Eleven hours, two smelly planes, two airports, one crazy van ride and many delays, we have arrived at our hotel in Elmira, NY.  I still need to look at a map to see where the hell I am–close to Canada?  My geography is so lacking.  Okay, I looked at a map just now. I don’t think I AM upstate. Doh! Rather, south New York near Pennsylvania.

Anyway, this is my Great Adventure!  CS, Sun and I are here as a result of this blog.  No, Ford isn’t paying me to come to NY to give a good review of its new Taurus.  Rather, I met Leendaluu through us leaving comments on each others’ blog.  And twittering.  Then one thing led to another, and she extended a very real invitation to come for a visit.  And we gave a very real YES! reply.

We’re staying in a hotel tonight to take the edge off of a rough day of traveling. But tomorrow morning, our families are meeting and spending two days and nights together.  And you know what? It’s going to be awesome!  I think what will be the weirdest of all is making our real voices match those we’ve got in our heads for each other.  She’s a bad-ass-take-no-prisoners blogger (and person).  But her telephone voice?  Sweet and NOT like she’s about to burn a bra.  And her first voicemail to me was that I didn’t sound like I was from New Orleans, or the South, but rather from New York.  I’ll have to educate her on the reasons NOLA yats sound like Brooklynites.

So, I am now off to finish my hotel beer and fall asleep.  Because I don’t want to miss a moment of the next 2+ days.

I graciously have been invited to be a contributing blogger to a new New Orleans all-women blog, NOLAFemmes.  My first post was published today.  Please go check out the new site and add it to your reader.  Putting me aside, they have a great array of writers on board.  The topics will focus on women’s issues and/or New Orleans, and the blog promises to be fresh and smart.  We promise.

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Remember when I wrote about blogging anonymously?  Well, nothing came of my project to swap publishing posts on each others’ blogs.  Things just got dropped.  Until MasquedBlog began following me on twitter.  I followed back.  And then yesterday, its blog was launched asking for anonymous posts.  They want you to submit your secrets, your rants, your posts you feel unable for whatever reason from publishing on your own blog.  And it’s such a cool looking site!  That cow and bull crack me up.  And a Mardi Gras mask?  Clearly this blog was designed with me in mind.  Okay, maybe not me, personally, but I can pretend, no?

So those that were interested in the anonymous blogging project, go check out MasquedBlog and see if it doesn’t tickle your fancy too.  Spread the word if you find it intriguing –  I want to know all those things you hold back on publishing, even if I don’t know it’s you!

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And if TWO new collaborative blogs aren’t cool enough, there’s a third one that merits mention.  The Kitchenettes is the brainchild of Katie from Overflowing Brain and Daisy from her new, fancy, updated blog Daisy, Just Daisy.  These two knockout cooks/bakers share their love and secrets.  Now go eat this one up!

I have been having an idea of a project.  And lately, that idea has been nibbling away.  So my question is, do you want to share your secret?

I have several posts that I haven’t published (some I haven’t even written) because, in a word, I am too chicken to post them.  And maybe you have the same issue.  Maybe it’s because some posts are just a touch too personal, or they relate to a family member that we’d fear would misinterpret us if they read the posts, or we have something to say about work that’d be uncool to openly write about.

But what if I wrote that post and, say, posted it on YOUR blog?  And you wrote your post and posted it on another’s?  And that blogger, in turn, posted her anonymous post here?  Then we all get to have our say and get things out in the open but we don’t have to risk, well, whatever it is we may be risking posting on our own site?  We could all link up some way that we are Blogging Anonymously and to check out each other’s blog.  Hell, we could even consider ALL posting the same post on the same day, or linking to the anonymous post on the day it’s posted.  Anonymously, of course.

Yes, someone would be in the know.  If I send my post to you to publish on your blog, then YOU will know it was really me that posted it.  But having that ONE person know may not be the issue.  It’s not YOU, dear reader, that I fear may reject me, after all.

It’s just a germ of an idea.  It needs fine tuning.

