Hello world! (That’s how you start a blog, right? Hopefully it’s also how you revive a nascent blog after starting it in a fit and then abandoning it for a full two months.) How are you on this fine, bright, sunny, and skin-scrapingly crisp 26th of December? I am great, personally, because so far I don’t have Covid, my family (including my 100-year-old bionic hero of a grandmother!) are all Covid-free too, Zoom-Christmas was less depressing than I thought it would be, and I’ve just come in from a highly invigorating walk through the aforementioned skin-scrapingly cold air. I even listened to The Daily’s “2020 in Good News” episode for good measure. Take that, 2020! I know the world is an utter mess at the moment (do you think every generation feels that the world is on the brink of irretrievable disaster during their lifetime, or that it currently actually is? I’m 34 and have only been semi-actively paying attention to the outside world for the past 15 years or so, so I think it’s too early for me to tell), but one of my reasons for wanting to start a blog is to chronicle the good moments that might otherwise be forgotten, the happy little memories that might otherwise not even really register (and maybe the low moments, too – so that I can be thankful when they pass?), and so here I am.

I actually meant to start this blog on Thanksgiving, with that general idea of recognizing and preserving life’s happy little moments. To be completely truthful, I meant to start it on Thanksgiving at least a year or three ago. And before that, I’d been meaning to start a blog for at least a good five to ten years (I am clearly really quick off the mark) but kept failing to prioritize it. I think I’m still chasing some sort of organizational nirvana, where I will be all caught up on work, well rested and well exercised, not short-changing any of the important people in my life, and will have set aside a specific and intentional block of time to write. That situation has apparently not presented itself in the past… you know… ever, really… and so I’ve resolved to bump this blog writing project up on the priority list and dig right in even though I can see the unchecked boxes on my task list out of the corner of my eye.

So why is anyone starting an arguably outdated early 2000s-style blog in 2020? Definitely a valid question. For one, there are a half dozen or so blogs that I delight in reading over my morning coffee every day, and so this n of 1 suggests that the concept is not yet completely irrelevant. (The blogs I read also seem to have a lively community in the comments section, too, so perhaps n is actually > 1.)

As I said, I’d like to chronicle the little moments of these years that are zipping by. I love flipping through my old journals (I’ve had one off and on since age 8; that first one had pansies on the cover and boasted a tiny little lock of which I was inordinately proud) and past, long-abandoned blogs (it just occurred to me to go and download the archives of my high school-era xanga; who knows what treasures that might hold!). I even like looking at old planners, because of the memories they trigger. I find that I might not spontaneously remember some things, but I enjoy bouncing them back into my consciousness by looking at a week in my planner or the odd journal entry that I did squeeze out (not very many in the past ten years or so; see above re: unattainable state of organizational nirvana).

The blogs that I most love to read are the ones that serve as a repository for the writer’s day to day life moments, so the daily life-type blog of the early 2000s still feels right to me. Will anyone else ever read it? Potentially not, because SEO and building one’s brand are not among my areas of expertise at this time (and are medium-far down my list of things to learn). And that would be fine, because I’m pretty sure that I will love looking back on anything I manage to write here. (I also really used to love to write recreationally – another habit that has fallen by the wayside that I’d like to get back.) The idea of committing to a slightly more regular record than my (let’s face it) a-few-times-a-year journal entries, perhaps with a picture or two thrown in, laid out on an easily accessible and moderately aesthetically pleasing webpage… just appeals to me. I have no idea how anyone else might find this, but if they do and it can provide them with an enjoyable minute or two… great! If someone other than future-me is reading this… hello! Delighted to virtually meet you. By the time I work up the courage to publish this, I may even have created an About Me page so that you won’t just be reading the words of some random mystery stranger. Well, I’ll still be a random mystery stranger. But at least you’ll have context.

** Photo: my sparkly sunny walk this morning!