Half-Decade.

Today marks the fifth birthday of this blog!  Guys, I have a Kindergartner!

It seems kind of crazy to think that I have been "consistently" writing in this blog for that many years.  So, of course, I spent a little time today looking back through my blog and searching for those key things that happened in the lifetime of this blog: graduating from Williams, getting in to TFA, two presidential elections, adopting two cats, buying our first house, getting engaged -- then married, becoming an aunt (!) and so on and so forth.

What I ultimately found was that the more interesting things most of the time were the things that reflected the times.  I also found it amusing to look at this post from Election 2004 in which I sort of complained about how much time Jamie spent volunteering for the campaign.  Present-Melissa wants Past-Melissa to know that she doesn't know the half of it.

Anyway, to commemorate the fifth birthday of this blog, I would like to revisit an old post from January of 2004 and see how successfully (if at all) I was able to beat mediocrity.

I was looking at the "2003 Bloggie" nominees, and I have decided that my blog will never be the stuff of greatness -- it is forever doomed to be mediocre. From what I saw, here are the ingredients for a great blog: 

1. Be married or engaged. This way, you always have something to talk about. You can talk about how your husband farts in his sleep or how he said something uncharacteristically chauvanistic or whatever. If you're engaged you can always talk about the planning of the wedding (which will almost always be wacky and unpredictable). 

1. Done and done.  Despite the fact that Jamie does not fart in his sleep (fortunately), he still provides plenty of fodder for the blog -- unfortunately for him.

2. Be unemployed or have a job with so little responsibility that you can spend hours looking for random news and weird stories on the internet (See #3). 

2. Sort of.  I have a job now.  Boy howdy, do I ever.  That still does not stop me from spending ample time on the internet looking for random news and weird stories.

3. Find and link to random news and weird stories on the internet. 

3. Yep.  I think I do this.  I think I do this a lot.  Dare I say, too much?

4. Have a dog that you treat like a child. A spoiled, rotten child. (This is not to be confused with actually having a child: that makes you not have time for #3 and otherwise boring since you would rather sleep than upkeep a stupid blog. There are exceptions -- see #5). 

4. I think two spoiled rotten cats count.  I also have Puppy Cam!

5. Be pregnant. This makes you wacky and unpredictable and brings hours of fun as you complain about those people who touch your belly or make stupid comments to your pregnant ass. Also, if you're employed you will probably take some maternity leave to relax at home, put your feet up...andsurfthenetandupdateyourblog (see #2 and 3). 

5. NOPE.

6. Take pictures and put them on your blog. 

6. Can do!  I just need fun places to photograph.

7. Be willing to candidly talk about your bowel movements and other such taboo items. 

7. Up to a point, people.  Mostly because I am cognizant that people who read this blog probably wouldn't want to hear about such things.  Besides, the bowel movements of our preschoolers would probably be more amusing anyway...

So it seems as though, five years after starting this blog, I am doing alright.  Here's to five more years of exciting milestones and those not-as-exciting snapshots in time. 

I encourage you to randomly pick a day from the sidebar and read -- I had a good time doing it.  And had I not, I would not have remembered that J-Bomb had accurately predicted the outcome of this year's election almost two years ago.  Though, I don't know if Traffic Light Boy is any closer to Secretary of Transportation...