Welcome to the 2012 version of SoCal Mom!

I started this website in 2003, as an easy way to keep my family and friends updated on a family vacation to Britain (where my husband grew up) and Paris (a place I had never been — and long to visit again). At that time, I was running a work-at-home business website AND a content syndication service that catered to other “mom-and-pop” online businesses and I was in NO MOOD to do any HTML coding or CGI script installations of my own — I just wanted a place to express my own, first-person thoughts… and post photos, as well.

So I signed up with Typepad, which at that time gave me the most features I needed at a low-cost and named my new site SoCal Mom’s Travelblog. (You get it? Like a “travelogue.” One of those little words that were in vogue when I was young.)

A funny thing happened to me during that trip: I discovered that people were reading my little travel diary. I received a few comments from friends. But the big surprise was that I also received comments from complete strangers. And since it was a more innocent time, the comments made me feel all warm and fuzzy, because they were complimentary — from other women who seemed a lot like me.

I got hooked, on writing and reading comments and then on reading blogs by others and making comments myself. And before long, I had forged new and enduring friendships with people living all over the country (and around the world); funny, intelligent, lovely people who were making human connections through this amazing, growing, crazy Internet thing called blogs.

The world has changed since 2003, and so has blogging. And I’m still here. Kick back, look around — and leave me a comment, if you are so inclined. I only ask that it be a genuine interaction and not just a means to drum up traffic to your own site. Speaking of which:

My Comments Policy

Comments on this site are moderated. That means they do not appear on the blog until I have had a chance to review them. That way, my readers don’t have to slog through a mess of comment spam about viagra and other topics they don’t want to read about here.

That said: I love your comments. I really do.

A good comment is like a little birthday present; proof that something I wrote resonated with someone else. Commenting is how bloggers build community, and I am blessed to have dozens of good friends who live around the world; people I initially met because they had commented on my site.

donnaSo feel free to comment.

However… if you enter a business instead of a name and your comment is simply a “Me too,” I am going to suspect that the only reason you left it is to provide a link back to your own site. And that’s a little bit too much like the comment spam that forced me to start moderating in the first place.

So if you’ve left a simple and sincere comment stating you agree with me and I chose not to publish it, I’m sorry. Next time, tell me who you are. Engage in a conversation. We may just become friends.

Read My Biography
Read My Advertising Policy