On the birth of my new cooking blog

I just counted the actual posts, and I've written on this blog a total of 12, TWELVE, times since moving to Portland six years ago. The death of blogging isn't a burden carried on my shoulders alone; in fact, there isn't a single blog I routinely follow anymore when for years there were dozens. We went short form with Twitter or visual with Instagram. We went the quicker, easier route.

Tonight we rewatched The Big Sick, which is 100% a movie you should watch. The lead character is semi-forced to give up his family to be with the woman he loves. During a pivotal scene in the movie, I told Paul I was glad neither of us had to give much up to love the other. This is the point in my writing where I blame Paul for my not blogging. Thanks for your love Paul, how could you let me not chronicle the last six pivotal years of my life? Geez, that guy.

Okay, jokes. I didn't blog the 18 months before I met him and I haven't blogged the last 4 years+ we've been married. That's on me. And I'm so sad about it, but only because I got sucked down a wormhole of reading old posts the other night and I realized I miss the effort of writing for non-professional reasons. Where I can throw out most grammar and punctuation rules and simply write as it makes sense to me. (True story: 10 years ago when asked why I should get hired I told the hiring manager "I write a really great email." 8 years into that job, said hiring manager told me that statement and the confidence behind it is what earned me a business card with their company name on it.) 

Last bizarro thought for the night. Neither Paul nor I are interested in full scale cooking. I like to tell people we're 'great assemblers,' which is short-hand for lazy with a side of 'we mostly like to eat out.' In the last year we've gotten much better about having food on hand at home to eat (because Remy goes to bed at 6:30 and we live next to nothing good to eat and we're too lazy to leave the house in search of food). There are a handful of frozen Costco products we keep on hand that we can quickly throw in the oven and pat ourselves on the back for having a home-cooked meal. (My primary favorite being chicken cordon bleu and a side of broccoli.) Someone recommend a blog for me that's THOSE kind of meals. Since a cursory search of the interweb crushed my dream of finding "easy" meals that require 5 ingredients or less, I shall be forced to start that blog on my own.

At least this will give me a purpose. Riiiiiiiight?

And like all cooking blogs, the wind-up to the actual recipe is four paragraphs too long when all you want is the photo and the ingredients and not some four-paragraph story about how this recipe came to be. Oye. I hate myself. 

Tonight's assembled dinner: TACOS

• Ground beef previously cooked (from frozen!) in an Instant Pot
• Cook yourself tortilla with melted cheese on it
• Pre-made pico de gallo
• Add some spinach
• Add some avacado

WAHLA. Pat for yourself on the back for making dinner. I know I do.

Also bucking the food blog trend by taking a single photo that doesn't oversell what it is you're going to make. Also: not building my own light box. 

2018 is the new 2008

It was the moment Paul started watching a YouTube compilation of people jumping into trampolines filled with stuff that I threw off the blanket, stood up from my perpetually-reclined position on the couch and told him, "I need to do something productive."

This, plus some gentle nudging from ye old bestie of yore about resurrecting the blog and WAH-LA. I make no promises, but perhaps the evenings of 2018 can be filled with a little more night type clickity-clack and a little less self loathing while playing Two Dots and simultaneously wanting to beat the level and hurry up and waste all my lives in the hope of doing something else.

So here we are. Blogging like it's 2008, which feels like yesterday, but tonight I cooked frozen ground beef in an Instant Pot in 20 minutes, so it's the future! Quit living in the past Nat! (Except we also watched Die Hard 2 tonight which was made in 1990, so I continue to be a walking contradiction.)

Today was my first full day back at work after the holiday, which wasn't all too terrible. By the calculations I did yesterday, I worked all of six full days in December between our glorious week-long Hawaiian hiatus and the speed of business that gets done during the winter holidays. Big business, man! (I'm loving it.) ((Also, I got a new job, having left my old nearly-there-a-decade job, which is a loooooong soap opera which should really be a telenovela.))

