Welcome to the Tweens

Doomsday clock, or countdown to the New Year? Both!

I'd like to wish all of you Internet people a Happy New Year. I was out of town for most of the week, down in Southwestern Virginia. As per usual, it was nice getting out of the city. However, after about five days of being somewhere else, a strange thing happened. Maybe it was the having to drive absolutely everywhere, or getting the stink-eye because I wasn't wearing hunting gear at the IHOP at 11 AM... but I actually began to miss D.C.

I'm probably getting soft in my age, though I'm not old at all. In blog years, I'm getting up there, having had some sort of "web log" for ten years or so. It's only been in the last year or so I've had a web site that people actually read, but that's not the point. The point is, after five days away, I missed my home. It's a strange thing to say, I suppose, and often I hate to admit it. There are a few stubborn people who call D.C. home and like it, and then there are a lot of other people who were born here and are resigned to living here, and then everyone else... who comes here and tries to make the best of it for a few years, quite like a prison sentence.

When I used to read why.i.hate.dc, back in the day, I did so because I was itching to get out. Sometime around 2004-2005, I finally understood I wasn't going to grow up to be Sam Seaborn. None of us, except for Jon Favreau, ended up becoming Sam Seaborn. And so, I began loathe D.C. Due to a whole bunch of stupid life decisions I ended up staying here, and eventually realizing one day that the stupid city had become home.

Who doesn't hate where they live? Unless you live in some castle in France or in a big moon bounce on the Moon with hot Moon women, we all have those things we dislike about our homes. That's where this site comes in. We can all have a good laugh about things that make living in D.C. a pain. We'll also sometimes take a look at some hard truths that are sad and depressing. It comes with the territory living in a city facing all sorts of problems, and undergoing a lot of change.

In 2010, I'm going to try to add a bit more of a personal touch here. I promise I won't write too often about what I had for dinner, that's why we have Twitter. I'm still going to focus a lot on news, but I want to write more from the heart and less from the RSS feed. We'll see how that works out. If I've learned anything in the last year, it's that you'll never make anyone happy, but you've always gotta keep trying.

It's a new year, and a new decade. Blog is now a real word, that even my mother can pronounce. Back in 2001, she thought it was a "Bee Log." I'm not going to be too hard on my mother, though. Sadly, on New Year's Eve, I learned that my grandfather had died. He lived in California, and I had not seen him in quite a while. He was born in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and joined the Marine Corps just in time to fight in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. He would spend a career in the military, serving three combat tours in Vietnam. I fell out of touch with him over the years, and I often feel like I let down his legacy by not pursuing a career in the military. In any event, I'm not sure how to feel about the whole thing... people drift apart. My grandfather won't be buried in Arlington, but he will have an honor guard at his funeral in California. Unfortunately California is a world away from D.C., and as much as I wish I could be there, it looks impossible.

This means you'll be stuck with me blogging all week. I think you can handle that. In a way, I hope you've missed me as much as I've missed writing. Which is to say, a little bit, sort of like how one misses eating at Applebee's.

However, I really mean it when I say I'm looking forward to another year of writing. For all the weird freakshow downsides of operating a blog, it has been worth it. Thanks for reading.

By the way, for 2010, anonymous comments are allowed again. I could say, "don't abuse it," but we know how much good that would do.