odds and ends

I realized the other day, as I thought about how long it's been since I've felt "inspired" to write something here, that I've developed the habit of writing for myself. Before I left for Ethiopia, all the things I wrote were too personal to gleefully stick on the internet for all and sundry to read, and while I was there, I couldn't write blog posts, and so I didn't. I wrote in my journal, and I wrote letters, and I started a novel. (I know. How very cliche' of me.)

Since I've been home, I've been busy with life, and busy rejoicing in the fact that I'M FINALLY HOME AND OHMYWORD I LOVE AMERICA SO DANG MUCH. (get the picture? if not, it's that i'm glad to be home and that i think america is the grandest country in the whole wide world. now you know How I Really Feel.)

And here's the deal: I like writing for just me. Or for just a couple of people. I feel less pressured, and the writing itself is generally better. Less humorous, maybe, but better none-the-less.

So.

Am I going to quit this blog? No, I don't think so. Nor am I going to say that I'm "taking a break." I hate it when people write that on their blogs and then proceed to never type another word. They're not taking a break; they're just not willing to make the commitment to shut it down when that's really what they should do.

But I want you all to know - since so many of you have been kind and supportive of my writing... and i thank you for that - that I haven't stopped writing as much as ever. I'm simply writing in a more personal, deeper way these days, and right now, that doesn't involve blogging as much.

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In other news, college starts next Monday, and so I've reached a Bend In The Road, and I'm eager to see what's around it. I'm not nervous, for those of you who have asked, because this seems like such a small thing in comparison to moving halfway around the world for three months without my family. But it's still Big, and I'm still a little excited.