Lilac Colored Glasses

According to CB, my blog is safe for now.

For now.

All of my posts have been backed up and saved, so all of the writing I’ve done on this blog so far is safe from being forever lost in the mucky mire of the internet.

However, I’m still not so keen on this yearly violation of my space. Plus, like I said before, this blog, as it is, no longer really reflects who I am or what my life is about anymore.

So what I’ve decided to do is go back to a hosted blog site (wavering on which one to use) and pretty much create a new blog that will link back to this current one in case anyone would want to read the old stuff.

I’m still trying to decide on a name for the new blog so I’d like to invite anyone reading this to give some suggestions. A few have crossed my mind and I’ll share those with you in a week or so, after I have a look at any suggestions you all might have for me.

In the meantime, I’ll most likely post here a bit while I’m working on the new blog’s setup/design/etc. because well, I guess I just can’t give blogging up for now. I’ve had at least ten ideas for posts in the last week and I’d be lying to myself if I said a stupid hacker had erased the joy I get from rambling on about myself.

I’m such an egotist.

For anyone who hasn’t realized it yet, my blog was hacked right after I made my last post. CB fixed it but it was corrupted less than a day later. This is now the second time (last year I was hacked in June as well) that I’ve felt invaded in what I consider my personal space. For as cool as having my own domain name is, I confess, the fear of being hacked and losing the last 3 years of almost daily writing permanently has lead me to the decision to abandon this blog.

I’m still deciding on whether or not I’ll pursue a new one or not, but if I do, I’ll post here to let any remaining readers know where you all can find me.

So.

Wow.

There really is no amount of words to describe the past month of my life. I could seriously fill an immense chunk of virtual notebook pages if I tried to touch on everything that has gone on, but I think most of you out there got the gist of it.

On May 23 CB and I flew to my home in Pittsburgh, on May 30th I turned 29 and we were legally married in a beautiful ceremony in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. Most of my friends and family were there to celebrate with us as well as 13 of CB’s family members as well. A couple days later we flew back to Belgium, barely finished unpacking and then welcomed my parents and my brother and his girlfriend to Gent for our Belgian wedding reception on June 12. No ceremony the second time around, just a spectacular and pyrotechnic (hopefully there will be pictures soon so I can explain what I mean) dinner and party where CB’s family, friends and colleagues (along with some of my blogging and barista friends) could come to celebrate our marriage. Not many brides have the opportunity to wear their dress twice, but like many other things in my life, I guess I got to do something unique.

On top of the wedding festivities, two other major things have happened.

My brother Scooter proposed to his girlfriend while they were on the Eiffel Tower in Paris and she said yes.
And CB’s doctoral thesis was finally 100% accepted by the jury selected to review it by Ghent University.

So aside from becoming a happily wedded wife, I’m also gaining a second sister-in-law (eventually) and a doctor (Ph.D) for a husband.

And after all of that, when I finally got a day or two to sleep in and pay some attention to the inner workings of my head, I really began reflecting on where I am in life compared to the same time last year.

I won’t drag you through any linky flashbacks, but I will say that this time last year I was jobless and hopeless and frustrated. I was feeling like a failure in my language abilities and I had run out of anything to write about because I found myself doing nothing but complaining.

And now, here I am, working full time, looking into starting up an intro course to French (not that my Dutch is even close to perfect, but it’s pretty fluent according to what most people have told me), married and realizing that, for now, at least, my life has reached the next plateau.

My biggest choice currently is whether we should go to Paris or London for a weekend getaway in August.

And I’m looking at my blog and realizing that, well, the me that started it is no longer entirely the me that is writing it. I’m not the timid suburban daycare worker trying to find her way in a new relationship and a new city anymore.

Methinks it’s high time for an overhaul!

(and no worries, there will be lots and lots of wedding photos, we just need to compile them and take out anything we deem too fugly for public viewing)