Loueyville: back on the blogging wagon (I hope)

My goodness.

(Did I ever tell you that my pledge name for my college fraternity was “Oh My Goodness”? I guess I said that a lot in college. My actual pledge name was “Hawaii Volcano National Park,” but that didn’t catch on as much. I think it was a reference to my enormous bosoms. I never asked.)

(And yes, I said “fraternity.” I am a proud alum of the literary fraternity Alpha Delta Phi, a fraternity that splintered in the 80’s when several colleges decided that the fraternity should accept women. My chapter at Columbia opted to go co-ed but retain the “fraternity” moniker. Others went with “society.” Women at ADP had the option of being called “brothers” or “sisters.” I went with “brother,” because, you know… tom boy. Are any of you ADP-ers? If so, Xaipe!)

But yes. My goodness.

Oh my goodness. I knew this was going to happen. I didn’t want to believe it, but deep in my heart, I knew.

When I accepted the position of Deputy Director of Content at Insider Louisville, a 30-hour a week position that basically just meant “fancy reporter,” I suspected that days filled with writing about Louisville might mean nights not filled with writing about Louisville.

But I hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

It was.

And in March-ish, I took the position of Assignments Editor at Insider Louisville (ie. “fancy reporter with organizational responsibilities”) full time, and things just got worse.

But my beloved companion reminded me recently that my blog and my blog readers were the start of it all. And that perhaps going back to blogging– however gently– might bring me some joy.

It’s the whole “dance with the one that brung you” sort of thing.

Y’all are the reason I have my current job. Y’all are the reason that I even thought that such a career might exist.

I know a lot of you continue to follow me on Twitter, and some of you may have even followed me to Insider Louisville (I hope ALL of you do BOTH, if you haven’t already). 

But I still owe you and this blog.

So I am committing myself to at least one post a week– one post that’s wholly for the blog and not a rehash of my work for IL.

Speaking of… I am pretty much madly in love with my day job. There’s been very little “looking back” for me. It’s not without its trials, but I still find myself freaking out sometimes when I get in my car in the morning, drive to our NuLu office, and know that I am going to work at an organization where I am being paid to write about this city that I love so damned much. 

I think I’ve done good work at Insider Louisville.

I’ve certainly grown a LOT as a writer. And most of the time, my bosses are very liberal with their gratitude.  And some of the time our readers are grateful too.

Online journalism can be utterly, bleakly demoralizing. I actually have a work email folder labeled “nice things” where I save lovely emails that I receive from readers. It’s a huge help when the maelstrom of crapola hits, and I’m suddenly an anonymous punching bag.

It doesn’t happen often. But it happens enough.

(A reminder to IL readers, if you like an article, comment or at least hit the Facebook “like” button. That shiz actually means something on this end. If you don’t like it, still comment if you feel the need, but remember that there’s a human soul at the other end, reading your vitriol.)

Anyway, I think I am back on the Loueyville horse.

This blog has meant so much to me over the years. I don’t want it to lay by the wayside and die. This blog represents 6 years of my life… more than 750 posts.  And the entry point to my (so far) success as an internet journalist.

So, hopefully, you will see new content here at least once a week. I’m not going to count this post as my post for the week; I have good news in the hopper that I will post very soon.

I will probably also use the blog to reflect back on stories on Insider Louisville– whether or not I have written them– that make me proud.  We’re building a stable of awesome writers, and I want to celebrate them too. But I will add wholly new content to the blog as often as I can.  

I write anywhere from 2-5 stories a day at Insider Louisville, depending on my editing load. That means anywhere from 10-20 posts a week. I promise you, even though I have been hired by a company that has its own (mostly great) agenda, I don’t write about anything I don’t believe in or endorse.

That's important to me. And I will stick to my guns about that.

You can also get these stories by signing up on the Insider Louisville website for the newsletter. All the good stuff will land in your mailbox every morning.  You can pick and choose what you read.

Thanks for your patience with me. Everyone who reads this blog played a part in landing me a job where I do this for a living.

I'm excited to reinvigorate my old audience and to build a new one.