Making the blog public again! (Because apparently I can't make up my mind!)

Sorry for being so changeable, everyone!  I had every intention of keeping my blog private long term in order to avoid the obnoxious spammers, but I find it's not quite so enjoyable having a private blog.  I feel sort of cut off and disconnected from all the other bloggers, and that kind of takes the fun out of blogging for me.  

"All this switching back and forth confuses me, too, Piglet."

I'm sorry!  Please forgive me for the trouble I put you all through with this post back in August (though thank you to all of you who responded and still wanted to follow along!  That meant a lot to me!).  I am going to brave the annoying spammers by going public again, and hope that on account of my month or two of absence they have forgotten about me and won't be back to my blog for awhile!  :)  

I truly am in the mood for blogging once more, and I'm hoping that mood will last me and that I will be able to get into a more regular rhythm of writing and interacting with you all.  Because I miss that! 

Thank you so much for your patience with me as I've been trying to navigate all this!  You all are the best!

Sincerely,

Miss March

I guess this is good-bye

Good-evening, my friends.  I'm just popping in to say that I'm going to be taking an indefinite break from blogging.  I've been very sporadic about posting lately and I'm feeling sort of out of the loop and am just not sure how to get back into the rhythm of it.

I'm leaving for school in less than three weeks, and I really have no idea what sort of time I'm going to have for blogging and all that while I'm there, so it'll just be easier to leave with the expectation that I'm not going to be blogging at all and then maybe surprise you all with a  post if I find I have the time and inclination for it. 

School aside, I've also just been feeling really insecure about my blogging abilities lately.  It's probably mostly due to the fact that I haven't been around as much so I'm feeling disconnected from everyone, but in all honesty I'm just way too good at thinking negatively about my writing and worrying that nobody really cares to read what I have to say...or that I'm getting boring because I write the same sort of things all the time and people are probably getting enormously sick of my pathetic sense of humor and yada, yada, yada. 

I know it's mostly just lies, but I still can't seem to keep myself from getting down about it far too often.  And add to that the fact that I have so many posts I want to write but not enough energy and drive to actually write them, and you've got frustration, people.  And stress.  And a recipe for a very grumpy individual.

So, right.  I think it's time I just stepped away from it all.  For a season at least.  I'm definitely hoping to be back before too long but we'll have to wait and see how it goes.  Love you, guys.  Thanks for putting up with me for the past three years.  I'm going to miss you.  And please don't forget me.  I think that's one of my main fears, that I'll step away for a time and then come back to find that everyone's gone.  Please don't be gone.  Because blogging just isn't much fun without our little chats. 

Very sincerely yours,
Miss March (a.k.a. Alyssa)
 

Another of those "let-me-make-excuses-for-my-forthcoming-absence" kind of posts...

Well, friends I've decided.  I think.  (At least I am attempting to decide.) 

 

(Oh Miss Woodhouse please, please do influence me!)

*squares shoulders and looks determined*

 

I have made up my mind.  

(There I said it.)

For a while now I've been feeling that something has to give.  I've just been so overwhelmed by all the things I have to do, trying to keep up with everything, and yada, yada, yada.  And so I think it really is necessary for me to take a bit of a break from blogging.  A half break at least.   Which means--in short (now I feel like Mr. Micawber)--that I shall not be commenting on anyone's posts for an indefinite period of time. 

(Do you think I'm right?)

 

Okay.  Now I feel like a rotten friend. 

 

Why of course you do!  To not comment on your friends' posts?!  Miss March, what callousness is this?!



You really ARE...a rotten friend.  *withering look*

 

I know.  But reasons, people.  There are reasons! 

 

~*~

 

1. I have a tendency to put too much pressure on myself to comment on every single post my friends write, and it's gotten to the point that I can't even enjoy reading the posts like I normally would because I'm always jumping ahead, thinking about what I should say in my comment!  Like I should be feeling happy when a new post pops up, not feeling discouraged because "oh no! now I have to write something in response!"  You know what I mean?

2. I have a pile up of posts that I very much want to buckle down and write, because pile ups of any kind stress me out!  But commenting always seems to take precedent over that for some reason.  There's just so many blogs to keep up with and so many posts, and yeah, only one of me.  But I really want to tackle some of the posts that have been languishing in my drafts for months (and some of the new ones that are just now taking shape in my brain) and as I can't do it all well...something has to go.

3. I realize that this stress to comment on every post is an expectation that I'm putting on myself.  I know, and you know, that not one of us has time to comment on everything.  But still the expectation is there, and so other things get dropped in order to at least try and meet it.  I guess it's because I worry that if I don't comment someone may take it personally, thinking that I didn't like their post.  Or (and this is the selfish, bratty person in me coming out) that if I don't keep up with other people's blogs, everyone's going to forget about me, and my blog will just sail away into utter oblivion.  (Probably where it needs to be at this juncture.)