Our biggest accomplishment of 2017 was several substantial payments made directly to the principal on our mortgage. Today I plotted the number of years we've now cut our loan to in this mortgage amoritization calculator in Excel (spoiler: a downloadable version is at the very bottom of the article). Pay down principal as early and as often as you can folks. Our goal is to pay off the house before Remy hits High School.

THIS IS WHO I'VE BECOME. You used to come for off-the-wall associations and a creative turn of phrase, and now you're dialing in for mortgage tips and rundowns of a run-of-the-mill Tuesday from a middle-aged working mother. SOMEONE DECORATE MY HOUSE WITH MORE WHITE SPACE SO I CAN TURN BLOGGING INTO A BONAFIDE CAREER ALREADY.

Okysmoke. That's enough for now, let's not set the bar too high.

brevity is best

I think about wanting to write more all the time.

All.
The.
Time.

And I think about ways to make it happen, the self-discipline I could and should subscribe myself to--to simply typing out whatever comes into my head at any given moment. But I hesitate, instead getting mentally bogged down in all the things I could and should be doing at any given moment. So instead, nothing happens. And I'm alternatingly frustrated and apathetic; the latter worrying me more than the former.

Truth be told, life this year has become fairly predictable. 90% of my life is filled with 90% of the same tasks. I'm sure it's that way for most people but my best writing comes in observing the world around me, and the world around me is contained by about a 2-mile radius. I have things I get passionate about, but of late, that writing has been elsewhere--The Digital Mountains where I write about what and why I believe, a letter written to myself in High School for my friend's Dear Me collection, and a post written about last month's Forbes Magazine cover person Clayton Christensen. You see, I write better when there's something to write about.

Wah wah, I know this isn't very interesting. But I forced myself to open a screen and start writing, and this is what came out. I'd like to be doing more of this in the future; let's just hope it's not always so maudlin, eh?

So you don't feel like reading to the bottom here was an utter waste of time, here's two book recommendations for you, both excellent page turners and opening at a theater near you in the next few months: Water for Elephants and One Day.

Also, Twitter and Facebook statuses are keeping my brain sharp. I think my 2011 slogan to date has been "Brevity is best." I should make a bumper sticker.

a whole host of verbs

's this thing on?

For the official digital record I had full plans to do a monster brain dump yesterday. Instead, I washed my sheets, rotated my mattress (ohhh the perils of sleeping alone and indenting one side of the mattress enough that there's a noticeable dip and the funny and self-deprecating things that could be said but won't be said so YOU'RE WELCOME.), ate too much candy while watching the Oscars, talked myself out of being annoyed when too many people were talking during the broadcast, gave two thumbs up to the PF Chang's food now served in the frozen food section and the sweet and sour chicken that can be yours for $5.99 if you're 12-minutes worth of patient and know how to use a stovetop, wondered aloud why I'm shedding so much hair, couldn't stop laughing when my pew-mate said "Master the Tempest is Raging" sounds like a song Mary Poppins would sing and then all song-productivity was shot, looked at pictures on f-book and realized none have been taken in the throwaway months known as January and February, had good intentions to write quite a few (long overdue) Thank You cards, concocted an outfit that was 1 part Black Swan and 2 parts True Grit, and popped enough popcorn to keep the apricot trees from striking.

So you see, there really just wasn't enough time to blog. But soon.

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If you would like to see some legitimate writing I've done of late, there's always this. Which is, in part, one of the reasons I don't have as much time to blog.

in short

The moral of the story is you'd have a post to read if I hadn't just spent 42 minutes reading my own blog.

I reread the 30-posts in 36 30-days I did back in April. It seemed to stretch on forever, but I think that was some of the best writing I've done to date. Perhaps having a topic to rally around helps me focus my thoughts better. I'm considering another list but lack the topics. Start spinning your wheels for me.

Then go over to my Formspring account and shoot a question or a phrase/comment/topic you'd like addressed. Now I'll quit being bossy and go back to being good-intentions-to-write-but-with-limited-follow-through.

I'm Natalie, I'm a Project Manager

Nothing in my life but work these days. Why? Well the other project manager in my office is out getting married and my boss' wife's baby unexpectedly came early so they're both crazily out having Life Change Summer 2010 while I'm trying to keep it all together. (And mostly failing to be honest.)

