Yippee-ki-yay
Hedonia is one today!
One year ago today I signed up with TypePad, picked a generic template and quickly jotted out some thoughts on a dinner the night before with some friends at The Public. My decision at the time was fairly spontaneous, and I scarcely even knew what my motivations were.
One year ago I knew practically nothing of the blogosphere. I had only recently discovered bigtime blogs like Gawker and was both intrigued and bemused by the simmering cauldron of content bubbling beneath the surface in the seemingly bottomless well of personal blogs. Where mainstream media was like an oratory broadcast over a loudspeaker, the blogs were like the nattering of the world's largest cocktail party.
An apt metaphor, that. For, like an actual cocktail party, sometimes the din of the collective voices makes it impossible to hear any one. Other times one voice rises above the others to proffer an idea, a suggestion or a witty bon mot. And when your name is mentioned, you hear it no matter how far across the room you are, and you sense a whole bunch of heads turning your direction.
Revisiting my early posts, I hear my faltering voice struggling to be heard. I didn't know what to write about, how often I should write, whether to use real names, fake names, initials, to write long posts or short posts ... it was a brave new world I had to invent for myself. There were no right or wrong answers.
Since then, I have hit my stride. I feel that I have forged apath for Hedonia, have imbued it with a clear voice and hewed to afairly strict mission. I have incessantly tweaked its appearance and functionality, andwith the help of my photographer husband have enriched it visually.
As I have changed the blog, so has it changed me. Perhaps most noticeably, I have become a better cook. I have broadened my horizons, tried many new things, embraced inspiration on many fronts. I have become both more intuitive and adventurous in the kitchen.
But perhaps the most enriching part is entering a brotherhood (er, siblinghood) of like-minded people. I was remarking to a fellow food blogger recently that when I started Hedonia, I was mindlessly surfing from one blog to the next, commenting here and there, responding to comments in kind, and before I knew it, I found myself part of a community. I feel lucky to be welcomed into the company of so many bright, interesting minds, and even luckier as these friendships cross over from virtual into real life. I have to say, food people are good people.
I am neverendingly astonished by the quality of what so many others put out on their blogs every single day. It is humbling and inspiring to be in the same sandbox.
I am excited to see how the blog -- and I -- evolve going forward. I will continue to stick to my tagline/mission statement, "Eating, drinking and living the good life in America's most hedonistic city, San Francisco." I have certainly given a great deal of airtime to the first word in that statement. I hope to spend more time focusing on "living the good life," as it is what I do best.