The End.

About three and a half years ago I set up shop here. I never intended to attract a huge following, I pretty much saw this as an easy method of keeping a diary. Strangely enough, as someone who likes to write, keeping a diary was something I never managed to do. I guess I enjoyed making things up more than documenting what really happens. Probably because on the grand scheme of things, my life is pretty boring. Or, at least the things I choose to document are pretty boring!

There are lots of topics I could have gone into here, but many of them were too uncomfortable to deal with personally, and/or were things that I wouldn't want to drag up with the feelings of others' in mind. Nothing scandalous or incriminating, just your every day baggage that would probably be a little more interesting to read about for you, but I would rather not deal with myself.

I went through dry spells where I disappeared without warning, or disappeared after providing notice that I was doing so for awhile. The beauty in not having a popular blog is that nobody cares if you disappear for awhile. I know if Amalah or Tertia or Julie drop off the radar for a few days, they get hundreds of comments and e-mails asking where they went, if everything was okay, etc. And honestly, I'm glad for that. I never felt accountable to anyone here, which was great because it didn't make me self conscious about what I wrote, how it sounded, or how it would be taken.

As you can plainly tell, my most recent dry spell was more of a drought that led to a barren wasteland. I can't explain what happened exactly, it just seemed like the blog fell to the back burner while the whole lay off thing was happening, and then I suppose I found creative outlets elsewhere.

I confided verbally in the Hubby. I retreated into myself a little. I worked on graphic projects by myself. I worked on projects for Hubby. The niche that this blog had carved into my life was suddenly being filled with other things.

On top of that, after the lay offs, I didn't log onto the computer much. I busied myself around the house and with errands. We got Blackberries that took care of my e-mail correspondence, and I found that when I booted up my computer, I opened Photoshop and Lightroom, and pretty much left the blog world behind.

I don't read any of the blogs I used to read. Not just because my current workplace blocks them, but because I have lost interest. Some of my favorite ones have changed direction and have things going on that I don't relate to anymore.

So it's time for me to say goodbye. The writing (or lack there of) has been on the wall for quite some time, I just didn't know what to do with this space of mine. I've spent many, many hours here, and I've produced some funny entries, some complete crap, some commentary, some introspection, and a decent record of a period of my life. I wouldn't want to just click Delete and let it all disappear into the void.

But I've found the answer, even if that answer has been a little annoying. Blurb provides a blog book service, where it will 'slurp' (their word, not mine) your blog and turn it into a printable book. It's been a bit of a pain in the ass, because I have more entries than their max book size can hold, so I've been deleting extraneous entries and reformatting the placements. It's also a lot of data which apparently makes the program crash if you're not patient enough. It's also kinda slow when dealing with text entries and photos. I'm sure it sounds like a horrible thing to work with, which it kinda was a first, but then I figured out the mechanics and I'm getting through it better now.

Anyway, all that to say that I am in the process of downloading my blog, and once I'm done, have a book printed, in my hands, and am happy with the output, I will be deleting this blog - happy I did it, and happy to walk away.

It's been a lot of fun participating in the blogosphere. This has been such a great outlet when I've been frustrated, happy, bored, sad, excited... I may be back again some day with another blog, who knows?

But for now, we've reached the end.

Thanks to the few of you who've been around to read and comment periodically. Your input made it all the more rewarding.

As my Grandmother says, don't say goodbye, just see ya again.