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Groundhog Day

/ ceckman / Leave a comment

Dear Readers,

I’ve been asking myself lately, “Do you even blog, bro?”. I used to know the answer. I used to be SO confident, like, yeah bro, I blog. But lately, I just don’t know bro, I just don’t know.

Pouring over the last few posts the dates don’t seem to line up with reality. In Chris World (which can be an intensely frightening place – I’ll try to keep you as far away from it as possible) we have just moved out of our temp living apartment. But in Real World, we’re already coming up on our one year anniversary of living on the mainline outside of Philadelphia. In Chris World, all of my friends and family have been out to see me in the last few weeks, but Real World these weeks are actually months. Months and months of jumping through the moving hoops like finding new places to buy groceries, new doctors and vets and places to wash my car, new banks and new restaurants, new new new! Who ever knew everything could be so new!

Anywho, it’s still pretty quiet on the friend front. I seem to be digging up and polishing old friendships instead of crafting new ones, but given that our 5 year plan is in motion I’ll let that stand for now. The one or two new friends I’ve made here in the last year (why is everything rhyming today?) have sort of fizzled out unimpressively. Disappointing, but if I remember right it took me a good two years to make friends in Denver, so, par. Feels like double bogey, but probably par.

I start my Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Rosemont in a few weeks and I couldn’t be more excited. This will be a place to make friends, maybe a whole writer community I can grow with. It’s a small program and a small school, but as with most things I think if I put a lot into it I should be able to wrangle a lot out. Who knows? I mean you will, probably, because I’ll blog about it, but still.

Things are going OKAY with my whole grieving process. I can’t say it’s something I’d like to do ever again, even though I know someday I will. Some days are easier, and some are harder, and some seem like they’re going great and then the grief monster leaps out from behind the corner and mauls my face so it looks like I just saw titanic for the first time and I can’t explain what set it off I am just so sad. I usually call my little sister on those days and she has been great support. Everyone needs a little sister.

I think that’s about good for now. I’m punxsutawney Chris, peeping my head out from my proverbial winter to let you all know that no matter how long it lasts, spring is sure to follow. Hopefully the next update will be sooner instead of six more weeks.

Love Always,
Christopher

Adding Social Media

/ ceckman / Leave a comment

I haven’t had a Facebook in a very long time. In fact, I’ve completely shied away from Social Media the last few years. There are multiple reasons for this, but in general its made life easier for me and I haven’t missed it. 
But now I want to blog, and I am realizing that if I am ever to get any sort of traction, I’m going to need to engage – at least partially – in social media. Sort of the whole reason I created this space was to have a way to share my life and interests without Facebook. I was spending the majority of my day on it in the past and not in a very enriching way. It prevented some relationships in my life from naturally ending because it forced constant contact. It allowed people from my past to track me in a way I wasn’t a fan of. It was a security issue (not that anything isn’t anymore). That last part in the parenthesis is confusing. I mean to say that everything you say or do online is a security issue these days. There is no escaping us, me, you, if it’s out there it’s staying out there. For now anyway. 
This is getting a little deeper than I had originally intended to go. The main thing I want to say in this post is that I’ve cleaned and updated my twitter and Pinterest accounts to interact nicely with the blog. It will automatically tweet on my account when a new post has been added, and I’m experimenting with a Pinterest board as a widget below. Additionally, all posts and special pages have now been integrated with social media sharing tools so if I post something especially interesting, hilarious, or embarrassing, I’ve made it easier for you to spread around. It’s also a shameless plug for me to get more readers. Or readers that I haven’t personally begged to come here, read, and comment. Not that those readers aren’t dearly valued, they are. Just, they can’t publish me. 

Chris

Waiting for approval for recipe posts and getting ready for Hawaii

/ ceckman / 4 Comments

While I wait to get approval from Blue Apron, (since Plated has denied my request to post anything related to their service, which to be honest, was bland at best), and other cookbook services, I am packing up and get ready to go to Hawaii! We have been to Maui twice, and this time are going to the Big Island. We’ve scheduled the volcano helicopter tour, kayaking and snorkeling, and I am sneaking a spa day for myself. We can hardly wait, although the night before we fly out we need to go up to Summit to walk the new house with an electrician. Busy, busy, busy! I’ll have more time to update in Hawaii, with pictures hopefully, and soon hopefully Blue Apron will give me persmission to update with some of the amazing food they make. 

Until then!
Chris