I’m nearing the one-year mark in this blog. My first post was about finishing the week of training that I’m in the middle of right now. I switched to posting on my professional blog (now on hiatus) for a bit and then in late August/early September really began keeping up with both of them in earnest. July pretty much disappeared from both. The kids were with the grandparents for much of the month and Mr. Geeky and I made a trip to New York and generally kicked back and enjoyed ourselves–no time for blogging (though I blogged about the trip later).

It’s been really fun keeping up with this. It’s a great place to write without worrying too much about how it comes out. It seems like I even have to craft e-mail these days. It really helps me to write down some of my frustrations and thoughts. Sometimes I can see them more clearly for what they are. I read back over what I’ve written and reflect on what I’m really getting at–what do I really want out of x? why is y bothering me? And it’s fun to see some of the interesting things I’ve shared and mused about.

And what’s even better about it is that people actually read it! I admit that I went into this hoping for a small audience. I enjoyed reading other blogs before I started this one and I saw the small community of folks that had developed around some of them. Everyone seemed interesting and friendly. It really did feel like a grand dinner parter/cocktail hour. I miss that in my real life. It’s just difficult to put a group of folks together and arrange for time to spend together. This way, we do it whenever we want. When I read someone’s blog post, I feel like they’re present even if it was posted hours ago. I can have a conversation with someone at 7 a.m. at 12 a.m and I can pick up said conversation again at 7 a.m or 5 p.m. or noon the next day.

Here are just some moments that have really affected me:

-sharing the election with everyone
-the commenting pixie party/spontaneous poem that resulted in 200+ comments
-celebrating when people get tenure
-Bitch, Ph.D’s PK stories
-Scriveners’ pics of his kids and his green and then blue hair
-commenting pixies in general, wherever they are
–Julie’s always patient and wonderful advice
-Hedgical Trevor and his namesake
-Profgrrrrl’s pink hair
-Phantom Scribbler’s icon–it makes me smile every time I see her holding up that baby like in the Lion King
-even getting into arguments with people over the Lawrence Summers’ fiasco
-reading so many touching, funny, poignant, inspiring, and well-written posts everywhere (I really should keep track of these more because often when something is particularly moving, I don’t comment; I don’t know why; I just don’t).

The above list doesn’t even begin to express all the daily little things that make me feel human again. I’m looking forward to another year. I have no idea what it will bring. I’m not sure where my life is going in a year. I’m not entirely sure what I want to be when I grow up. We’ll see where the road takes me.