I've been considering shutting down this blog. The primary reason is that it has been a chronicle of my raising two very eccentric children, and they have grown old enough not to want to be chronicled. I avoid writing about the ever-amusing and interesting Iris uber Alles because, at age 14, she has become a highly private person. However! In discussions with Lola, she has explicitly given me permission to continue writing about her "so long as it's not embarrassing." So we're a bit hamstrung here, but not entirely.
While I was on hiatus, a mother of one of Lola's friends invited me to get together, and it turned out that she was inspired to ask me for coffee because someone told her to read this blog, saying "Everyone reads The Drunken Housewife!" As she read it, she recognized the details and realized that she knew the author. Indeed, her child had spent the night at the Drunken Housewife's home (and emerged none the worse for wear). Over coffee this woman said to me charmingly, "I knew I liked you before, but now I really like you!" How embarrassing it was for me to then stammer, "I think I'm not writing it any more."
A few other people contacted me outside of the blog to ask me to keep writing. So, I concluded, the blog may have seen its best days. The bigger numbers, the being mentioned in the Wall St. Journal or other periodicals, may be past us. But! There are still people who want to read whatever embarrassing tripe I manage to occasionally spew out, and it's not as if I'm doing something so much better with my time.
What have I been up to, besides not blogging? I have a new volunteer gig, working a shift a week at a wildlife rehab clinic. That's invigorating as it's hard work in a good cause and gets me out of the house regularly. I've been quilting again. I'm attempting to buy a vintage trailer so I can stop sleeping in a tent at Burning Man and instead live in a tiny little bastion of retro cuteness. I have an almost-tamed white kitten with blue eyes who needs a home very badly (a home with other cats, please, as she loves all other cats). I've read some very good books and wasted a lot of time hate-reading PUA forums online. I took a spur-of-the-moment road trip down to L.A. to help out my beloved commenter Hughman and his elderly beagle, Polly. And again that brings me back to the fact that this blog has brought me real friends. It's funny how I've inadvertently made enemies with this blog but in my everyday life, I'm more affected by the real friends who've met me through it. It has enriched my life, although not financially (I did have a few ads here once upon a time but have not done anything to follow up on those). So! I'll keep it up, but with significantly fewer anecdotes of the children, sigh.