In that work-y vein, I think you should please go read this post I wrote about what it means to be a Project Manager at an interactive agency (jigga-what?) and how it relates to the redesign of a very important website. I think you'll find it enlightening on how I spend my 50+ hours a week when I'm not entertaining (ha!) you here.

So I wish you all a happy weekend with maximum sun and limited bummer news.

Day 24

I'm two days late on Day 24, but I'd like to feel my delay had great purpose.

Whatever tickles your fancy

You see dear readers, I have nothing that tickles my fancy this very second. I'm trying to save up for the "... in great details" in the next few posts. If I spill it now, I'd delay the writer's block I have right now. But back to the matter at hand. April 26th.

Today is the 4-year anniversary of this establishment. This is the 793 post. Too bad I didn't plan a bit better and I could have had 800 posts on my 4th birthday. But that would have involved advanced math. And we all know my charming is better than my math. And if you know me at all, you also know my charming isn't anything to write home about.

I won't wax poetic about stats and figures because A) who cares and B) who cares. But 100,000 page loads the same month as my 800th post the same month I turn four years old? WHAT IF THIS IS AS GOOD AS MY LIFE GETS? I'm probably at the peak right? It can only be downhill here: brittle bones, thinning hair, and robots to vacuum my floor.

This does remind me of a funny exchange Julie and I kept having at my parents house over Easter. She'd been asking about my blog and if I had plans to put the posts into book form. The answer is well yeah, kind of -- but what's the end game here? (Also, my favorite new catchphrase of 2010.) I priced the books out, and for as much and as somewhat consistently as I've written, having books made would cost me about $100 a year. The longer I wait, the pricier it gets overall. Then the big question about formatting and binding and captioning... and right: A) who cares and B) who cares.

Anyway, the thought of those books kept coming up in conversation. Yes they'd be nice to have later in life (but would they?). But what to do with them now? Put them in a cedar chest? In a book shelf in the living room? The mock conversations we came up with involving complicated scenarios on why and how visitors would see and ask about the books popped up in conversation all weekend. End game? Tangible output for hours of laborious input.

End game? I could finally throw away all my scrapbooking equipment. And that would tickle my fancy.

**Also? Don't miss Day 23 below this. It's blitzkrieg all up in this space to catch-up, but that's a funny one you shouldn't miss.

***Also? Jody, I haven't forgotten about you. It's just been wild. I always pay out on my contests, sometimes I'm just not very punctual. Congrats on the 100,000th page load!

the daily post

Remember that fun month of November when I [and all you guest bloggers] posted every day? Those were some good times. So good in fact, that I'm going to bring it back. This time however, I'm going to use some guidance.

Sometimes, it's easier to write if you have a topic to write about. Since this isn't a mommy blog (Sorry owls, some of my readers were right. You and I don't really belong together), or a fashion blog, or a cooking blog, or a political blog, or a how-to-do-anything-useful blog... I usually have to draw subject matter from whatever is (or isn't!) happening in my life. It gets tricky. Especially 750 entries in.

But check this out--the following list was posted on the blog of one of my very few remaining Boston vets. A quick scan of the list and all kinds of ideas are bubbling to the top of my head. I feel like I've already blogged half the list, but I'll try to rustle up some new content.

Why don't you consider joining me? Most of you who read also blog. The posts don't have to be lengthy--but maybe we'll all get to know each other just a bit better. I'll be starting on the first day of April--so you have a few days to mentally commit.

I hearby declare April: Get to Know Your Neighbor Month.

1,000 to go

Today, this lil blog hit 99,000 page loads. I've had my eye on the big 100 for quite some time, so it's hard to imagine we're just around the corner. (Of note, if you're the 100,000 page load take a screen capture and send it to me. I shall then send you some kind of fabulous baked good in the mail. I'm being serious.) I hit 50,000 views just over two years ago and this blog is nearly four years old (next month!) so I'm nothing if not consistent.

