Call me Joan Rivers, but it’s time for my blog to get a facelift*.
*A bad analogy, perhaps, since I don’t want my blog to resemble a duck in any way. Hopefully, this is the kind of facelift that’s seen as an improvement on one’s appearance rather than one that makes people shriek, “Ohmyygawwwd what happened to her?” as is the case with Courtney Cox.
As you might have noticed, I have changed the look of my blog (did you notice? It used to be different colors and have a different picture). I’m experimenting with younger, more attractive designs because I’d like to establish a better identity, and it’s possible I really will be like Joan Rivers and go through 500 more enhancements before I call it quits.
My crisis came about because I’m sensing a change—not just in my current address or international location (although that will be changing soon enough), but in the energy of the universe. This will be the summer of George**!
**George and I share an affinity to eating dessert out of the garbage; I think we can share a holiday.
My identity crisis: Similar to a recent graduate who dreads people asking “So, what is your next step?” I’ve come to dread people asking me: “What is your blog about?”
Since I created my blog in December 2010, before everyone in the universe had a blog, I wasn’t thinking I needed an “edge” and I didn’t have a plan for what my blog would “be about.”
The most accurate response to what my blog is about would probably be “my life,” but that doesn’t seem to entice people to read it. Who are you, a Kardashian? No, thanks.
If I say, “I have a blog about nothing,” well, it’s funny if you watch Seinfeld, but otherwise it doesn’t sound appealing. Then I have to explain it, which makes it considerably less funny, and it ends up just being a fancy way of saying it’s a blog about my life.
I enjoy writing about travel and food, but I can’t call that my theme since I write about other things, too. In fact, most of my blog—even while I’m traveling—is less about travel (where to stay, what to do) as much as it is about strange things that happen to me, i.e. my life. I’m sensing an odd type of narcissism here.
Okay, what about GOALS?
If someone were to ask what the goal of my blog would be, I would have to say it’s to make people laugh. I find no greater joy than when I hear someone read my blog and it made him or her laugh out loud. But I find it awkward to tell people “Hey, read my blog because I’m funny.” I’m no Hyperbole and a Half or MimiSmartypants, but I will market myself as “sometimes funny,” particularly if I’ve been drinking. Which is how I landed my most recent job.
It happened during the fourth or so hour of “Happy hour” one Friday night in May. I got to talking with two gentlemen, one of whom said he did something with a magazine (the specifics escape me, surprise surprise). I told him I was an aspiring writer and he asked what I like to write about.
MY LIFE AND MY LIFE ONLY! Mwhahaha
I said, “Travel and food, mostly” (a lie) “and also—I think that I am funny. Like, David Sedaris funny, but without homosexual references or foul language or family drama, and, okay, maybe not entirely as funny, and maybe you shouldn’t compare us at all, but he’s funny and if we agree the same things are funny, you’ll probably like my blog.”
He managed to look past most of what I said and told me he thought they were looking for a food writer, and in reply I may have squealed. I most definitely said, “GET OUT!” and I promised to email him after he gave me his business card. (He embarrassingly asked me for mine and I had to admit I didn’t have any. Should I? For my blog?)
So, now I’d like to facelift my blog and think about where it’s going, you know, for the sake of business cards.
And in case you’re wondering what happened to the magazine man, well…
He forwarded my blog (which isn’t as impressive as I used to think) to an editor, and she contacted me to write a piece.
My first PUBLISHED online article can be found here. Please check it out–it’s about food!–and my second article just came out in hardcopy.
I’ll have more to say about that next time, but that’s my latest news. There is change in the air, and it’s time to change my blog appearance. I would like people to know that traveling, eating, and writing are all a big part of my life, and if I’m writing about my life, inevitably those things will come up (along with some poorly timed jokes that may or may not fall flat). The new headline photo is from Bali, the vacation I planned around getting to meet Ketut Liyer from Eat, Pray, Love. It seemed only appropriate.
Travel & Food Writer 