Did someone say take out?

In our family, just about every family gathering revolves around food. We are always trying to come up with some excuse to go out to dinner. Whenever my wealthy and eccentric Great Aunt Inga and Uncle Jerry come into town from California, we get the entire extended family together and go out to the Spaghetti Factory. The odd part is that the majority of us never get together or really even talk unless Inga and Jerry are in town. As soon as we all get together though, it is hours of laughing and just having a good time. When we all leave we all promise to "get together more often" but never do.

Birthdays are another going out event in my family. Now that we are all adults and have families and lives of our own, we always make it a point to go out to dinner for someone's birthday. We invite our close family and sometimes a few close friends. I love these dinners because even though we are close family, these days it can still be difficult to get together. They remind me of when I was growing up. After my parents got divorced when I was little, it was just my mom, my two brothers and I. Every Sunday after church we would go to this little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant in Marysville. Good portions, good food, great price! We always looked forward to it. We seriously did this for several years, and the wait staff and owners knew our family and we loved that.

I think our family likes going out to eat because no one is stuck in the kitchen or worrying about cleaning up after. Everyone gets to relax. We all get to participate in the conversations and just the event that is our family getting together. No matter who with, or where we go, going out to eat is our family tradition.

Craigslist Addict!

Shopping on craigslist is a community. I call it a community because it is made up of a diverse group of people all looking for something they need or want. We have that in common. We are held together by a need or a want for something, and are typically just looking for a good deal. Craigslist shoppers don't necessairly share in the same interests, other than a bargain, as there are literally thousands of different items for sale, or wanted or for trade at any given point in time. There isn't usually a place for tension within the Craigslist community because we are all just shopping. Every once in a while you will get someone that posts something negative about another posting, but there's always going to be that one person bringing you down right. I think most of us just ignore it, because in the grand scheme of things, what does it really matter if they are selling something that's only worth $5 and they are asking $100? I mean that's their perogative, right?

I love this community of Craigslist shoppers, because I feel right at home. We are all looking to buy or sell something, that could be important to me, or was to someone else at one point. I really first got into it when I had my daughter almost 2 years ago and was always looking for good deals on nice, used clothes, shoes, toys or furniture. Then it turned into my real estate agent, and it helped me find my lovely new home. It is just a great community to all come together to help suit our basic needs. And really that's what communities do, help suit our basic needs. It can help us earn extra money by selling things we don't need; or it can help us get a good deal on something we do need. I am proud to be a part of, and an advocate for the Craigslist shopping community!