I Didn't Miss You Until...

I thought you were gone! My blog, that is!

My blog has been on a bit of a hiatus since April 2013. I can't really say why, only that life happened and got in the way of me writing. A few weeks ago a friend mentioned she wanted to start a blog which led me to talk about my blog. Then when I went to look at my blog, it was gone!

At least it appeared that way.

After contacting Blogger support I was provided with a few things to troubleshoot. And low and behold my blog was back! And now that's it's really back, now what?

I don't know...but stay tuned to find out!

Ask And You Shall Receive!

Imagine my surprise today when I received a Blogger Buzz update that A Blogger App had been made for iPad!

Although I can't figure out how to link back to my original post about blogging with an iPad (sigh), I am happy that things are moving in the direction to make it better for me to use my iPad for blogging.

I can add pictures....

Although I don't know where the picture is going to be positioned in my post. And I can't access my online Picasa web album to obtain pictures.

And it looks like I can't format my font either. So this new App might only be good for quick posts that lack my usual flair and creativity.

Guess I can't get everything I ask for...although it won't stop me from asking!

Welcome!

First, I’d like to say ‘THANK YOU’ to the new readers that have recently found my blog! Over the past week I have received comments on my posts (which I love!) which lets me know that someone other than myself (and maybe my family) is reading my blog!

I’ll admit that I follow all of my blogs in a reader which places them all in one space (and I won’t say how many blogs I read either!). The downside is: I don’t get to see the fancy layouts of blogs; the blogger may or may not know that I am actually reading their blog on a regular basis; and it’s not as easy for me to comment on their posts (ok, maybe I’m just being lazy but not going to actual blog to comment).

One of the comments I received is that I make blogging look easy. At least I have one person fooled! Seriously, I love blogging yet it can be pretty time consuming. (I’m sure my regular followers already know that I can fall off the grid from time to time when my professional life gets hectic) And I have the mentality that if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. So I like to take the time with writing my posts, adding pictures, and making certain that my actual blog is visually appealing. (So, for those who are reading me in a reader, please go check out my actual blog!)

I’m also lucky that my life is a bit interesting from time to time which gives me something to write about. For those who don’t know, by day I work for an insurance company with their catastrophe response division. (And yes, that might be a hint that my life may get hectic due to Hurricane Sandy and her antics!) This means I travel a LOT, eat out a LOT, and meet a LOT of interesting people along the way. And when I’m not on a work assignment (which isn’t as often as I would like) I have a great family and group friends (who’ll probably say they don’t see me as often as they would like) that I hang out with, I enjoy personal travel, and I always seem to have something going on.

I’d like to take my blogging to the next level. For me that means acquiring my own domain and creating a personal brand across all of my social media outlets. I’m slowly getting there…and if you have any helpful hints to help me get there, please let me know!

Five Months Later...

Wow, I can hardly believe that it has been so long since I’ve last written a blog post! Well honestly, yes I can…it has been a busy past several months for me. I wish I could say that I have been doing fun and exciting things, but I can’t. It has all been work related. Sigh…

After having a work assignment in Indianapolis during March and April, I was home for 4 days before I went to Collinsville, IL. One of the great things about the Collinsville assignment is that Collinsville is right over the river from St. Louis! And if you remember, I had a wonderful (although short stay) in St. Louis earlier in the year. So I was very excited to return there for a longer period of time.

After Collinsville, I was home for 9 days and then I was sent on assignment to Franklin, TN. Again, not a bad assignment since I’ve worked there before and it is a beautiful part of the country! And one of my dearest friends was working there too so it was awesome to spend time with her day in and out. The biggest downside for me is that I was so mentally and physically drained from working 6 days a week for the majority of the year. At least I did one smart thing: after my assignment ended in Collinsville, I put in for two weeks of vacation in the month of August.

