Back to a Better Blog Name?

Yes, it's another blog. By a mom. And while I can't promise I won't post pictures of my kids or talk about them, probably a lot, it's really my attempt to write a little, after too much time not writing. It's called Back to Me, because although the mother and wife and domestic engineer that I am now is, as Oprah might say, a 'fully-realized person,' she is not the whole me.

That me got left behind in bits and pieces over that last five years, which sounds worse than it is. It's really the usual story of diapers and meal planning and school runs and my playground social life taking over, while my free time was replaced by naps and Facebook and chat rooms and Food Network.

I recently had dinner with a friend who said that for her, creative pursuits were just an extension of mothering, so therefore easy to keep up with. I could only respond with shrugged shoulders and, 'well, I can't.' But I am going to try now. It's time to see if I even love to write anymore. I certainly still love to talk about all of the things I want to write about, like parenting, politics and media, and that's what you will find here. It might just be a series of digressions — I don't know. I do know that writing went from the passion of my life, to work, to, if not drudgery, than something I avoided. It was easily replaced with other things and a lot of excuses.

I was afraid that I was very bad and very boring and very past all of that, back there, the interesting stuff that makes people want to write or more accurately makes people want to read what has been written. The tail-end of 2008 became a time to regroup. I lost weight; organized my cupboards and closets and the kid's toys; bought nicer jeans and better moisturizer. I quit - mostly - the chat room that sucked my time and my will (really) and I put the laundry away when it came out of the dryer. I wanted to shed the routines and the stuff that made it feel impossible to be creative. I also saw our country take a brave leap forward when we elected Barack Obama, and in addition to breathing a sigh of relief for the world, I realized that applying my ass to the seat really isn't much work at all and that it was long past time to get to it. I don't think I've gotten any more interesting, so there is still that problem, but I'm ready to see if I am bad or boring or at the very least I'm ready to let you all know my strong feelings about Gossip Girl. Hence, Back to Me.

Having second thoughts about blog name. More on that later.