i get to work by 8am. but our first mail drop isn't til about 9:15 or so, sometimes later. i can't start my work til we get mail (all those new loans to process). so for about an hour or more each morning, i kill time reading about what's going on in the bay area on sfgate.com.

today i came across this article about blogging. i don't consider myself a journalist in any way, shape or form, but i don't know if this is my creative outlet either. i guess in some ways it is, afterall, i chose blogger so i could practice my html. of course i really don't do much practicing anymore. and i guess it allows me to publish my creativity in the form of my knitting and crafts. but i don't know if blogging is a creative outlet for me. i don't even really know why i blog. at first i was thinking it was a fun way to stay in touch with friends who i don't see or talk to often, so they can see what's going on with me when they feel like seeing what's going on with me. when i started my blog, i never imagined i'd be here, almost 30, still with a blog. i thought for sure i'd get sick of it, neglect it (like so many of my blogging buddies throughout the years), and forget all about it. well, here i am, almost 4 years later, and this thing is still up and running, and i still have visitors. not hundreds like the girl in the article, but i do get an occasional reader from italy or canada or south africa. i don't know that any of them are really loyal readers tho.

maybe this is sort of a way to fulfill that wannabe-journalist side of me. since i was really little, i loved writing, and even thought for a while that i would be a journalist or writer of some sort. i think college really screwed up my writing style, as i became much more of a technical writer. i remember my creative writing professor telling me my writing was too boring, and it needed more color. at first i was really offended, but i knew she was right. i had just gotten so used to presenting the facts in the clearest, concisest (??) way i could, that i forgot what creative writing was all about. now, i think i'm the opposite in my writing. i don't remember how to be concise anymore, i can go on and on describing something, to the point where i think my readers get bored (even i get bored reading it afterwards). but i also use this for myself, to sort of remember what i'm thinking or doing or discovering. because this is such a public space, i try to maintain some sense of anonymity, but i am much more candid in my LJ which is friends only (i blogged my body for life progress as well as my wedding planning there). i started my first paper diary (remember those??) when i was 8. i got a cabbage patch journal for my birthday. i still have that journal, with all my 8-year-old scribbles and ramblings. and funny thing, i kept a journal all the way up until i started this blog. in fact, i may have had a few entries after i started blogging. i think having some sort of journal will always be with me. like the million pictures i take, journalling allows me to remember what i was going thru at a certain point in my life. i know a picture is supposed to say a thousand words, but i think journalling helps me relive certain moments in my life that become a bit fuzzy after time. cuz we all know i have a horrible memory.

i don't know how much longer i'll have this thing. but i don't see me stopping in the near future. the content of my blog is evolving, but i'm sure i'll find a use for it, as long as there is someone out there wanting to read about it!

alrighty, off to california i go!