Communication styles on the road

In three weeks I have discovered that the four different ways we have of communicating with people have their own intent, different processes and vastly different feelings. Here's why:

Skype: I have used it briefly in talking to Bubie in Florida and our friends outside the United States. It is the most intimate since you are talking voice to voice, but it is by far the most difficult. The time factor must be considered, especially when your friends are six hours behind you. The girls love to talk to Amy and Andrea in Chile. lisa uses it to talk to family. I'm not excited about it yet, but I was never much of a phone talker in the States, even with good friends. I like sit-downs with a cup of coffee or a beer.

Blogging: This process exposes to the outside world what we are doing. It isn't intimate. People can and do respond, but not like a long e-mail. It also has added pressure because I don't want my subject matter to be weak. Also, since this is a family blog, we have to pick our subjects and possibly Av, Si or lisa will pick the topic out from under me. Family meetings to divide up possible blog topics, whats this world coming to!! Blogging has little expectations other than we would like to know that people are looking at it. In the future the blog could easily serve as a source for a family "coffee table book". I also have the added pressure of having to use proper grammer and catch those spelling errors, so lisa and I proof each others and the kids blog posts. LISA DID NOT PROOF THIS ONE..ITS ALL MARTY'S BAD GRAMMER AND BAD TYPING!!! We still haven't figured how to use spell check so that's my excuse. Otherwise you would think me an literary blob ( not blog...pun intended )

E-mail: This is the method to use for one-on-one contact with friends to touch base or directives to non-friends on what that person should do. It can be very personal or short and to the point. E-mail is not intended to be a travelogue. It's a reach out...a request for a response. It's not as intimate since you don't have immediate responses as Skype, but it's convenient, there in the middle of the night when you can't sleep. It's also a quick way to say hi!, how are you? It is also something to anticipate, like a girlfriend's letter you wanted in your mailbox years ago when you got home from work. So in this way, e-mail can be uplifting or frustrating. I also feel free to use bad grammer because it is the point that counts, not necessaily sentence structure.

Journalling: These are notes to myself. They are the most intimate because they are shared with myself and no other. This is the method we all go to when we want to vent or express to ourselves how a day went in a way that a photo cannot express. This is where I would share what I really feel about Haarlem, or Amsterdam, or the beach. It's also where I can say things about getting along with the others, about how our idiosyncracies rub each other wrong. I am in the mood to talk with Marty ( me )when I journal.

I like them all, just at different times and for different reasons. Till later.