Exactly five years ago today, I hung my shingle out on the internet. Over the past five years, I’ve blogged with varying amounts of regularity, shooting for at least a post a week.
When I started, I wasn’t sure how long the blog would last, but I had an idea that I would take to it. For while it’s been five years of blogging, I’ve spent most of my life putting words on paper.
The earliest notebook in the photograph above is a diary I started on Christmas Day, 1990, at nine years old. I’m a sporadic diary keeper at best, and most of the paper in the stack are novels and short stories. The diaries are mainly commonplace books where I collect quotes and ideas. This blog has become the record of my daily life.
Over the past five years, I’ve written 160,000 words across over 700 posts.
To take a quick trip down memory lane, here are links to some of the highest viewed posts in the blog’s history.
2016 – Movie Night At the Cheswick
Eulogy for movies nights at our local cinema.
2016 – Dear Michael Phelps
Growing up with the king of the pool.
2017 – Epic Quests for Rings
Lacey Chabert is the Tom Brady of Hallmark movies, which aren’t that different from watching a football game. A personal favorite, and an opinion I still stand by.
2017 – The Girls in the Stacks
Who says nothing exciting ever happens in libraries?
2018 – Whole 30 Fail
I try the Whole 30 diet so you don’t have to.
2019 – Night At The Airport
How I nearly ended up on a terrorist watch list.
2020 – Stella Dallas: Barbara’s Four-Hanky Smash
Barbara Stanwyck’s Oscar that got away.
2021 – The First Divine Feud: Bette and Miriam
If you thought Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were rivals, you should’ve seen Bette and Miriam Hopkins. They did all but pull one another’s hair onset. Actually, they probably did that too.
And the most viewed post in the five-year history of this blog?
2020 – Double Indemnity: The Crown Jewel of Film Noir
Even in a bad wig, never bet against Barbara Stanwyck.
Time is the most precious thing we have. I appreciate you giving me some of yours. Hidden diaries have their uses, but writers need readers to complete the circle of creative life.
Thanks for being here. See you Sunday.