This was the first time I have ever taken vacation time and didn’t have travel plans. By the time my vacation came around, I was so dog tired that I didn’t even want to leave my zip code let alone get on anyone’s plane to travel anyplace. Believe me, the two weeks at home definitely did my mind and body some good. It was great not to be connected to work and to do what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. Even if that meant staying bed all day and getting caught up on my DVR. (Hey, I deserved it!)

So here I am…I’m back. Again. Here’s to hoping my few followers are still here and that I can get back on track with blogging again. So if you’re still here, thanks!

T.G.I.F.

Wow, I can hardly believe that it is Friday! Working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day really makes the week fly by. To be honest, all I am looking forward to is Saturday a.k.a my 7th day off. Other than an eyebrow waxing appointment (with the wonderful lady that I used to do my waxing when I lived in Indianapolis before), I don't have anything planned and that's the way I want it.

I always feel so bad when I leave for a work assignment because my blog suffers. I was feeling so good about posting nearly every day. Then work steps in, and I am down to posting 2 or 3 times a week. I need to find a better balance for blogging while working. I mean other bloggers do it, why can't I?

Anyway, thanks for hanging in there with me. I promise I'll be back on the top of my game in no time at all. In the meantime, if you have some helpful hints to help me balance, please let me know! Oh yeah, enjoy your weekend, too!

Blogs and Friendship

Since the beginning of the year, I have been trying to organize areas of my life a bit better. One area that I started to organize was my digital photos, Internet favorites, and blog subscriptions.

Although I’m not very good at it, I love to take pictures. I’m pretty good about getting the pictures from my camera to my laptop to a folder.  Other than that, it’s just a bunch of pictures that I seldom go back and look at or do anything with for that matter. So I decided to organize my pictures by creating folders for each type of event (i.e. - vacation), and then I created subcategories within each folder (i.e. - Hawaii).  Then to really get organized, I went through each picture and deleted the ‘not so good’ pics.

My Internet favorites was a bit more daunting task since I have tons of favorites! Soon after I started going through them, I realized a lot of the links were outdated or the links were no longer valid. From looking over my favorites list, I realize that ‘my favorites’ are applicable to whatever phase I was going through at a certain period in my life (house hunting, tattoos, hobbies, etc.). Now, onto the blogs…

Organizing my blog subscriptions was the hardest for me. I’ll admit that I have (OK, HAD) over 50 different blogs that I am (was) following. And if you’re a blog follower, you already know that’s a lot of content to read. Especially since some bloggers are more active than other bloggers. (I have a few bloggers that I love to read who post two or three times a day! Maybe one day I’ll get to that level.)

For me, unsubscribing to some of my blogs was kind of like saying good bye to a friend. Once I begin following a blog, I begin to feel like I know the person in a cyberspace kind of sense. I look forward to hearing what happens next in their lives.  And similar to the real world, the friendship continues to develop in some way or it ends for one reason or another.

So, I started going through my list of blog subscriptions in Google Reader.  If I came across a blog and the blogger hadn’t posted anything in 4 – 6 months, I stopped following the blog. This was the hardest for me – selecting unsubscribe.  Especially since before the past 30 days, I was one of ‘those’ bloggers who posted very sporadically. Now I have a greater appreciation for my followers and making certain I keep you in the know.

Now, the ‘4 – 6 months’ timeframe wasn’t a hard and fast rule. Some of the blogs I follow are 3-Day bloggers. These bloggers only blog about the 3-Day so I don’t expect them to blog all year long (although it sometimes feels like the 3-Day should be a never ending event). To be honest, I don’t have expectations for anyone to blog every day since I don’t have time to read blogs every day. I just want you to be there when I need you. Just like a real friendship.

February NaBloPoMo

Can you believe that I have already signed up for February NaBloPoMo?! Over the past month I have found out just how time consuming keeping up a blog can be. And not that I am complaining. I am really enjoying writing for my blog!

One of the concerns I am experiencing is making certain I am writing about things that will interest other people. I mean, I think my world is somewhat interesting. But even I get bored with my world sometimes.

