I originally wrote this post in July. And never posted it. I even failed at my comeback. Anywho...enjoy, and be sure to catch the update at the end so you can revel in the irony!
______________________________
"There's no good way to write the 'I'm back!' post after being away for too long, but sometimes you have to take a break, and then when you return it has to be awkward and uncomfortable. It's a rule." -- the wise wise words of Alice Bradley over at Finslippy.
Hello, world! The favorite blogger you didn't know was your favorite is back!
I realize it's been...oh, nine months or so since my last post. (Make that over a year now...) And it had been three months before that one. And before that my posts were spotty at best. If this were my job, I would be fired, I know. Actually, I probably wouldn't know, because it's kind of hard to fire someone you can't find.
My reasons for being away so long are two-fold. Actually, they're probably 500-fold, but I'm not so great at sorting out the causes of things, so I only came up with two.
1) Winter sucks. As in, sucks the life right out of me. From about the time I have to start wearing a jacket in the fall up until the time I can start wearing shorts in the summer, I am in an annual funk. I'm not interested in doing anything or talking to anyone. I just want to hibernate and hide from the cold. Someone wake me when I can feel the warmth of the sun on my bare skin. This is part of the reason I have spent the past year advocating moving to a sunnier, warmer place (and by "advocating" I mean "insisting at the top of my voice every day that we move right this instant"). Turns out, sunny warm places that still have the city life we're used to and a big tech scene so hubby can find a job he wants are hard to come by. Apparently every company worth working for is in San Francisco, where it is neither sunny nor warm at any point in the year, and that big ol' ocean right there is just taunting you because you'll never ever be able to swim in it unless you're a seal. So ditching winter may take a little more time. Just hopefully not another winter.
2) This blog is mostly about my life...and my life is B-O-R-I-N-G. I've lived in the same place for over 7 years. It's lost its charm. There hasn't been much in the way of fascinating travel in the past year and a half to tell you about. I have no earth shatteringly interesting job to keep ME interesting (a point that is like social suicide in a career-centric city like DC). And my Point #1 winter-time slump kept me from being all that interested in reading other blogs or non-mainstream news and sharing my views. And what news has elicited strong reactions from me have mostly been angry rants that you don't want to read anyway. So when your day-to-day life is reeeaaallly not blog worthy, what do you write about? You wait for inspiration to strike. And you wait and you wait and you wait. And nine months later you finally write a post, but it's just an apology for having nothing to write. And then the waiting recommences.
But apparently some of you out there don't mind that I haven't been writing! In June, I had 269 pageviews. On a blog with no new material for nine months. And that's the month with the lowest number to date. (Which is now surpassed by October. But still.) I'm not quite sure what this says about me (I'm not necessary for the success of my blog?), but I don't particularly care, either.
_____________________________
Update:
So....all of this post is completely irrelevant now. Well, not ALL of it I guess. Winter does suck, I have not changed my stance on that. But it no longer matters! Because all my kvetching about moving somewhere warmer paid off, and we have now moved somewhere warmer! Huzzah!
We are now residents of sunny Los Angeles, California. It has not yet fully registered. Our things finally arrived after weeks, but it still feels like I'm staying in someone else's house. BUT, it's going to be fantabulous, I can already tell.
Most of the time so far has been spent furniture shopping or trying to make our belongings fit into a space clearly not designed for our stuff (who decides how kitchen shelves should be spaced? Because really? That person needs a new job). But we have some nice neighbors, we've already found some great reliable restaurants (the tally is already higher than in nearly 8 years in DC), and every weekend we walk to the beach in Santa Monica. And contrary to everyone's warnings about the people here being "rude" and "fake" I have had more awesome conversations with strangers in checkout lines and on the street in a few weeks here than in all my time in DC. (Not to make this sound like DC bashing, I still love that place, but the food is crazy overpriced for the quality and strangers are just not friendly. It's a fact.)
Oh! And oh...there is no tax on groceries! Like, none of it! Do you have any idea how much money that saves? Not to mention I can go to the regular ol' non-Whole Foods grocery store and find fresher organic produce for cheaper. So let's see, bigger apartment for less rent, better groceries for lower prices and no tax...cha-ching! Restaurants seem to be priced about the same, but as long as the food is delish I don't care. Not to mention there are still farmers' markets happening in November because the weather is so awesome things are still growing! (I have not yet checked out said farmers' markets, but it's on the to-do list.)
There are definitely some weird things about LA. Like apartments don't usually come with a refrigerator. Yeah. You have to buy your own or rent one. Luckily our place did come with a refrigerator, but our neighbor's didn't. So weird. That to me is like an apartment not coming with a ceiling. Kinda important.
So I imagine being in a fabulous new city whose weather doesn't trap me inside for six months out of the year will bring a lot more interesting days to my life.
But the MOST interesting part of this ride is going to be the BABY that's on the way. Yep, in addition to moving cross country, we're about six months from welcoming our first little Indian American (not to be confused with American Indian...we're not Columbus here folks) child into the world, which is going to bring a whole new perspective on everything. Life in general, this city, travel, this delicate cultural balance we have going in our household, all of it. So hang on to your boot straps people. It's about to get crazy up in here.
