Blogiversary 13

I used to post about the anniversary every year, but it eventually got away from me, and several years I missed it by a day. While August 23rd sticks in my mind, the first post on Miss Cellania was actually on August 22, 2005. Thirteen years is a long time for a personal blog, although nowhere near a record. The story of how it all came about was in the last blogiversary post three years ago, which I also missed by one day.

There are 24,974 posts here, some of which have yet to be published. There would have been thousands more if I hadn't have migrated to Squarespace and back- I still have the data for all those missing posts, but they are formatted for Wordpress and won't post on Blogger. Come to think of it, they wouldn't post on Wordpress, either, because I tried that. I have occasionally reposted some of them manually, but just dipping into those huge files is a pain that I've mostly put off. For years I watched Sitemeter, as it approached ten million pageviews. I was planning to post something special for that milestone, and I almost got there when Sitemeter went out of business. So I started paying attention to Blogger's stats, which had me exceeding ten million pageviews long ago. Oh, well.  

Starting this blog all those years ago led me to a career in blogging for a time. I wrote for YesButNoButYes, which ended in 2010, and Mental Floss, which scaled back my duties and pay, and Neatorama, where I was managing editor for years, but cutbacks there meant the entire staff was laid off this last spring. I was then re-hired to post a bare-bones version so the site can hang on until the financial situation improves -if it ever does. So now I am truly part-time and looking for more work. The prospect of punching a clock after years of working from home terrified me, but I applied for jobs around town. However, it turns out that no one wants to hire a almost-60-year-old woman with few local contacts and little relevant experience. So I'm caught in a zone between employability and retirement, as I still have a mortgage and seven years to go before Social Security kicks in.

I am glad to still have my personal blog, which has always been a hobby and an outlet, but also a bridge to meet wonderful people on the internet. Thanks to all of you who come by, who comment, and who make it all worthwhile!