But what about you dear readers? Google allows me to track some very basic things about you, so some fun facts while you're wasting time here:

• I have twice as many Utah readers as Massachusetts readers; though my MA readers spend three times as long on the site reading.
  
• California is the state with third highest readership which is funny, because I only know three people there. Lurkers! Welcome. Also? I'm jealous of your weather but my irrational disdain for California keeps me from your fair shores.
• Top Ten Cities of readership: New York City, Salt Lake City, Provo, Tempe, Boston, Cambridge, Midvale, Orem, Lehi, Brookline Village. Welcome ye citizens of foreign nations. (Also, NYC? Seriously? Again with the lurking.)
  
• 24% of you are Mac users, 70% Windows, 2% iPod, 1% iPhone, .66% Linux
• In the last month, the biggest referrers to my blog wereAlicia, Don'tDoDumbThings.com, Melissa, Erica, and my cousin Rachel. Thanks ladies. (Also, sisters? Are you out there?)
• The winning keywords people searched upon and hit my blog for were 1) Tammy Taylor sunglasses and 2) How do I know if my friends are running a meth lab? This blog is nothing if not diverse.

Mostly, I'm just shocked you're here. Because I was pretty sure my Mom was half my readership, and Oregon doesn't even crack the top six states. Who are you people and what kind of mundane activity are you procrastinating by being here?

As a random question, are you loving or hating the overwhelming owls on my blog now? I half like them, half miss my simple, clean white space. I'm probably harder to browse now at work, too, eh? AND I LOOK LIKE A A MORMON BLOG. Oye. It's okay though. We're all trying something new. What's your vote?

Also, thanks for stopping by. 100,000 by Memorial Day. I can feel it.

Three Adjectives

When I decide to post a piece of my heart, I always fear its cheese factor. I'm nervous about being, writing, or sounding cliched--because I like to think I'm smarter, wittier, and more clever than that kind of writing allows. I fret and worry over the words I pen--that they'll never convey the thoughts of my heart and the feelings in my brain. (See what I did there? Think about it. Cliched? Take that!) My greatest fear is that I lack eloquence and expression.

The first few minutes of these "thinking posts" are usually sat in ponderous silence--starting, deleting. Starting another way. At some point I give up and let my fingers do what they will with the words that come together on the screen. A minor edit here or there, but after I gain momentum, I realize my true voice cracks through the cliche and I write what I want and I'm rarely displeased with what comes out.

This is a very long setup to say the following:

After a lifetime of self-reflection, I've come to a conclusion. If asked to describe myself in three adjectives, I finally have a caboose to tall and mildly entertaining. And that word is resilient. I know that life knocks us all down, but I've felt an increasing ability to swing around; realign my expectations, and bring myself back upright. My recovery time is quicker and I spend less time flat on my back. Sure, I had flashes of resiliency before, but I'm learning to use the knocks of life as momentum: propelling me to self review and ultimately to change.

As open and shameless as I am about my life and some of my guiltier pleasures, there are (some) secrets and experiences I keep close to my heart. As such, I don't make my whole life available online; and you may (or may not) respect me for that. I'm only sorry for the latter because I think you'd be proud of the way I'm learning to spring back. I feel strong. And hopeful. And that good things are in store for me--the very best things.

And this probably sounds cheesy, or self-important, or insincere--but I promise I try so hard to be none of those things in my online and offline worlds. The good news is that I'm getting there. One post at a time.

holy history

So last night I spit dozens of random photos at you from an unorganized hard drive. Well folks, I've hit the mother load. Where my photos were a discombobulated wreck, my documents are pristinely ordered and labeled.

And these aren't new documents--but writing pieces, journal entries, and written missionary letters that cover about a eight year span of time starting my sophomore year of high school and into my college days. Oh. My. Dramatic.

Seriously.

Perhaps I'll trot some of these goods out; or perhaps in an effort to save face I'll keep what was meant to be private private. 60 pages of typed letters to a boyfriend missionary? 45 pages of Olympic Volunteer stories? 10th grade chatter? Scholarship essays, church talks, bitter diatribes. It's all there. So. Dramatic.

