A Sheepish Hello Again

A quite accurate (albeit skinnier) depiction of myself in Portland.

The last post I wrote went a little something like this: "Oh hey!  I'm not dead.  Just a bad blogger.  But I'm back and ready to spew my thoughts over all you fine fine readers out there."  That was eleven months ago.  I'll just leave it at that.

I've been thinking a lot about this blog.  Should I pick it back up?  Delete it and start a new blog?  Just delete it?  And based on my blogging track record, I should really just do the latter.  But, I live in an essentially foreign place now, and that's important.  I moved to Portland nine months ago, not knowing anyone or what I wanted to do with my life.  I know people now, but I'm still working on that last bit.  And when I start to get homesick, I think about two things: Cheeseman Park and Hindsight.

Cheeseman was a park about three blocks from my apartment.  It was perfect.  Green and rough around the edges.  There was really nothing like it in the spring.  And as beautiful and lush as Portland is, I've yet to find anything quite like it here.  I can't tell you how many time I rode my bike to Cheeseman, leaned back against my favorite tree, and let the inspiration of the place swirl up around me.  And since I've yet to find a place like that in my new city, I've also been without that truly inspired feeling.  And that brings me to the abandonment of Hindsight.

It's hard to keep up a pseudo-inspiration blog when you have nothing to pseudo-inspire with.  But just the same, every time I'd start to reminisce about Cheeseman, I'd also start to think about Hindsight and the time I'd spent on my overstuffed arm chair in my attic bedroom, next to the window that over looked the ancient trees and neighbors.  I would read about my blogging friends, type away about things that on the surface probably didn't matter a whole lot, but helped to create a sense of community and catharsis in my life.  I miss all of that.

So I'm working on it.  The sun has finally come out in this God forsaken town and the vitamin D has begun to work its magic.  There are bike pub crawls, afternoons napping at the bluffs, and brunch outside on patios!  If you have never lived in a primarily rainy climate, you have no idea just how influential sunlight and warm weather can be on... everything.

I feel like I have a real shot at this now.  I won't be making any grand promises- like a once a week posting or really awesome give aways.  And I certainly can't promise to continue blogging once the sun goes into hiding once again come August.  But I want to restructure this, make into something worth reading.  I love that bloggers are essentially "doing life" together.  We're watching each other stumble and triumph, all the while encouraging one other and reveling in the book reccomendations and pretty pictures.  I love all of this and I want to be a part of it again.

So here I am, coming back to you with my tail between my legs, hoping you'd be willing to give me one last shot.  I can't say if it'll be award winning content, but I can say with some certainty that it'll be messy, honest and probably even a little entertaining.  And I'd love to have you along.