The Second Thing I Did

One of the things that sealed the deal for me as far as blogging "for real this time" is how inspired other bloggers were, particularly the ones whose posts left me saying, "Huh, that's a lot like me." I also really came to think of them as experts, people who knew enough about what they were talking about to do it for a full- or part-time living... or even for no money at all, just intense personal satisfaction. As I dipped my toe into the blogosphere, many of my commutes and errand car rides were spent thinking: What am I an expert on? What do I have to say that people will want to hear? Who's going to be inspired by me? Those are big questions, and I will freely admit that I don't know the answers to the last two. The first one was tricky, too...

But I got there.

I am not an expert in anything. One of the things I like about myself is that I know a little about a lot of things. It has served me well as a teacher and clearly was my ticket to play for a chance at big bucks on "America's Favorite Quiz Show" so I am pretty cool with my varied number of and depth to which I can engage with my passions. What that makes hard, though, is to even come close to positioning myself as someone who can comfortably communicate the nuances of a particular topic. I thought a lot about what I know and what I list as my hobbies and things that begin to set me apart. It's not an epic list: teaching, cooking, gardening, chickens, living in an old farmhouse in Vermont, being married to an exterminator, wanting to learn how to fix stuff, wanting to fit into my old jeans...

Ready for the big reveal? Yeah, it's just as you suspected: I'm an expert on Kate, so that's what I'm going to blog about. Lucky for you that you will get to read about chickens, vegetarian food, teaching, sheep, exterminating spouses (well, spouses who exterminate...), living in and caring for old farmhouses, and fitting into old jeans. That won't be all, I assure you, but they are the topics most likely to appear on this blog. If you don't want to read it, you certainly don't have to, but I am going to try like the devil to keep you here.

And I know I have already talked a bit about my weight and how I'm trying to wrestle back into some dungarees from days of yore, but before you go so far as to think that this is going to be a "weight loss journey" all I have to say is, Drop. Your. Sword. As I believe I am positioned to prove--and might already have done so, depending on who you are--I will talk about more than just getting back into my jeans. This all being said, the "second thing I did" does have to do with tipping the scale back in my favor, so I need to mention it in brief and instead of telling you about it, I'll just share a snippet from a recent Facebook IM chat with my mom:

That ought to put things into perspective a bit. Weight loss will likely be one of the last things I talk about, but it is what got me here, so I have to give it some snaps. If you want to read this blog to see my silly new outfits, get some recipes that you may or may not ever cook, hear funny and charming stories about my life as a teacher, hear not-so-charming stories about what it's like to live in a 140 year-old house on top of a mountain in the dead of winter and with sheep you would eat if you weren't a vegetarian...

Then this is the blog for you.