The Blog is Back!

Wow. Has it really been about a year and a half since I posted on this thing? Time flies!

I've been thinking about bringing the blog back for a long time -- and for some reason I just feel motivated to do it now. But before I explain why I brought it back, I guess I should explain why I quit blogging in the first place.

This blog started as a project for work. My company had been pushing for its employees to start blogging, and I thought I'd set the trend and be the first one to do it. I also wanted to expose myself to people in the Carteret County area as much as I could. That's the primary area I cover at work -- and for so long, WNCT was an afterthought for people who live in this area. When I started at WNCT, it became my mission to win viewers in this area and have them turn to me first for their local news needs. (And I think I can honestly say that, over the last two years, I've done that for a number of viewers!) So for however long I blogged the first go 'round, the posts were more or less work-related. Someone must have been reading, because over the few months I had this blog going, it got more than 2,300 hits.

Well, eventually I became burnt out with work. More than burnt out. In the interest of good taste and not airing dirty laundry in public, I'll leave it at that. Writing is one of my greatest passions. But back then (and even now), I'd come home from work completely frustrated and spent. Writing was one of the last things I wanted to do. (It sucks when one of your passions is stolen from you.) The blog went away, and naturally so did the readers.

I want to give the blog another chance, though. This time, it's not going to be work-related. In fact, I hope I really don't talk about work on here that much. My job consumes so much of my time that I don't really want to think about it when I'm not at work. My family likes to talk about/ask me questions about work when I'm around them (naturally). Often they get get snappy answers when they ask me about work -- not because I'm trying to be ill, but because I don't want work to even cross my mind when I'm not there. If there's one thing I've learned in a little more than two years at WNCT, it's the value of time. And I want my time to be just that -- my time.

And while the initial goal of the blog was to generate a large readership in hopes of promoting myself to viewers in the area, that's not the goal anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'd still love for every television viewer in eastern North Carolina to read this. But I want to focus on the title of the blog -- Staying Connected. I have a ton of AMAZING friends and family all over the place, so this is a fantastic avenue to combine my passions for writing and for people.

So there you have it. The blog is back. And writing this is a good way to cap off a great weekend. I went to Chapel Hill with my parents to the Carolina football game -- and not only did I get to see a phenomenal game (the now-No. 22 Heels spanked UConn), I also got to catch up and have a ton of fun with some good friends. Also throughout the course of the weekend, my best friend told me one of the most hilarious true-to-life stories I've heard in a long, long time (sadly, I can't share...) and the NASCAR boys raced at Talladega (one of my favorite races of the year). And while my man Kevin Harvick had a car that could have easily won, he got swept up in someone else's mess. He's 171 or so points back in the championship hunt now, but listening to him and his team on their radio as they repaired his car after the big wreck, I'm convinced they're a galvanized group that could make a run for the championship over the next few weeks. We'll need luck and a few wins to make it happen. We'll see!

Have a great evening, y'all!