BIRTH OF A BLOG...

As parents we often fantasize about the future, how different it will be when our children are all grown up and turn into successful adults, having their own careers and loving families. No more sleepless nights, anxiously waiting to hear the sound of our garage door finally opening up to let us know they are home safe. No more fights over cleaning up their rooms so we can actually walk in without the fear of stepping on a week old sandwich or banana peel. No more biting our tongue when they pick the obviously wrong friend to hang out with and secretly hoping they will make the right decision when it really counts. Let’s not forget the endless arguments about literally everything because we are way too old and we have never had a life and how could we even try to understand them and their complicated social issues. Despite it all, later on in our lives we dream about doing something special and meaningful with our children, not just the usual summer traveling and building ever lasting memories but perhaps starting a business together, creating a legacy of some sort.

Especially when all of a sudden you realize that literally overnight your oldest daughter became your best friend. She grew up into an amazing young woman. You two can talk about anything and everything; you enjoy going to see foreign movies with subtitles. You love to travel with her because she understands you and your need for always seeing something new and exciting. You both adore food, you both love wine tasting and never turn down a happy hour to watch the sunset by the beach. You already forgot all the dreadful memories of the times when human communication ceased to exist between the two of you. That is all in the past now…

So, let’s create something special, let’s build a new business together. How about a mother-daughter blog with our unique perspective on life? We love to discuss any subject, we love to agree to disagree, we are both crazy and passionate and absolutely love to live our lives to the fullest. So why not share our ideas, experiences, and opinions, lots of it, with not just our friends but the entire world? Sounds amazing but also pretty scary at the same time. Technically speaking, it could not be that hard, right? So many bloggers are out there, numerous web hosting sites are offering free services with the promise of an easy setup. Right. Not so fast! We started out quickly ditching the first site all together in major frustration and moved onto the next in hope of better tech support and easier navigation, meanwhile watching hours of tutorials on various technical subjects. Tech support became my best friend. Or at least from my standpoint because they might just wish I'd disappear and not ask the same questions over and over again. Must be my "old" age. Overall, it turned out to be a pretty overwhelming process but I think we were able to conquer it at the end.

So what is next? A photo shoot. Now that is a dreadful thought. But we need pictures, we have to create a bio, we have to set a tone for our site. So here we are, my beautiful daughter who is photogenic enough for our entire family, and me of course who has always been extremely awkward in front of the camera. She is saying it will be so much fun, I am thinking I need a stunt double. She is in her element already and will not take no for an answer. We, well, she decides on outfits, shoes and of course she insists on doing my makeup. Fake eyelashes, what?!? She must be kidding. I have my own eyelashes; I think they will be just fine. Oh no, no argument there, I lost this one before I even tried to open my mouth in protest. I have to admit I have been in denial for a while regarding my changing eyesight and my need for the inevitable first prescription glasses but now I have these huge fans poking the corner of my eyes every time I blink and blurring my vision even more! Smile mom, act natural, try to pose. Can you imagine how natural I felt?

Meanwhile she is eating up the camera, enjoying every moment of it and taking amazing pictures. I am secretly hoping just for few good ones so I can remove the peacock eyes as fast as we are done. To my amazement the pictures turned out pretty good, or at least the ones we let you see. :) Mostly to the credit of Diana’s amazingly talented young photographer friend, Marie. And overall, I have to admit to myself that I kind of enjoyed the experience after the initial camera jitters wore off. It is fun to feel special for few minutes, watching your neighbors and strangers drive by in their cars wondering what you are up to all dressed up in your high heels posing by the beautiful scenic overlook behind our house in San Diego.

Pictures are up, we are getting closer to launching our blog. By now Diana is living in Budapest, so we set up a work meeting via Skype to discuss final details, our ideas and topics, and the everyday mechanics of our new adventure. So much to do but at the same time it is very exciting. One cannot imagine how much work goes into a website, writing seems to be the easy part.

Getting ready for the big day, I am super anxious. I am sitting in my kitchen, laptop set up on the island keeping one eye on my cauliflower soup cooking on the stove. Reading my writing over and over again while sipping a glass of white wine and watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean and wondering…What will our friends think? Will people enjoy our stories and would want to read more? We really sure hope so... Welcome to our blog! #mommydearest

Photo by Marie www.shotbyemm.com

As a lover of all things writing related, I can honestly say that writing has been a dream of mine since I can remember. It started with holiday newsletters which I created for my family on special occasions when we were all together. I had different pages including sports and food and had a cover page and a copyright page on the back. As I was only around 12, these started out hand drawn and written, and slowly advanced to typed pages bound together by a stapler. Throughout my teenage and early adult years I spent countless hours writing a variety of papers and projects for school. Many of them less than enjoyable, but still better than doing math problems. With the world of blogging increasing at an exponential rate, it would seem obvious to someone like me to start a blog to express myself in my most natural form. But I’m a private person, and I keep my thoughts to myself; bottled inside much of the time. Writing was an outlet for me, to express my emotions and let out the myriad of feelings I felt overwhelmed with at various times in my life. I sent my work into magazines like Vogue and The New Yorker, of course with little response. I did have a short sentence published in Vogue where Sarah Jessica Parker happened to grace the cover (as a die-hard Sex and the City fan, it was more than perfect). I still have this magazine saved all these years later. But I never thought I would create a blog, let alone with my mom whom I’ve become increasingly close to in the last few years. We had our differences, on the writing front and otherwise, but this new venture is something we can share together. We have an exorbitant amount of experience between us and two different world views which makes it ideal to provide two viewpoints for every topics. And so DoubleTake was born, eluding to seeing something twice from two different perspectives. This blog is based on our fascination with writing and sharing our lives with people so that maybe they can be inspired, helped, or touched. It is our way of contributing hopefully a little bit on sunshine into a seemingly challenging world, one word at a time. #dianasays