Un/Fortunately, people from all periods of my life read this blog, so I'll have to figure out what can and can't be posted. I will tell you that my best HS friend Matt (the lone consistent figure from AZ with whom I'm still in contact) and I had a laugh tonight as I cut and pasted him snippets of writing.

To be honest, more than anything else, I'm glad these pieces of my history exist, but I really wish I could tell that sweet, insecure 16-year-old girl not to worry so much. Life is good, funny, beautiful, and meant to be enjoyed.

Now who wants to read how I got dumped from Guatemala?

Of Posts and Ponytails

Tap tap tap. Is this thing on?

This is the time of year when dull is the word. The weather is drab, grey is omnipresent, and my hair just isn't very shiny. It's hard to feel motivated to do much besides burrow down, keep your feet warm, and try to survive yet another Boston winter. (For those keeping track, this is my fourth.)

This time of year is funny because I feel like so many of the things that make me inherently unique lie dormant for weeks and months at a time. In review, I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing, just an observation. Maybe this is me. The Q1 Nat.

Hi. It's good to be back. Part of me wants to write the longest blog in the history of blogs (and boy have I written some doozies) to make up for my time away -- to update you on what needs being updated. The other part of me wants to go back to wearing the same 8 outfits, slapping my hair into a ponytail, and allowing the chores of my life to stack up in favor of good books and TV.

As my previous post pointed out, I've had some real humdinger weeks at work. The worst appears to be past, so I'm going to cling to that hope. I'm also beyond grateful for a company that forced me into a mental health rejuvenation day and an unexpected 3-day weekend. I ended up going to NYC, partook of some festivities--and didn't manage to take a single photo. On a weekend with minimal ponytail usage and maximum color wearage... waste of a good opprotunity, huh?

This coming weekend will be another slow one--which is a plus given the pace I've been sprinting. It's a long weekend for most and Valentine's Day for most so maybe something exciting will happen. Chances are slim but a girl can always dream about getting flowers delivered, right?

Despite the lull in activity and excitement in my life, I'm going to try to bring the creativity back to this blog and back to my life. Won't that be fun? Because let's face it, a ponytail only looks good for so long.

*This photo brought to you from a creative event in the summer at a non-pony event. Nothing to do with this post, but 8 out of 9 readers want to see 67% more photos.

**This second photo brought to you by the color GREEN!

On the Ride

I've started a new project. I guess it could still be considered another blogging endeavor, but more than anything I'd like to think it a writing exercise. Not that blogging isn't writing, (because it is! and everyone who blogs is a writer! go blogging community!) and this is probably splitting hairs, but I think it's time to separate the zippy, off-the-cuff, running life commentary from the short stories of my life.

It's not that the stories of my life share anything significant or life-alteringly profound. But I feel I have an interesting place and voice in this world. There are some blogs that cover what it's like to be single, Mormon and in a big city. None are to my taste, so I've decided to create my own. In the between, I plan to both record the present and remember the history of how I got to where I am today--and it's been a ride, I'll tell you that much.

Did you know I aspired to to be a romance fiction writer? (Those who can't learn...) I learned two interesting lessons from that experiment. That and more!

http://ontheride.wordpress.com

I may or may not be worth a bookmark, but you can decide for yourself. The page above links to the "About," but for my very first actual post, I've made like the first hit, opening song in one of my favorite musicals of the high school variety and kareoked The Start of Something New.

Maybe I'm being ambitious, but someone gave me ambition for my birthday apparently...

Ayúdame!

I'm working on a new blog. Not a post, an actual new (supplemental) blog. More to come on that soon(ish), but I need your help in the meantime. Life and death here people, so I've created a new poll in the right real estate. Please respond. No one's feelings (read: mine) are going to be hurt, I'm just trying to figure out the taxonomy (tagging) system for my new stuff.

So. Help me. Quickly. And don't feel bad.