So, for the month of February I am going to try to follow the theme from NaBloPoMo. This month's theme is: RELATIVE. I decided to look up the meaning of relative (curtesty of dictionary.com):

noun

1. a person who is connected with another or others by blood or marriage.

2. something having, or standing in, some relation to something else.

3. something dependent upon external conditions for its specific nature, size, etc. ( opposed to absolute).

4. Grammar . a relative pronoun, adjective, or adverb.

adjective

5. considered in relation to something else; comparative: the relative merits of democracy and monarchy.

6. existing or having its specific nature only by relation to something else; not absolute or independent: Happiness is relative.

7. having relation or connection.

8. having reference or regard; relevant; pertinent (usually followed by to ): to determine the facts relative to an accident.

9. correspondent; proportionate: Value is relative to demand.

So, it looks like I might possibly be exploring my family relationships, friendship relationships, business relationships, etc. Looks like this could be interesting. And if all else fails, I can just go back to my very random posts!

I'm Baaaaaack...

I can hardly believe that I have posted almost daily on my blog this month! I have posted more this month that the entire year of 2011!

See, I told you I was back...

Out With the Old

I've been very fortunate to have been off work for the past two weeks, and this good fortune will continue until at least January 15th (YAY for me!). One of the best things about being off work is that I have time to do the things that I typically don't have time to do. Like...clean up my 'Favorites' list on my computer.

OK, you might be laughing or thinking 'Really? That's all she has to do?'. But seriously, when is the last time YOU cleaned up your favorites list?

One of the folders I came across was labeled 'Blogging'. There was even a sub folder with some blogs that I had intended to go back and look at when I had time. And you know what? Some of the links no longer worked. Some of the bloggers hadn't written anything new in a loooong time (which I can relate to). And you know what else? I found some pretty cool blogs to begin following!

The other thing that I found were some blogging resources. This was especially helpful since I am going to breathe new life into my blog (I can see my stepmother rolling her eyes and laughing now). OK, just wait and see, my blog is going to get better! Until then...

December NaBloPoMo

Ok, here we are at the beginning of another month that I will attempt to participate in NaBloPoMo!

For those who follow my blog, you already know that I have attempted this challenge several times and haven't been successful. To those same loyal followers, you also know that there's not much that I set my mind to that I don't accomplish!

Although the idea behind NaBloPoMo is to blog every day, my goal is just to blog more often than I have been. And in the process hopefully I will find a few more blogs to follow. So here's to December NaBloPoMo and seeing how often I blog this month!

The Countdown Is On!

Well, ‘the break’ is finally over and the countdown is on…only 9 weeks until I am finished with my master’s degree! (And the crowd goes WILD!!!!)

I’ll be honest, the past 17 months have been pretty busy (and mostly stressful) working on my master’s degree. Possibility it wasn’t the smart idea to pursue this endeavor while working a job in which I travel at a moment’s notice, am away from home for long periods of time, work 12 hour days, and training for multiple 3 Day Breast Cancer Walks. In the beginning, this sounded like a great idea. And now, well, it’s just been exhausting!

I’m ready to have my life back to do things that I enjoy…sleeping in on my day off, watching hours of mindless TV shows recorded on my DVR, doing things with friends (hopefully I will still have a couple when this is all said and done!), and doing absolutely NOTHING if that’s what I want to do.

To be honest, I’m excited about being able to focus on my blog. We all know that it has suffered over the past year. I’m excited about being able to seriously focus on living a healthy lifestyle and lose the weight I’ve always wanted to lose. I’m excited about focusing more on my family and friends. As supportive as they are, I am certain they have felt neglected on more than one occasion.

So even though the countdown is on to finishing my degree, the countdown is really on to the next chapter of my life. And that within itself is pretty exciting to me!

Happy Anniversary?

This afternoon when I checked my email there was a message with ‘Happy Anniversary’ in the subject line. Since I’m not married, I was kind of perplexed by the subject. That is, until I opened the message. It was from my university telling me that it has been one year since I decided to pursue my master’s degree. I guess that could be considered an anniversary although someone forgot to send me flowers!

