I’m sorry I haven’t written in while! I’ve just generally been a bad blogger this past month+ and it’s lame, I know. Ugh real life is sooooo busy, guys!
Is there a more cliché way to begin a blog post? I don’t think so!
Is there a worse feeling than letting down your readers and yourself by falling off the blogging wagon? Well, I guess I haven’t completely fallen off. I’m still clutching on to a rope at the back of said Blogging Wagon, being bumped and scraped along the World Wide Web as it continues to go on, almost without me. It’s hard to pull yourself back up, ya know? Especially when you haven’t been to the gym in oh, years, and your arms resemble those of Betty Spaghetti. Especially when you’re working a full time job and performing in a play and have friends you never see and maybe, just maybe, have actually met someone (really and truly) special…
If I write any more, y’all are going to start calling me Mary COMPLAIN instead of Mary Lane!
Next week is my nine year blogoversary – can you believe it? NINE YEARS of blogging!?
That’s ancient in blogging years! Basically, my Blogging Wagon is an antique at this point. Let’s call it retro, in an Oregon Trail kind of way. I might currently need to buy a new axel, but I promise my blog is not dying of dysentery just yet! The thing is, I miss writing personal posts. I bet you miss reading them too. I know that. But…there’s a part of me that’s become increasingly afraid of writing personal essays. So I take the safe route and write about ferry rides and pizza instead…
Sometimes I think, hey that’s enough! Who doesn’t like #ImOnABoat and #pizza?! It’s the social media way, after all: picture-perfect adventures, well-posed outfits, and the yummy food we eat. Plenty can argue that’s what blogging is in 2017. It’s life seen through the most attractive filter technology can create!
That’s not what blogging was when I started in 2008. Blogging back then was gritty and unfiltered, with no funny gifs or witty subheadings. Sometimes it was just a huge block of unbroken text, and that was okay! There was no Instagram, let alone filters! It was shitty, pixelated flip phone photographs. Remember the good ol’ days when authenticity was more prized than “knowing your brand”?
It feels safe to hide behind the hard exterior of a brand. How convenient when you can’t get to vulnerable because vulnerablity sure ain’t no New York cliché!
But if I’ve learned anything in 9 years as a struggling artist in NYC….it’s that safe isn’t very interesting and vulnerability is…
You have to take the risk and ford the river or you’ll just stay stuck at a shitty muddy river bed eating rancid oxen meat…
Am I having a mid-blog crisis? Should I start a torrid partnership with a blog much, much younger than me? Buy a fancy new lay-out that’s inappropriately flashy and way out of my price range? Change my focus completely and start vlogging, like all the young kids are these days?
Or should I just get back to my roots?
But when I really think about it…the best idea is probably to just write. Shut up the shoulds and the good old days and just write. Write now. Right now. Write more often this 10th year than I ever have before and see where the words take me….
I hope you’ll stay along for the ride.
a mid blog crisis? NO!
Wow! 9 years! Congrats!
Happy 9 years, hey I think I know some nice baby photos you could use in one coming up, also sending you an audio book of 5 sec rule I think you’ll enjoy to …54321..write.. RightNow
Happy nine years! I love the writing. I love blocks of type unfettered with pictures. I want to read (READ, not view…not into vlogs, thanks) about your life in NYC! And someone special? Do tell! Hey if you don’t want to blog about it you have my email here…you don’t know me but sometimes that’s safer when one needs to share…LMAO!! Please keep writing! <3
Hey, nice to see you back here. Just so you know, I definitely enjoy most the blog posts where you write about the nitty gritty parts of life, and are vulnerable. You sound like such a fun person to hang out with.
Also, congratulations on nine years of blogging! Here’s to ninety more.
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Congrats on the upcoming blogiversary! We go through ebbs and flows (and lots of “What the hell are we doing?”) with barely a year and a half under our belt. We think it’s quite an achievement, so give yourself a break, pop open the champagne, and just continue to do what you love. Whether that includes Instagram stories or not! 😉
Congratulations on such an awesome achievement! Maybe it was the article you tweeted that brought on this post or the blog meet-up? Doesn’t matter, you are doing something right. It takes guts to put yourself out there and bear real feelings and I think that is New York guts. You don’t have to always let us all in your personal life but it’s cool and so is the mix of activities sprinkled in between. I’ve been around only two of the years but I appreciate it. And like Lynn and Justin said, half of the time we don’t know what were doing, so we’ll figure it out just like how to get to mid-town on a weekend with construction on every line.
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Here’s to the next 9!!
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First, congratulations.
Second, I’m gonna be tacky, if not cliche, and quote myself. I wrote about this on today’s post.
“Third, the NYC angle. The counterfactual version of me that doesn’t have horses in the backyard is a successful weaving artist in Manhattan. So I live that life vicariously [Posts: NYC].”
Referral Saturday: Accidental at Heart
If there is a bright center to the the universe, I’m on the planet that it’s farthest from. Which is to say, I live far away from bright lights, big city. Bring on the gritty. Bring on the unbroken wodges of text. Anyone can rx a pizza place. Only an actress can tell me what rehearsals are like.
Speaking of plays, if you are in one when I come to NY, I promise to attend. Unless it’s sold out, which would be awesome.
Blog on!
Katherine
Didn’t know you’d been blogging that long lady! You’re a total pro! Enjoyed the honest short and sweet post 🙂 x
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Congratulations on your 9-year blogoversary! That is impressive! I really enjoy your blog. You are very funny and authentic, and I enjoy New York vicariously through your posts. I hope you choose to continue because I think you give a unique view of the city, and I would miss your slices of life.
I’m commenting on your blog and I know you now! Weird! Anyway, I’ve been slowly blogging less these days, too. It happens, and my heart is still in it for the most part, but I haven’t had…much to say? At least in the way of “this is blogworthy.” And it’s OK to take breaks; I’d rather not force it. Love your ‘hailing a cab’ cover photos, btw!
My mental images of your Blogging Wagon resemble the old Apple II Oregon Trail game, since that’s my only frame of reference for wagons. Only 90s kids will understand! I’m also sort of nostalgic for my old LiveJournal days…I was vaguebooking before that was even a thing and I’m not even ashamed.
But seriously, I think you’ve got the right idea here — no need to overthink this blogging thing, because when you just *write*, it’s amazing and makes the reader feel as if she’s just chatting with a really witty friend. I’m looking forward to your future posts and future headers :).
<3!
Emily
emilyhallock.blogspot.com
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Happy Bloggiversary, Mary! I’m sorry to say I fell off my own blog wagon about a year ago and I definitely understand where you’re coming from with blogging these days seeming to be not really about the writing anymore. You’ve got the right idea, I think. Keep writing. Keep being brave. Keep giving us a touch of the personal and the vulnerable. Keep inspiring the rest of us to maybe go back to our own blogs one day. And for God’s sake tell us more about the play you’re in! I’m so happy you’re still following the dream!
I feel better now about my earlier stolen pictures. Haha! When I first started, I didn’t realize I couldn’t use Google images. Oops. I keep meaning to remove them. I’ve taken some down, but I have more to remove.
Very cool that you act! I used to. I hadn’t done it in a million years but last year I took a couple of classes. It was fun.
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