It’s not that I’m movin’ on up. Or out. It’s not even like I’m moving. I’ve just got my new piece of pie and I’m rolling in the thick buttery crispness of it. Things are new, see. A lot of things are just becoming kind of new.
I started this blog in January of 2010, and as I’ve said so many times, it was a lifeline. That August, I met a group of women at the BlogHer Conference, a big event I had never heard of until the month before when it seemed imperative that I get a ticket. When I won it from a little contest on writer/comedienne Anna Lefler’s blog a month before, everything felt like it was clicking into place.
I was able to pick out my blogging buddies from seeing their profile pictures show up in comment feeds for so many months. Our writing had helped us know each other, like old-fashioned pen pals. It wasn’t surprising to realize that just as we got along in our virtual spaces, we got along in person. In my two days at the conference, I felt like I was catching up with old friends.
Those women and I—mom-bloggers, all—were at a particular point in our lives where we needed each other. We had gravitated to the blogosphere because of loneliness or desperation or confusion or excitement. Whichever it was, we were looking for companions, people who were in similar situations, people in whom we could confide and be ourselves. We found a lot of it through our blogs, and to this day, I will snarl at anyone who suggests the term “mommy blogger” is a dirty word.
But a lot of us have moved on. Two years later, we may keep in touch, but we’re mostly in the next phase of our lives.
In 2010, I was adjusting to the needs of having a second baby, to my mixed emotions about my own girlhood, to being out of work and unsure of my career path. Things felt like they were changing at lightning speed, and at the same time, I was stagnant. Yet that was the year that I figured out that I was truly, underneath it all, meant to be a writer. After all the years writing had spent singing me love songs, I finally listened and understood that it was an essential component of my life. This blog helped me discover that.
An Attitude Adjustment looks different than it did back then. My header is specially designed by a mom-blogger-friend, opposed to my own original make-shift header, a cascade of Cheerios on a white piece of printer paper. (Did I mention Cheerios smell like piss?)
The topics I write about are a little different, too. Instead of talking about managing a day with two little ones, I talk more now about myself, marriage, adjusting to working life as my children grow, the ever-fascinating discoveries I make on public transportation, and, of course, HBO.
It’s important to me that I perserve the nature and intent of An Attitude Adjustment, but I don’t want to feel pigeonholed as I grow. That’s why I’ve started playing around with Tumblr, which I can only describe as a kind of collage that I hope will help me piece together some other kinds of inspiration. There are just too many crazy and beautiful things I see in a work week not to share with somebody, and who better than the small gaggle of readers I love? So if you’re interested, I’m keeping a few photo images and quotes over at PhillyTude, my Tumblr expose´.
Thanks for following me on this ride, by the way. As far as I can tell, there’s still plenty more to come.
Jeffersons image above from http://bashfoo.com/moving-on-down/.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I came across you at such an exciting point of your blog! I’m excited to see where your journey leads you, and am wow-ed with your ability to just go with it!
I’ve got a lot of friends who use Tumblr. I’ll definitely check it out!
I was just thinking of the 2010 Blogher and how things have changed since then. Are you planning to go this year? I am! We are going to do the full 4 days this time and I hope it will be just as awesome as thelast time. :)