Happy Belated Blogday to Me! (Tomorrow Is Another Day...)

Okay, so this post has honestly been a loooong time coming. I "officially" celebrated my third blog birthday on August 23 (meaning I realized two days later that the big day had come and gone and vaguely thought about writing a blogiversary post before falling asleep watching a rerun of Doctor Who), but I figure that as birthdays and anniversaries go, it is better to celebrate late than never. Unfortunately, there is quite a depressing lack of cake around here, but if you'd like to feed your soul, you could take a look back on the tasty goodness of my first two years of blogging here and here. And without further ado, let's get on with the Blog Birthday show!

I spent the end of last August accepting a position working as an office manager at a technical marketing firm in downtown Seattle, my dear friend Lori threw a lovely couples wedding shower for Colby and me and Labor Day weekend was spent at my insanely fun bachelorette party weekend with some of my favorite partners in crime (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.)

September was taken up mostly by New York recaps, but I was also dealing with adjusting to my new exhausting work commute schedule, being hit on by homeless men, and I got into a wreck with a parked car--that just happened to belong to my future husband.

In October, I got excited about the Fall television premieres (little did I know that a writer's strike loomed in the future, threatening to destroy everything I had grown to love... Journeyman, I will always miss you!!), received helpful input from almost seventy voters on what dress I should wear to my upcoming rehearsal dinner (I hope it's not too much of a spoiler to let you know that dress #3 won in the end), I finally started to feel some of the stress of wedding planning with just over a month to go before the big day, and explored the pros and cons of living with the love of my life--in the end, the pros have won out.

November was a huge month for me in many ways, I successfully participated in NaBloPoMo, I joined 20 Something Bloggers when there were still only 50 or 60 members, oh yeah, and I got married on November 24th at the beautiful White Oak Plantation and spent a romantic mini-honeymoon at the Monteleone in New Orleans. Some more mundane events included falling down the hills of Seattle twice within two minutes and finding the perfect rehearsal dinner shoes. Oh, and I think there was something about a national holiday somewhere in there as well.

December was a little anticlimactic after the incredibleness that was November, but I spent some time mulling over the post-wedding name change, got an amazing pick-me-up from a stranger after some difficulties coping with a winter slump, and "celebrated" a fairly lackluster 25th birthday. Honestly, poor December. There is just no way it could possibly compete with November!

In January, I started over fresh with a new attitude and some New Year's resolutions (um, yeah, let's not talk about those...), recapped my first Christmas and New Year's in Washington, I got a rather misguided haircut (oh blonde, it is so good to have you back in my life!), decided on a chick lit fast (that I have mainly stuck to, with the exception of two Little Lady Agency books... my willpower is not strong enough to resist the lures of a quirky British heroine), visited my oldest friend (as in length of acquaintance, not extremely advanced age), Shani, in San Francisco, and saved a dog from a life on the streets. And I decided that instead of having babies, I wanted to be skinny for another few years. Man, I had no idea January was so jam packed...

February was a pretty quiet month, but there were a few exciting moments. I finally received my published story in the mail, began the inaugural Great Shoe Quest as I searched for the perfect shoes to wear in Italy, I got a little mushy reminiscing on the past seven years with Colby in my life and our Valentine's Day celebrations through the years, participated in The Great Interview Experiment, and went skiing for the first, and God willing, last time.

March was even more tame as I spent most of the month waffling over whether or not I should stay on at my job in Seattle (finally deciding to give my two weeks notice) and counting down to our Italian honeymoon. I confessed my bizarre fear of birthday party planning as Colby approached his 28th, endured about a week's worth of technical difficulties as I changed my blog URL, and quite possibly the most exciting moment in March came when I decided to begin recapping The Hills. Oh happy day!

April was almost all about the guest bloggers, as I spent the majority of the month trekking around Italy with my strapping and navigationally gifted husband. This was also the month that our friendly household ghost made his first appearance, doing his best to encourage my eBay obsession.

Many of May's posts were spent recapping and giving travel tips about our time in Rome, Siena, Florence, Chianti, Pisa, Positano, Capri, and Pompeii. I wrote a very whiny post about how I just couldn't keep up with the level of blogging that I had been able to maintain while sitting behind a desk all day every weekday and you all seemed very understanding. Colby and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Louisiana for a friend's wedding and visiting our parents and I ended May with an ode to green.

I kicked off June with my thoughts on the thrilling return of our four favorite New York girls on the big screen, then I made the decision to return to school for my Masters and certification in Elementary Education, I tied a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree and waved goodbye to my airman as he flew off for his four month deployment, and shared my memories and thoughts about my mother's battle with breast cancer.

I returned to my blog after a ten day absence at the beginning of July, and tried to defend my vanishing act by explaining that I'd had two different sets of visitors from out of town and then taken yet another trip down to San Fran to visit my Bay Area pals. After a lackluster month of blogging I once again hovered this close over the decision to pack it all in and just quit blogging, but decided to keep plugging away at it in the end.

Then came another August, with an update on how I'd been keeping busy during Colby's deployment--including plenty of girls' days and nights out, a job search, and getting close to wrapping up my first grad school class. I also posted a very extended review of the Twilight series and debated the difficult question of whether I should take a higher paying job that I wouldn't really enjoy or a lower paying job that I would probably love. (Again with the spoilers, but I went with the latter and the regrets are few and far between Mainly when I want to buy some cute clothes from the first company.)

And that's it, folks, I am officially over a month into my 4th year of blogging. I honestly can't believe how long I've kept this up, and though I'm sure there will be more days in my future when I consider throwing in the towel, I feel fairly confident that I'll be around these parts for quite some time. I love having this record of my life that I can share with friends and family near and far and this connection with all of you wonderful blog people.

Comments

Happy blog b-day to you, and many more!

Posted by: Kate P | September 26, 2008 at 11:11 PM

Happy Bloggy Birthday!

Posted by: Erin | September 27, 2008 at 01:10 AM

Happy Blog-iversary!

Posted by: slynnro | September 27, 2008 at 02:32 AM

Happy blog birthday to you, however, I notice that I still have not received my compensation for the renaming of your lovely self! Not that I'm waiting ---

Posted by: The Incubator | September 27, 2008 at 05:04 AM

Happy Bloggyversary!

I, for one, am glad to have it (you) around. Ya know, for me to keep in touch. And to be amused and enthralled by your humorous and insightful tellings of your little slice of life.

((((Angela))))

Posted by: Anonymous G | September 27, 2008 at 05:47 AM