Also, happy Monday. Did you enjoy your weekend? Did it have crazy snow? Mine didn't, but you wouldn't have guessed with the number of times I left the house. Nothing like last year. Glad I got out of Boston before the BIG ONE hit! Travel safe everyone. XO.

a call for guest bloggers

Nine posts in nine days? Holy cow, am I actually following through on a self-assigned blogging goal? I know, I can hardly believe it either. Back pat Nat Attack, back pat. And I'll admit it, I'm having fun.

Dear Internet Family, I need your help. Remember how I'm going on an epic journey to spanish-speaking southern spaces (S4) during Thanksgiving week? While I'm beyond nervous excited to explore a continent and a hemisphere I know slim to nothing about, I'm a bit sad to possibly ruin my longest blogging streak by relying on internet access in South America. But last night I had a grand idea. I'm going to turn this circus space over to you.

So here's your chance, readers. I'm looking for 7-10 writers of varying height, weight, and hair color to contribute a post during the week I'm gone. As this blog has no rhyme or reason to content, I'll expect the same from volunteers. To put it mildly; write about whatever the heck you want. If you have a blog, if you don't, if you know me, if you don't... here's your chance to take advantage of the best reader's in the world. And now: a poem.

There once was a blog online,
Slim to never before did it rhyme.
But I'm going away,
It's your turn to play,
Get in by shooting me a line.

This is the part where we're all glad I don't try to poem on the fly very often. But I'm being serious about this. If you're interested, shout out in the comments or send me an email -- the{dot}nat{dot}factor{at}gmail{dot}com. I'll follow up in an email offline, but please consider doing this.

My life is surrounded by funny, thoughtful, interestingly brilliant people. Sisters, cousins, high school friends, old roommates, lurkers, Bostonians, and a representative from most states in the country. Give back to me by giving back to my readers (your peers!). If you've never blogged before, consider this a test run. If you do blog, consider this free promotion. If you don't know what a blog is, welcome to the world wide web.

Let's keep the streak alive folks. Help me out. (And help me out could also be cajoling my Dad or Grandpa to write a post. A coup of epic proportions! Rewards in store!)

Working the Poll

From a post on August 29, 2009:

I think my next poll will attempt to gather the stats on the marital status of my dear readers. If I had to guess now, I'd wager 65/35 in favor of the marrieds, if not higher. Which is odd now that I think about it, since my daily 24/7 is surrounded by single people.

Well there you have it. As far as blogs go, married is the new single.
Also, I can see the future. Or close to the future.

Also, it's time for a new poll. Anyone have any dying questions they need to know the answers to?

Interview with another lurker

Alternate title: Even though it may have jumped the shark, why I still blog

Two weeks ago, I posted my first interview with a lurker to great fanfare. Within minutes, I had several emails from a few other lurkers removing their cloak of invisibility. The stories and encouragement I'm receiving from perfect strangers was the balm of Gilead to a rather crummy week. People, I may have shed a few tears. Believe it or not, this lady is a bit of a softy.

I shared a few amazing emails with Gail, who runs a custom tack shop in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. How Gail stumbled onto this canvas of the wanderings of my mind is rather miraculous. Are you ready for the bacon-less degrees of separation?

1. A search for a website of a former classmate's daughter injured in a car accident lead her to
   
2. Cancer patient Johnathon Walls from Oregon and four years of following his blog where
   
3. A link was posted to Alexa Aigner in Texas where "I positively fell in love with this wonderful little girl and followed her story, shed a lot of tears and grieved right along with everyone else, in silence. I still follow Crys and have written her several emails about a donation of my custom horse tack for a raffle to benefit the Princess Alexa Foundation." Sweet Alexa is the niece of
   
4. My girl Colleen who "doesn't post often enough. Boo." (Yeah Colleen! Boo!)
5. "So, here I am, a devout fan of The Nat Attack. You give me inspiration with your independence and spirit of adventure and your dedication to your friends and family. I love how you fly off to another country to explore and take a drive 200 miles from home for awesome good food."