But, are you interested??  Would you participate??  We could even create a cute button for our side panel!  Imagine the fun!  The freedom!   The liberation!!  The SECRETS!!

Feel free to leave me a comment (or drop me an email if you want to be completely anonymous) and give me your thoughts.

CS and I take lots of pictures of Sun.  In the age of digital film, we are all amateur photographers with no costs of development to worry about.  At year end, we pick our favorite pictures and print them for a photo album we have for Sun.  In looking at that photo album tonight, I am humbled by how fast she is becoming a child and leaving babyhood and toddlerhood behind.

The thing about photographs is that you take the pictures of the smiles and the first good things: petting a goat, seeing snow, flying in a plane, eating Bud’s Broiler, holidays, and relatives.  You tend not to get the meltdowns, the disappointments: cranky, nappus interruptus Sun, fights over toys, spilled milk, busted chins, and laser treatments.

And so in looking back over the past year, one would think it has been all smiles and that it should have been all enjoyment.  And it just wasn’t.  Mainly, it was exhausting.  I am just tired all of the time.  I am not complaining.  It isn’t Sun that makes me tired.  But it is Sun that makes me realize that my tiredness is a deficit.  I feel regret in not doing more, not being more full of life and not basking in her seemingly endless smiles more.

But overall I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world.  It’s been over a year now that I have felt I finally got all I ever wanted and I still want for nothing more than the maintenance of the status quo.

(P.S. My grandfather is doing quite well–the clots have been cleared and he’s moving out of ICU tonight.  Once his blood thinner medication is where they want it in his system, he will be sent home.  Thank you all for your kind words of support and concern.  They were very much appreciated. –Nola)

Oh, holidays, how you exhaust me.  I can’t really even blame the holiday season.  The end of year is usually a bit busier for me at the office, and this year is no exception.  And with it getting dark so early, I am finding myself very tired as soon as I walk in the door at night.

And with all that is going on, I have temporarily lost my blogging muse.  But fear not! Family is coming, and that is certain to spark emotions!

For my fellow bloggers, bear with me.  I am getting caught up with your blogs, and just too tired to leave a lot of comments.  But I DO care and love reading you all even when I do so as a lurker.

More of a more interesting variety soon, promise.

I have been tagged by Wet Bank Guy.  He likes meme’s about as much as any man.  But he obliged and thus I will too.

First The Rules.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So, six random things you don’t already know about me. Hmm. Well, you know so much already.

1. I was never a Brownie or a Girl Scout or cross-walk guard.  I was in NO clubs throughout all of my school years.  Except Guitar.
2. When I signed up for Guitar, I assumed my big brother would let me take his nice Fender to school. I assumed very wrong.  So my mom bought me a big, clunky, “country/western” looking guitar (yanno, with 2 f-holes instead of the standard round sound hole) with a soft case at a garage sale.  I. Was. Mortified.  And soon I gave up guitar.  I still strum, Down, Down, Up. Up, Down, Up.
3. My best friend in grammar school was on all the sports teams and in the Glee Club.  I never went to any of her after-school events.
4. The brother of my best friend from grammar school married my sister.
5. Before my sister dated her now husband, he and I and his sister build a mad card house out of a UNO deck.
6. I was a good student but not a superstar student.  My all-time BEST course in high school was Chemistry. Yup.  And in college, Logic (no duh), and in law school, Civil Procedure.  In all three courses, I scored the highest grade possible (and in Logic, due to bonus questions, I scored even higher).

So, to keep this thing local, I am tagging fellow NOLA bloggers.

1. Charlotte.  She’s a minx and I want to know the good stuff about her.
2. Pete.  He swears he’ll never do a meme, but if all NOLA bloggers do it, I think I can shame him into this one.
3. Pistolette.  She’s a rockstar that has the nerve to live the way I ideally want to live.
4. Ryan.  To get his mind off the details of his upcoming nuptials.
5. Sphinx Ink. Because she has been waaay too quiet lately.
6. Mike.  To maintain the male-female ratio and to see if he’ll play along (I hope you do)!