As promised in my last post, I said that I would catch everyone up on where I have been and why my blog went into hiatus. Now you know the reason…pursuing my master’s degree. Obtaining my master’s degree has been something that I wanted to do for a long time, and I finally decided to jump in with both feet last year and “Just Do It”! Little did know how my life was getting ready to change.

This past year has been one of the most stressful years in my entire life. About the same time I started my master’s degree, my step father was diagnosed as being at the beginning of the end of congestive heart failure. Then a few short months later, my step mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then I decided to sell my home. Once it sold, I had about 2 weeks to find some place to live, pack my home, and move (that was due to being out of town for 3 ½ months for a work assignment). And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, two people that I think the world of told me that I didn’t have time for anyone anymore, including them. Needless to say, I was (and still am some days) at my breaking point.

So when I received the email today, one word and its meaning stood out to me: Perseverance: steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. For me, this one word summed up what I had not been able to about what this past year has symbolized for me. Although October 10, 2011 (the last day of my last class!) seems far away, I can slowly begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I am beyond thankful to report that my stepfather and stepmother are both on the road to recovery. No, I’m not homeless, but I am transient again until I can find that place I can really call home. And my relationships? I wish I could say I am succeeding…I am still working on them one relationship at a time.

Writer's Block?

Writer's block - a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work.

Ok, let's be honest, my blog doesn't constitute 'writing as a profession', but I am experiencing a bit of writer's block! Just when I was ready to jump start my blog into something great, post every day, and hopefully have lots of dedicated followers, this writer's block thing set in. (And besides, I really didn't think anyone cared if I was posting or not, until someone told me that I hadn't posted anything in a while.)

Right now it seems like my life is at such a crossroads: I will be turning 40 in about a month (can't believe I just typed that!), I am restless with my career choice, I am seriously contemplating starting my Master's degree (ok, I am scheduled to start online classes next week so I guess it is more than just 'contemplating' at this point), and I am dealing with a family member being seriously ill.

My crossroads has moved me to the point of not doing anything, which isn't good. I would say that I need to get away, but the truth of the matter is that my last work assignment ended over 6 weeks ago, so what would I be getting away from? Some days I just wish there was a 'Do Over' button and that I could reset my life to a certain point in time. But honestly, I don't even know what point in time I would choose.

Hopefully my writer's block will pass soon. Hopefully I will pass my crossroads even sooner.

February NaBloPoMo

For those new to blogging you are probably wondering ‘What does ‘NaBloPoMo stand for?’ Yes, I too asked the same question at one point when I was a newbie to the world of blogging.

NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month. The idea is to post a blog every day for 30 days (or in this case 28 days since February is a short month!) to set the habit for posting regularly. Each month there is a theme, and the theme for this month is ‘TIES’. (I am just going to be hopeful that I can get through 28 days of posting and not worry so much about the theme my first go around.)

Over the past several months I have wanted to take my blog to the next level (whatever that might be!) I am hopeful that participating in NaBloPoMo will help me develop my blogging voice, pick up new followers, and tie me closer to the wonderful world of blogging!

Blogger Extraordinaire?

Whew…I can hardly believe that I actually completed ICLW this month! YAY!!! And in the process I even gained a few more followers – double YAY!!! (For those that are wondering 'What the heck is ICLW?' please check out this blog Stirrup Queens.

I feel these accomplishments are just the push I need to take my blogging to the next level. I have always loved to write…whether it is a letter, keeping a journal, or even making a list, I love to write. And for those that know me pretty well, my life seems full of stories to share with my family and friends (I think I might even be eligible for a reality show, but I'll focus on blogging for now). I'll admit that they probably don't always want to hear my stories and that sometimes the stories can border on TMI (too much information), but certainly they don't want me to keep all of that inside!

I contacted someone a few weeks ago to help me revamp my blog. Unfortunately she is a little backed up, but hopefully within the next couple of months you will see a new and improved Shannon's World. In the meantime get prepared for more random thoughts from me!