"Sometimes we humans are connected through trouble and sadness or joy and happiness and we are not even aware of it. It's a way to see that we are all alike and so different at the same time. We find humor and camaraderie in each other without knowing it or others and we also inspire others silently as well. "

The title of this post really should be "Gifts from Gail." What a sweet, honest, unsolicited email to receive. I promptly wrote her back, thanked her for her support and asked if I could use her story and words. She replied with the following:

"By all means, share my words. I feel for you, I really do. I gathered it was hard for you to be so far away but I do admire how you have plunged ahead and are carving out a nice life for yourself in Boston. You truly do not know how encouraging that is for me. Isn't it funny how lives are intertwined? I have to say I have felt guilty at times for peering into the lives of others and I have seen such sadness and also joy in those lives as well. We don't know how our lives or examples affect others along the way and that it really laces everyone together as a human race, most of the time we aren't even aware of it. There are so many things in the new technologies we are in to make things impersonal but maybe knowing that you are giving others strength and courage each day as well and that others are giving you a silent 'woot woot' is a good thing too."

Friends and readers. I don't know Gail (I hardly remember where Michigan is) and yet she spoke some of the nicest, kindest words of encouragement. And also defined why lurking on blogs is perfectly acceptable (all you silent viewers can rejoice!).

Gail touches on one of my favorite parts about the blogging community I've thought a lot about recently. I've been amazed at the way we're all connected as a human family--frankly who knew this little project started three and a half years ago would become what it has! Fifty people took my "How do you know me?" quiz and the results are fairly shocking. I've heard repeatedly in the last month how excited people are that I'm back to blogging (for the record, I'm thrilled to be back as well.) I don't take y'all for granted--I appreciate the response and comments and links and general support. After my post re: vertigo, I had an insane amount of gChats, comments, and texts with treatments and cures--true empathy displayed at its finest.

Sometimes I don't know if I'm doing this whole blogging thing right. Too many words, or too many photos, or being too braggy, or playing too much of a highlight reel, or being too downtrodden, or being too this, that or the other. Regardless, when I discuss frustration with life, y'all are some of my biggest supporters. When I achieve something great, you're the first to cheer with me. As one of my guiltiest shames claims, we're all in this together--and figuring it out together. And together, wondering why I'm still waxing nostalgic and sentimental and probably borderline cheesy, but it was General Conference weekend and I'm still riding the spiritual high... like I said, this lady is a bit of a softy.

So hold tight for the next ride, I don't have plans to go anywhere. As Gail so eloquently states, "we find humor and camaraderie in each other" and let's make it for several more years to come.

Interview with a lurker

In three and a half years of blogging, one of my consistent themes has been my fascination with blog lurking. Everyone does it, right? --use the world wide web to skulk around in someone's not-so-private private life. Lurkers are passive, but typically avid, readers. They don't comment or participate in viral dialogue, but they're there. Creeping along. Like creepers do. Poll results show that 20% of my readership don't even know me! But give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... all are welcome here.

So, cutting to the chase. Last month, when I asked someone to dare me to hurry up and write more blogs, a self-proclaimed lurker tore herself from the previously known sounds of silence and stepped to the the plate. I was, of course intrigued and asked "Moe" to reach out to me with her story.

In her own words:

So I feel like emailing you is taking de-lurking to a whole new level, but I think you'll appreciate the ridiculous nature of my "finding" your blog and continuing to read it. I used to work at an appallingly slow place of business and found myself with more free time on my hands than I knew what to do with. One day while chatting with my friend Amy I asked her what some of her favorite time-killing websites were. Her friend Amber had recently shown your blog to her and so she sent me the link. How this Amber character came about your blog I do not know but it took very little time for me to get hooked and I have been a faithful follower since that time. That time being...approximately February-ish of 2007. Good heavens.

Are you there Amy and Amber? It's me, Nat Attack. Are you still lurking around? I don't know any Amy's or Amber's, and have no idea how you discovered this pet project of mine, but I'm sure your stories are likewise fascinating. Random mcRandom.

The world is a small place. Moe and I most definitely don't know each other, but know mutual people--as discovered in a previous and heretofore withdrawn friends' blogs listing. Moe is originally from Oregon and had my sister photograph her darling son (oh the power of the blog!). And would you believe it? Moe and Alaina live across the street from each other in PG, Utah. We've since exchanged a handful of emails, and Moe is one fun gal. Oh that internet, bringing not just dead and needing to be genealogized people together.