I think this will teach Wet Bank Guy to ask more about me again!

After a rough start, I did it!  I stayed offline for a week.  It got easier each day, and by today I wasn’t even itching to get online.

So, what did I learn?

I learned that I go to bed several hours earlier when I am not online.  Gaining those 2+ hours of sleep has been wonderful.

Being consistently away from the computer gave me TIME.  Time to read (yanno, books), time to plan and throw a party, time to spend with my family.

What did I miss?  Here’s what I wasn’t sure about.  I missed googling things (and admit I had to bend and do a few, but just a few!, searches).  I also really missed Twitter; I missed twitter a lot.  But I also learned that I had let my time spent on Twitter become a bad habit.

And I missed reading your blogs.  And again, although I missed it, I learned that I spent too much time with blogs and not enough time with my family, books, knitting, writing….

So although I really, really, really missed Twitter and reading blogs, my time doing both going forward will be less.

I will continue to write on my blog as well as on a new project offline.  But my priorities have been readjusted.  This is a good thing.  And I hope my writing and my topics going forward reflect this new insight.

It’s so nice to have my fingers on the keys again!  Oh, internet, you are an underappreciated friend!

I have been feeling this coming on for a while.  I need a break.  An announced, clear break.  Maybe it’s the election.  Maybe it’s my writing.  Maybe it’s my attention span.  But for whatever reason, I need to shut down and turn off the computer.  All of it.  No blogging (writing or reading), no e-mails (other than my work account), no twitter (gasp!), no Googling.

For one week.

When I return, well, I can’t tell you what to expect.  Maybe I will slavishly read every post of every blog I keep up with.  Or maybe I will mark all as read and start anew.  Or somewhere in between.  Or something completely different.  That’s the point.  I need to regroup and decide where my time is best spent.  What will I miss?  What won’t I miss?  What matters to me about my blog?  Is it the number of comments I get?  The number of hits I receive?  The ad dollars I earn?  Is it really about my writing? Or is it maintaining contact with the friends I’ve made? Or is it none of the above or something I have yet to fully realize?

The weather has cooled a bit here in New Orleans and is begging for me to be in it, outside.  And I have several projects on the home front I want to tackle, as well as a new writing project to which I want to commit serious time.

So, starting tonight at midnight until next Saturday at midnight, I am going offline.

Be well and wish me luck.

Gustav is underway.  And I have NOT been glued to the television.  As a matter of fact, it may as well be off.  We have it on but muted.  No, my addiction is Twitter.  It is instant gratification and information.  Instead of trying to figure which news channel to watch, which to trust (especially being away from our local news), I have turned to twitter to get and confirm information.  And then I started to watch live feed of local New Orleans news channels on the internet.

Then Maitri twittered this, “Ok, everyone, turn off the TV and watch these four local news stations (WGNO, WWL, WDSU and WVUE) at http://is.gd/26y“  And now I can watch all four local news stations and turn the volume down on three and listen to the one I want to hear.  Then switch among all four.

And so as Gustav blows water over the top of the Industrial Canal (even though, as WeCouldBeFamous twittered, the Army Corps of Engineers say it isn’t an “overtopping” because the water level is still below the top of the wall and it is instead “tidal sloshing”) and punches New Orleans and nearing cities, we on the twitter are acting as neighbors and doing what we can to calm nerves and keep accurate information afloat.  Pete too posts about the help Twitter has been in this time of trouble and concern.  Great post (if you ignore those parts referencing me).

Here in the second floor of our Baton Rouge hotel, you’d not even know it was raining if you didn’t look out the window.  We are fine.  And hoping New Orleans and her levees stay intact.  And that the rest of the Gulf Coast weathers the storm well, too.

Too tired to write what I saw.  Here are pics instead:

Incredible, eh?

First purchase of the day was from Artist Sisters.

Aren’t these Ugly Dolls cute?

Emily the Strange.

Con-goers striking a pose.