s complicated. I live with her grandma, (my sister), and that might be too close for comfort.
Anyway, hope your special day is chock full of happy, with an extra dose of smiles thrown in for good measure. Happy Birthday, Elyse!
LikeLike
Thanks, 99. And I think it depends on the content. Some of your posts have been working stuff out in your head and mind, and that is much easier to do when only strangers are listening.
If you do end this blog and start another, be sure to let your bloggin’ buddies know where you ended up!
LikeLike
I just re-read this comment. Apparently, 99, you are two brained — because I said you were working out stuff in your head and mind …
Oh dear. I should never try to be clever!
LikeLike
Great job sticking with it!
I’m actually just now starting to tell people I know about my blog. I don’t know why I’ve been so hesitant.
LikeLike
Thanks, B-Man.
It took me about 2 months to tell folks, and then I figured if I am not proud of it I shouldn’t be writing it. (Of course, my crappier posts do embarrass me.)
There are cons to letting people know, too. You must be very cautious in what you say. Me, there are folks I know that I would love to make into a hilarious post, but, ummmm, nobody likes knowing that they are the butt of your joke. So I just tell those stories behind their backs :).
You reached 1,000 followers without telling anybody you know about your blog? Me I bribed 200 of the 225.
LikeLike
Congratulations on making it one year. I think only about 5% of blogs make it that far. They are more work than folks realize. I found yours via A Frank Angle blog list; and you do so well covering all the subjects, that I watch yours a lot and have added it to my blog roll. No changing names now. Yours is great and unique. By the way I am biased as I am 54.5 in about 6 weeks.
LikeLike
Thanks, Randel. Only 5% of bloggers continue? You’d think that there would be way more people who have nothing to do. After all, TV ain’t what it used to be in our day!
And a very merry un-birthday to you!
LikeLike
Happy Birthday! You go girl (I can call you ‘girl’ since you’ll call me ‘kiddo’ even when I’m 54 and one half). So proud and in awe!
And thanks for giving me my 15 minutes (seconds?) of fame.
LikeLike
You’re right, Kiddo, I will! Thanks for your comment — I’m happy to give you that burst of fame. Now if you would only do something incredibly stupid, I’d write a whole post about you. Alas, you never do. But I love you anyway. (Did you notice the teeth on the picture they assigned you?! All that dental work and here you are presented to the world with only one tooth!)
LikeLike
Happy Birthday! Eat some cake.
LikeLike
Ooh, if you insist! Thanks Michelle!
LikeLike
Happy Bloggiversary! May the dryer of your brain continue to spit out your delightfully mismatched sock-posts.
LikeLike
Thanks, Peg. I’m sure it will lose a few too.
LikeLike
Happy Blirthday to you, Elyse
😉 Nigel
LikeLike
Thanks, Nigel! I think I have lost my subscription to your blog. I better go fix that!
LikeLike
So happy that you’re having the Big Number One, because it’s better than me going around telling people that “Hey, Elyse is having a Big Number Two!” Which is probably a metaphor for something… but I need my first cup of coffee to figure it out.
Congratulations Elyse! I wouldn’t bother to dip your pigtails in my ink well if I didn’t kinda like ya! Lol 🙂
LikeLike
Ah, Chris, thanks. And as a woman with IBD (https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2012/05/18/another-day/), I really do appreciate it not being a No. 2. I will just skip over next year and go right straight to No.3. Everyone would be happier that way. Especially me.
Don’t worry about the pigtails, Chris. They can take it!
LikeLike
Just read the post that you linked to, and commented. I wish that I had read it sooner, but I didn’t and I’m not psychic, so I am sorry for making the number two joke, but I had no way of knowing how much of a mistake it would be.
But you’ve got tough pigtails, so we’re OK, right?
LikeLike
“a sock drawer of a blog.” – LOVE IT!
Happy Blirthday, you snazzy blogger babe!
Thanks for the nod – and right back at ya on that one. And while we’re on that subject, thank you for reading everything of mine every time – even that long story that you spent hours on, commenting and editing which, by the way, the editor of the contest said didn’t need any more editing, which made me look oh-so clever which, really, was due to you.
So thank you Elyse for giving me your time, your encouragement, and your hilarious/inspired/thought-provoking blogs. And for making cyberspace an overall better place to be.
Cheers to you, Fiftyfourandahalf!
Kiss, hug,
Lisa
LikeLike
What a sweet message! Thanks pal. Back at you — write more!!!!
LikeLike
I must say, your blog has more interesting content than your sock drawer….Happy Blirthday! Or Blogoversary! Or whatever…
LikeLike
Thanks, TwinDaddy, I’m glad you think so. Especially since I have the most boring socks on the planet (all black or tan so that they match each other — I HATE sorting),
LikeLike
Yeah, me too. I’m about to the point that I’m going to throw all my socks away and just buy two bags of the same socks so I don’t ever have to sort…
LikeLike
Happy First Blirthday!
LikeLike
Thanks, Sandy. I should celebrate with one of your pink drinks, hold the olives!
LikeLike
Congrats! Happy blirthday. Hope the next year is just as fun and exciting.
LikeLike
Thanks, Mom.
But I’m old enough to wish for “non-disastrous” for my future!
LikeLike
Happy Birthday!
LikeLike
Thanks, Susan!
LikeLike
Happy birthday, and rock on, elyse!
And in our eyes, you’ll always be fifty four and a half. Even though you don’t look a day over fifty three and seven eighths.
LikeLike
Aw, shucks, Guap. You really know how to turn a lady’s head.
LikeLike
Happy Birthday, Elyse! I love the variety of your “sock drawer.”
LikeLike
Thanks, Paprika. It’s fun trading posts with you!
LikeLike
Happy Blirthday! Has your blog started walking yet? Wait–I’m confusing a blog and a baby. They are not the same from what I remember although my blog did spit up a few days ago.
Here’s to another blogtastic year!
LikeLike
Thanks, Speaker7. My blog actually is walking. Sometimes the blog walks away with a post and I am left speechless.
LikeLike
Happy Blirthday, Elyse. I don’t know the statistics, but I’d bet most blogs don’t last a whole year. Keep writing!
LikeLike
Thanks Charles! And thanks for the shout out on your blog, too.
LikeLike
Happy Birthday. 24K+ hits in your first year is unbelievable, so I want a post about your secrets! Well done!!!!
LikeLike
Thanks, Frank.
The secret is multiple computers — I’m always clicking on myself.
LikeLike
Thanks, Laura. And Congratulations to you (real birthday or blog?)
LikeLike
Congratulations! It’s my “birthday” too! Keep on writing and may your sock drawer never be empty!
LikeLike