five years

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So, as of today, I’ve been blogging for five years.   I know I’m not totally old skool, but I still like hitting this milestone.  I was going to link to my first post, but my old blog is broken and I can’t get to my archives except behind the scenes.

In the past five years, I’ve gotten married, had a baby, left the US for the first time (Toronto & Barcelona & Heathrow — though all I got to do in London was barf in the loo), become a much better cook, got hired to write for actual cash dollars, landed another awesome job, had a short piece accepted for a book, met a bunch of really wonderful people, fixed a washing machine, cut off (and started coloring) my once-long (to my butt) hair, bought an iPod, a laptop computer and a digital camera and won a digital camera.  I’ve taken thousands and thousands of photos.  I’ve been in the hospital four times (the shortest was the couple days for my appendix in May), mothered a premature baby, ridden in an ambulance to the emergency room with that same baby, learned how to manage a feeding tube in a one year old, and sat in a waiting room while my then three-year-old had eye surgery.  Both of my grandfathers died.  I’ve been depressed, and happy, and both all at once.  I’ve had CT & MRI scans, & a nuclear stress test on my heart.  I got up on a stage in front of people in Spain, and recorded vocals for a song that won a contest.  (Those were two separate things)  I started sewing again, I learned to knit.  I turned 32.  And 33.  And also 34, 35, & 36.  My brother and his wife-to-be (next month!) moved away; the first time we’ve ever lived more than a few miles from each other.  I rode a subway for the first time, and the second.  I got a nose ring.  I took it out.  I went from having my oldest be just about to start kindergarten to just about to start fifth grade.  My relationship with my ex husband improved 1000%.  I discovered that gluten and dairy make me sick.  I sighed a lot.  And yelled.  And laughed.  And fell in love with a city & a tv show.   And finally found gluten-free beer and bought a case of it. 

Most of these things I wrote about as they happened, and that is why I love my blog so much.  I can go back and read about this stuff and remember it so much better than I would have otherwise.  Is it weird that I feel like I know myself better from reading my own blog? 

Summer school starts WAY too early.  I need to sleep while I can.  The morning ought to be a royal pain, since the kids at Soph’s school are supposed to show up in costume AGAIN (thanks, summer school, for making every Friday morning hell at my house).  So far it’s been Red,White,&Blue, and then Wear Your Favorite Sports Jersey (or, uh, borrow your bother’s sorta jersey kinda tshirt with a team name on it).  Tomorrow is Favorite Animal.  I’m in trouble already, since I cannot provide a horse costume.  I can do Bat or Grasshopper.  Ugh. 

Goodnight.  And, thanks for reading and commenting.  This blog is one of the more important things I’ve got going on.

7 thoughts on “five years

  1. Lana

    Happy 5th anniversary to your blog! I don’t comment here but I’ve been reading it for a couple of years now. I love the photos that you take.

    Reply
  2. Marsha

    Happy Anniversary, and many more. I feel like I need to go riffle through your archives now and read each and every one of these posts.

    Reply
  3. LB

    I guess I’ve been writing online journals for seven plus years. I read yours pretty often. But I’m not sure I ever commented. But this: “Is it weird that I feel like I know myself better from reading my own blog?” made me take time to say: No, Jen. That’s perfectly normal. But you already knew that. And, at my age (let’s just say, not to sound too much like a stalker, that I’m just about your Mom’s age) one finds that without a journal one can completely lose track of one’s life.

    Reply
  4. zellmer

    I just discovered your blog and just started blogging myself. Congrats on the anniversary. You’re my hero.

    And, the name Willow, so so beautiful.

    Reply

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