Am I making any sense?  (I'm not even sure that point 3 should have been a point at all.  Oh well.) 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is this, it's really hard to start picking and choosing between which posts I should comment on and which I shouldn't so I think I need to stop commenting all together for a  time and then work my way back in gradually and in a more stress free manner.   I just want to make sure you all know that I care about you!  And that my not commenting on one of your posts does NOT mean that I didn't like it...(oh, I don't know why I'm even explaining this.  I'm sure you all understand what I'm trying to say.)

So yeah.  That's that.  I just wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be dropping out of the commenting world for a  bit.  I feel really tired and disoriented and I need a chance to catch my breath and refocus.  Hopefully I'll be able to post more often in the meanwhile, but we'll see how that goes.  

 

Thank you all for being such amazing friends!  I hope this post made sense.  And I hope you're all having a lovely, lovely week!! 

 

Yours truly,

Miss March

 

Did YOU understand this post?  Did YOU?  Honestly, THIS GIRL DRIVES ME NUTS!!!

 

(Okay, that was random.  But this picture made me laugh and I just had to think of some way to include it.  Heehee.  :D)

 

Followers, Vacations, Cars, and Work

 

This post is going to be a bullet point post because I feel like stating things matter-of-factly without my usual complicated turn of phrase.  (Also, it's late and I have a feeling this will be quicker.)  (I just said I had a feeling.  I didn't say my feelings are always correct.) 

 

• I BOUGHT A CAR! 
• yesterday
• first car ever
• drove it to work twice already
• "smooth as silk"  (extra points to anyone who knows that quote)
• trying to think of a name for it
• hoping to write a more detailed post about it sometime in the not too distant future (famous last words)

 

 

Hurray for me!  I did it!  I bought a car!  I made a decision! 
(Natalie, you can be proud.  ;))

 

 

• I HAVE FIFTY FOLLOWERS!!
• WHAT?
• Eeeeee!
• (That means I'm happy about it)
• Well, it is kind of a milestone.  You have to admit that.
• Just thank you all so much!  You're all so kind and I can't tell you how encouraging it is to know that people actually enjoy reading my writing. :)  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  :D

 

 

 

 

• WORKS BEEN GOING WELL!
• Learning a lot of new things
• Shadowing other Front Desk Representatives and observing their routine of checking in guests, entering information into the computer system, answering all the random questions guests bring to them, collecting payments and so on and so forth.
• Still a lot to learn
• August schedule has me starting regular shifts which include staying overnight for a night or two at a time. 
• (Will I be ready for it?  *gulp*  Let us hope so.)

 

 

Why what a question!  Of course I'll be ready. 
Things like that don't scare me none.  I'm brave.

 

 

• WE'RE GOING ON VACATION!!!
• Sunday morning early we leave for Illinois to visit my grandparents for a week
• We'll all be going--married siblings and their families included--22 people in all
• I won't be taking my computer with me so you probably won't be hearing from again until sometime after Sunday the 16th.  (Come now.  There's no need to get all that excited about it.)

 

 

(Actually this is the sensible side of me celebrating at the prospect of being without internet for a week.) 
(Because the sensible side of me knows I need it.)

 

 

• I'VE BEEN READING SO MANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY!!
• Thanks to Natalie who started me on The Blue Castle back in June (I had so much fun reading that!)...
• ...and then recommended (no, insisted) that I read Mara Daughter of the Nile which I decided I'd better do, especially as she wasn't the first to recommend it to me.    (Enjoyed that one a lot, too!)
• And now I'm reading Daddy-Long-Legs.  And it's such a great feeling to have a book which keeps telling me to pick it up and read it!  And which I'm quite happy to oblige!  :)  (I even read in bed with a  flashlight a couple nights this week, and I haven't done that in a long time!)

 

 

 

 

• I guess that's it.
• Yup
• Can't think of anything else
• Nothing left to say
• So
• So, so, so
• I will show you another good trick that I know
• Actually, I'll just say good-bye
• Good-bye
• Farewell 
• PIP NOW!

 

 

 

 

P.S.  Speaking of Pip, I've taken up reading Great Expectations to my brother again.  We started it...oh, I don't know...over a year ago I guess, and have been neglecting it shamefully ever since.  But we're getting back into it, and are enjoying it very much.  We came across some excellent quotes the other day but I'm afraid I can't share them with you just now.  That will have to wait until another time.

 

Good-bye again!