If it seems like I’m always going to Glasgow — city o’ my birth — it’s probably because I’ve now been three times within the past year. That’s more than I’ve ever been since I left 27 years ago. In October, Chris and I took my niece Rebecca back with us so she could meet her great grandma for the first time. That trip was such a hit that we hatched a plan to take my sister Jane, her husband Bill, Rebecca and her sister Olivia over for my grandma’s 90th birthday in May.
However, the girl’s school schedule made that tricky. So Chris and I went in May and attended the wedding of my oldest childhood friend and celebrated my grandma’s birthday, albeit a tad early. And we surprised Grandma with the news that we’d return in August with the whole gang. My sister hasn’t been back since we left decades ago, nor had she seen our grandma in 15 years and my grandma hadn’t yet met her other great-granddaughter Olivia. How’s that for a lot of familial plotting?
In fact, it truly was a family affair to get the whole gang overseas earlier this month. It involved the donation of frequent flier miles from my father and my brother and hours of Chris’ problem-solving to try to coordinate flights, etc. A Herculean task, really. And it all came off without a hitch. Well, unless you count major delays and much headache for the Browns (my sister’s family) on the way there. Otherwise, a grand and completely exhausting adventure.
Following are a few posts chronicling our trip, mostly through photos.
August 26th, 2008
What was all that bally-hoo about in the previous post? Six days later and I haven’t posted a thing about a trip that now ended nearly two weeks ago. What’s that about?
The truth is, I’m finding myself with both less time and, frankly, less inclination to post to my blog these past few months. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m no longer sure what purpose I want the blog to serve in my writing life. It turns out that, now that I’m focused on a couple of other creative writing projects, the blog falls by the wayside. I don’t seem to have the energy for it or seem to be able to find much inspiration for posts.
This incarnation of my blog started when we moved to Ann Arbor in the fall of 2005 for what was supposed to be a temporary spell. I wanted to chronicle our year for friends and family living elsewhere and for myself as a sort of keepsake. When we relocated permanently to Ann Arbor late summer of 2006, it took on a new purpose: chronicling the exploration of a new town and a life that looked very different from the one I had in St. Louis.
But now what? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. And I’m well aware that — although the readership stats haven’t dropped a lot, surprisingly enough — the whole point of blogging is to post regularly. And I ain’t got that much to say right now.
So I’m mulling all that over. Trying to decide how best to move forward with this li’l ol’ blog. Trying to decide if it serves me as a writer (or if it just serves as a distraction from my writing) or if it’s really just a way to stay in touch with friends, family and a handful of readers. Not sure. Not sure. But when I do decide, you’ll be the first to know.
August 26th, 2008