Welcome to the New Blog (Same as the Old Blog)

Yesterday was the five-year anniversary of A Delicate Boy, which means it's been just over five years since I moved to Connecticut and started this job at UHartford. It's a long and short time all at once. I think of everything that's happened in the last five years, and it's a lot, but the things are pretty normal. Significant, but normal. At the moment, I'm exhausted, more from not taking the time to sleep like I should and from not having as much down time as I'd like. Lots of meetings one after the other, and it's not going to be getting any better though I like a lot of what I'm doing. Or I should say I'll like having completed a lot of the projects I'm in the midst of at the moment.

But it's more exhausting to think of the last five years, the ups and downs. My mother's death is at the forefront, of course. It's the thing that I can still count on shaking me up if I let it, though I'm much more in control of that than I used to be. There are new people in my life, and others are gone. There are people who came into my life in the last five years who have also left in that time. I've taken trips outside the country for the first time in my life, including a trip to Russia that the child I used to be would have never thought was possible. At this point in my career, I should be talking about my writing and publications, I guess, but I think more about some of the workshops I've attended, like at Sarah Lawrence, and research trips I've taken to NYU. I think of the walking around places I've done and the photos I've taken here and there.

I've been wanting to start a new blog for a while, mainly because I've been wanting to play with Blogger's new layout features. Yes, I know some look down on using Blogger as a (somewhat) professional space, but I love it's ease. And blogging for me has never been so much about the technology as about the reading and writing. And the record keeping. Sometimes, I read entire months in my archives, wishing I'd written more but still finding tidbits I'd forgotten. I'm hoping a new layout and new name will push me to write more. I've also finally figured out (I think!) how to integrate Twitter and Facebook. I've added a Twitter feed to my sidebar, but it should also be updating for those of you on Facebook. Feel free to add me as a friend on Facebook or follow my Twitter feed if you so desire.

And subscribe to the feed for this blog if you are so inclined; I won't be updating the old one anymore. It was a joy to write, and this one won't look or feel any different to those who read entries in a feed reader. But I was ready to shift and play a bit. The title is from the song "Believe" by The Bravery. I listened to it on repeat one afternoon in St. Petersburg, Russia, while walking down Nevsky Prospekt. The line about pennies in a jar just stood out because I couldn't help but think about the need to shake ourselves out of our ruts and do something, see the world and do things we never thought possible. Hopefully, when I get to feeling overwhelmed and trapped, seeing the new title will shake me out of it.

At any rate, you will probably hear about it!