Miss me?

Chances are, if you pay attention to my photography blog, the answer is no. Posting every day on that blog leaves little to NOTHING to post on this blog. I put anything and everything on that 365-day photo challenge and I'm very excited to say IT'S ALMOST OVER!! Don't get me wrong, I'm super proud of myself for staying true to my self-imposed challenge and its been fun keeping myself engaged & motivated, but the constant need to find something worth photographing is something I won't miss. The last few days are a prime example of that. I've been sick and all I do is work and rest. My day is work, work, work, then come home, crawl in my pajamas, take meds & become reacquainted with my DVR. So.....what is there to take a picture of? You'd think I'd be smart enough to take my camera to work and capture something exciting there...but I never do. Hair, chemicals and customer service is on my brain while I'm at work, definitely NOT my photo challenge, thus making it hard to find something worth posting about every.single.day! I will miss the excitement of a really cool picture I caught, the action photos I love so much and the attention to detail or focus on others. I'll still post the photos I want to brag about - I'm gonna keep the blog alive, just don't expect a post every day or once a week for that matter. I'm really looking forward to the break. (My husband is almost as excited as I am to be done! I can't tell you how many nights I've kept him awake with the bright glow of my laptop screen and the clickity-click of my fingers on the keys. It was never a priority of mine to do it earlier in the day, right before bed always seemed like the convenient choice, but the hubby really hated that.)

And I'm not gonna lie, I miss the privacy. With an every-so-public view into my life, I feel over exposed. It was a self-imposed challenge and I was the one typing up my life in 2011, so I only have myself to blame, but it will be nice to live in the shadows of cyberspace like everyone else. I will admit, the pictures were always a great conversation starter, like when you needed to break the ice or hadn't seen someone for a long time. My blog was always the go-to conversation piece. What will I talk about now? Or what will people know about my life?

I have had a few followers plead for me to continue this challenge in 2012, but I still decline. My sister Kalie even suggested taking a picture each day and just uploading it to Facebook without blogging and typing up a whole explanation about it. (She was never one to actually read my blogs. Just a stalker that views the pictures. I like to tease her about that. Thanks for the support sister!!) No, I'm just playing Kalie. I know my stories and explanation were long and sometimes not needed, but it felt incomplete to just post the picture. What if it left unanswered questions? Then I'd just have to explain myself once asked about it and chances are that would be multiple times. I'd rather nip that in the bud and spend the 20 minutes blogging about each picture and save all that time explaining in real life. It just seemed necessary to me. But even with your suggestion to just post the pictures, I'm going to have to say no to that as well. My camera and I have a close, intimate relationship now and I'm feel like I need a timeout. We're on a break Rebel, you hear that?

I have seen other bloggers start the photo challenge during a year of great triumph, health conditions or turning a significant age. I turn 30 in April, maybe I'll pick the challenge back up and do 365 days of being 30, who knows? I guess since I've been so obsessed with that blog for an entire year, there is a chance I might go through withdrawals and feel disconnected with everyone. I guess only time will tell. I am, however, excited to get The Black Spot current.  I was surprised to see that I actually posted 38 times this year (counting this one). But then I remembered that I did a silly 30 day challenge last January, which counts for about 20 or so of that 38 and then that stopped a third of the way through because it was being outshone by my photo challenge. Man, that photo challenge took over everything in my life!

Well 'cheers' to the new year - Happy 2012 everyone! - and 'cheers' to my resolution to get The Black Spot going again. (I'm hopping on the bandwagon Kalie, Andee & Jessica! I'm not vowing to post weekly like you have all voiced, but I'm hoping bi-monthly can be a goal I can reach!) Sending my love to everyone! Hope the holidays have treated you well!!