So, this is my first blog posting here. I've thought long and hard about what to write since its the post that's gonna get the ball rolling on this thing. I kind of feel (irrationally) like people are gonna read it with a justify your existence mentality, so there's a lot of pressure to give a succinct, catchy and clear mission statement. But really I'm hoping that no one will even read this post after I start writing a bit more and this will just be the space filler. I guess every blog needs to have a first post, right?
Otay. To start things off, I guess I should tell you why I'm writing a blog. I guess I kind of wanted a creative outlet for myself since I work at a desk all day doing Excel spreadsheets and talking about numbers and decimals and profit margins. I've got all these close friends from college who I see making video art or designing magazine layouts or sewing their own clothes from vintage embroidered handkerchiefs... and every few months I come home from work and feel like I'm in a Dilbert comic strip, so I make a resolution to do something mildly creative with my spare time. In the past I've explored my inner artiste by taking a class on silk screening (total output: 4 tee shirts), learning to knit (total output: a few brown and grey rectangles that are supposed to be scarves) and taking swing dancing lessons (classes attended: three). I guess my track record is pretty spotty for follow through, but at least these brief forays into creativity give me the ability to rationalize and say to myself "Hey - I've still got those knitting needles in that box under my bed. I could totally whip up a one-by-one ribbed cashmere-merino blend scarf if I really wanted to... but its just so much easier to buy one from Marc Jacobs..."
Also, I should let you know that this isn't my first time blogging. No sirree. When I was a sophomore in college and feeling particularly angsty one day, I started an online blog. I didn't tell anyone about it, and I wrote about the ever-so-pressing issues of being 19: dissecting the mixed signals I was receiving from the boys I was dating, figuring out what mixed signals I should give the boys I was dating, typing out lyrics from mediocre pop songs I was unhealthily obsessed with, and letting all of my devoted readers know that I had a really hard statistics exam coming up that I was studying for - and could anyone hook me up with some adderall? I recently re-read it (no, I will not be posting a link) and I was kind of stunned to realize that it is perhaps the most banal piece of writing ever, and almost as thought provoking as a transcript from an episode of Laguna Beach.
So I decided to re-join the blogorific blogosphere as my creative outlet for the latter half of 2008. And I wondered "Hmmms, what should I even write about?" I mean I absolutely love a few blogs... Among them: Stuff White People Like, 20-nothings, the Sartorialist, and Go Fug Yourself. Check them out. All of them kind of have a theme that holds them together - and a self descriptive / killer name. So I've already got the killer name down - Airplanes and Puppies. I mean, c'mon. Everyone loves airplanes and puppies, don't they? Well you're not my friend if you don't. Don't even get me started on "cat people". But, I don't know if I'm gonna be blogging specifically about airplanes or puppies. In fact, I'm still figuring out what I'm gonna be writing about. Let's just assume that it'll probably involve the following unrelated topics: quirky minutiae about being in the midst of a quarter life crisis in the middle of New York, observations on things that I either really like (examples: airplanes and puppies) or find really annoying (examples: people who have never taken an airplane and "cat people"), and thoughtful recommendations for movies/tv shows/music.
Wow - I guess I've just given you a few pretty good reasons why this blog is set up to be a mediocre fail-fest, huh? Well. I can promise you that this time I won't give up on my creative pursuit. You'll just have to take my word for it. And I promise that I'll limit the uninteresting, self-involved storytelling of my dating life to a minimum (although particularly mortifying and embarrassing moments are fair game). And I'll bake cookies and mail them to you if you're an avid reader.
Hmmm, I guess it wasn't so painful or awkward to write my first blog posting. Let's hope I can make it to post number two! Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies to anyone who sticks around!
