I remember that day. St. Paddy's Day, 2007. Yes, a magical day by all accounts.
No leprechauns leaped. No green beer was guzzled. No four-leaf clovers were molested.
But I did have the luck of the Irish : wink :
It was on this date, two years ago, that Oh Fair New Mexico breathed its first blog post.
It was The Good Man who first suggested the theme for my blog. He went with the "write what you know" angle, and it worked. Ok, more often than not, this blog is my personal ramblings and not really NM related, but that's ok too. I took the idea and ran with it, as they say.
I'd wanted to write a blog for the discipline of writing something every day. I wanted more than an extensive journal rat-a-tapped in Word and kept on my hard drive. I wanted a place to publicly air my thoughts and twisted ideas.
I remember in the beginning, I timidly sent Avelino Maestas an email asking for advice. His blog seemed so freaking cool, what with his gorgeous photographs interspersed with is his witty, smart writing. I had NO idea how to blog, and Avelino very kindly gave me some pointers and encouragement and then out of the nest I fell to test my own ideas.
So here I am at 532 blog posts later and I think my wings are getting a bit stronger.
My work as a writer has increased IMMENSELY because of the discipline of writing this blog every weekday. Some days I cramp up for ideas and then I force myself to write something anyway, even if it's terrible. Some days, I have more ideas than I can put down in writing.
Often, my loving husband (who was but a boyfriend when this whole thing began) will say, "I can't believe you blogged about that" (most recent example was about the toilets at a restaurant we visited).
Occasionally I have blogged about something that hits me on a very deep emotional level, and I know that maybe no one wants to hear me, but I have to say it anyway.
Once or twice I've even gotten political.
My most popular post thus far caught me off guard. I wrote it for me, the melancholy of a NM ex-pat longing for home at the holidays. But it evidently struck a chord with some of the folks back home, too.
So I continue on with my blog. It's for me. It's for you. It's for New Mexico. Each year I go through the agony of missing where I come from and reconciling to where I live now. The ebb and flow of life.
For all the folks who give me a read now and then, thank you. I actually cannot properly express my gratitude. As someone trying very hard to make a go as a writer, any pair of eyes on anything I write is a genuine gift.
I realize that these sort of blogiversary posts are rather self-congratulatory. Heck, in the midst of all the rejection letters I get from publishers..if I don't pat my ownself on the back, who else is gonna do it for me?
By the way...The Good Man has promised me a dinner at a really nice restaurant when I get 100 visitors in one day on this blog. The closest I've come is 88. So my goal in the third year of blogging is to finally collect on that dinner! I know ya'll can help me with my cause!
Meanwhile, Oh Fair New Mexico, you still sing a song in my heart. You and me, we are one. Thanks for the inspiration and for my humble beginnings.
Cheers to the next 500 posts!
Photo by Karen Fayeth