And without prompting, Moe shares her favorite NatA! moment:

Since I have been reading for so long, I thought you might like to know which of your many posts was my favorite. I had to go back to check the date and post title to be sure: Fight or Flight (July 10, 2007). The story in and of itself was hilarious enough but the accompanying drawings were AMAZING. Tears may have been shed.

So there you have it folks. An interview with a lurker. There are at least eight more of you out there. Let's create a community. A community of recovering lurkers. Won't it be so fun?

**UPDATE: Stories from strangers are rolling in (including Amy herself!). Lurkers! Be brave. Join your comrades and submit your story to the email address in the comments section of this post. And if you'd rather the story stay just between us two, that's fine also. This is literally becoming the six degrees of separation...

2009 going out in style

Alternate title: Be Careful What You Wish For

You may have noticed my new blog layout. My friend Long Time Coming finally met my friend Procrastination. How do you do good sir.

The new template has a more robust archiving feature (see right sidebar, lower quadrant), and each of my blogging year lists how many posts have been written in each respective year. Considering 2006 was only 3/5ths of a year, 2009 is far and away the weakest link.

Doesn't someone want to bet that I can't at least surpass 2008's blog total? That's 113 blogs (plus this one).

Wait. That's kind of insane. Just barely more than three months until we bid farewell to the aughts. That's at the very least, 1 blog a day, R18. (Wasn't math so much easier before you had to decimal point?) That's a lot of content. But still, I kind of like a challenge.

So, someone dare me to do it. And then, I'll let you, the faithful readers, vote on each post (note the fancy 'lil checkable boxes at the end? you don't even have to log in!) to see if it's worthy of a counting. Sound like fun? Oye, sounds stressful.

Someone pull the trigger and I'll say good-bye to my truly stress-free life and become a slave to the machine.

On...

Creativity
Once upon a time, I used to keep up to date on a pretty creative little blog. I told stories, waxed anecdotal, drew pictures, wrote satirical poems, and posted photos of weird things (like my hands). My posting has suffered the last few months (years?); I feel overwhelmed at trying to jump back into the fray. (To be honest, I don't feel very funny or creative any more.)

But, I've been putting my creativity to use other places! Out in the real world! No words involved!And now! Behold! A picture display! (and some necessary commentary...)

1. The night before the 3rd of July, our trip to the Drive-In movie was rained out. Instead, we had the first annual Wonders of the World Rice Krispy Treat Sculpting Extravaganza. The creativity of my friends is outstanding. My favorite was the fast food hamburger meal, but the TMNT, King Kong climbing the Empire State Building, the octopus, and the various dinosaurs put my unintentional and possibly racist Michael Jackson tribute to shame.

2. Helped create this "Saved by the Bell" class pose.

3. Helped style these two brides. Two besties, two weddings, two weekends. I just couldn't be happier for either or more in platonic love with their respective husbands. How sweet to be in the bride's room helping zip or lace. My uber-talented sister Alaina took both of their photos. Julie and Greg here. Kendall and Josh here.

4. Someone thought I knew how to arrange flowers, so I tried my hand. Ju's bouquet, boutonnieres (22!), and centerpieces (9).



4. Shark Week party! I love theme parties, so how could I resist? (PS--does anyone need arm floaties? I've got a dozen.)

5. And last, the crowning glory... the 220 cupcakes I made for Kendall's reception. My 12+ hour piece of the puzzle seemed like an eternity, I can't imagine how many hours it took my mom to throw a world-class reception in our backyard. My darling cousin Rachel was my sous-chef; Mallory took a quick turn for one batch. We made three kinds of cupcakes, a cinnamon roll inspired with cream cheese frosting, coconut, and chocolate ganache on a chocolate cake. They were by far the nicest cupcakes I've done, but I don't think I'll be quitting my day job any time soon. So there you go. A reminder to myself as much as to anyone, that I can create in ways other than blogs no one people are reading.