Blogging hiatus, over and OUT.

Claire's 2015: This basically sums it up.

Y'all. This is embarrassing. My last post was April 3, 2015.

In case you weren't aware, it's February 2016. Ack ack ick. 14-year-old blogging Claire (who blogged an average of five times a day) would be very disappointed in 28-year-old not-blogging Claire.

But, 14-year-old self (and everyone else), can we back up so I can tell you what's been going on and give you an idea of just WHY I haven't blogged for ten whole months?

First and foremost, #MFAlife. #amwriting. (14-year-old self would not understand why I'm attaching the number sign to words. Sometimes 28-year-old self does not understand either. Le sigh.) In other words, 2002 Claire, future you got a Masters of Fine Arts degree in creative writing. And the last year of this program took up a LOT of time. Like, a lot. Time that I didn't really have to begin with and so would squeeze hurried and harried into Saturdays and Sundays and sometimes late weeknights while Sean slept. Reading and underlining books shakily on the bus to and from work, closing my eyes to delve and dive into the last 18 months of my life so that I could emerge with something... and I did! I wrote a book, a manuscript draft. It exists, I printed it out (multiple times), I read from it in front of a bunch of people (including the people I was writing about), I gave a graduation speech and got a new diploma and an alumni pin. But all of that just wound down in the last month, and so I'm still adjusting to having writing time on my hands that doesn't have to do with deadlines.

Actually, I spent plenty of time away from the laptop. With all the friends, weddings, reunions, birthdays, my college classmate winning NBA MVP, and a certain husband, 2015 was pretty epic.

I've been teaching, too, which began as a requirement for my degree and has become a fun, challenging and rewarding addition to my life. I feel constantly amazed by all I've actually learned/read/experienced in the past 5-10 years to be able to do this, and very glad that the folks who come to my classes seem to leave feeling inspired - and then return the next week! Some parts still feel quite experimental, but I'm excited to continue on the journey and see where it leads.

So those are my two biggest excuses, middle school Claire, for having gone my longest stint ever without blogging since the eighth grade. And then of course there's everything in between - the most important people, the full-time job, the early bedtimes and occasional (...) TV binges. For the first time in a long time, I've lived life without writing about it simultaneously. Even on paper, the everyday has gone unchecked. (I read Sarah Manguso's Ongoingness: The End of a Diary with rapt fascination, hearing myself and not-myself on every page.)

But then the other morning - not surprisingly, a day or two after my writing group and I had done ten minutes of free writing on a prompt - I switched my electric tea kettle to "on," and something clicked on within me. "I'll just write until the water boils," I thought, grabbing the most recent blank journal I'd tried unsuccessfully to jump start.

And there it went. The words, again.

It was lovely to write with a deadline - until the water boils! - about nothing and everything. I tried not to monitor what appeared messily on the page, and much of it was mundane, but it felt so good to write and not try and make it deep and sweeping. I liked seeing my handwriting on the page again, even when my hand started to ache from lack of practice.

I got a couple of pages down and then the kettle clicked and I closed the book, got up, filled my mug with English Breakfast and skim milk, poured a bowl of dry Honey Nut Cheerios, sliced up a pear and spread my toast with peanut butter. Turned on NPR.

The day was beginning, but not before I had begun myself. And while I have enjoyed living life without writing about it, finding that to be a mixture of outwardly relaxed and inwardly tense (or inwardly relaxed and outwardly tense?), I am excited to have the time to return. No, to MAKE the time to return.

Speaking of Sarah Manguso - I ran into her in The New York Times this week, and was struck so soundly by this thought:

“The purpose of being a serious writer is to keep people from despair. If you keep that in mind always, the wish to make something beautiful or smart looks slight and vain in comparison. If people read your work and, as a result, choose life, then you are doing your job.”

So I'm back. Choosing life, and writing. Writing, and life. For myself and for you, whoever you may be. And I hope you'll come along for the ride, wherever it goes next.

Celebrating March.

What? A monthly update that isn't backtracking to catch up on more than one month at a time? Written within the first week of the new month? It's a miracle! (Well, it's a Friday off, which I'm thankful for!)

I'm so excited for spring to kick it into high gear in April, but really, March was lovely. Here are some highlights...

Our new church website launched! I'm part of the communications committee, and we had been working on this revamp since the fall. It was so cool to watch it come together with the ideas and hard work of so many dedicated people, especially our communications director, Sara. I love the fresh, clean look and the many photos of our wonderful community - plus the new logo!

Davidson basketball. My beloved Wildcats had some exciting moments in March, especially towards the beginning. We earned our first at-large NCAA bid, which was a huge achievement, and though the game itself wasn't so hot, it's always a joy to hang out with fellow Davidsonians - in person and via text - and bother everyone else in the bar with cheers and shrieks. (But post-second round, I haven't been into March Madness at all... not much of a Cinderella year, huh?)

Lunch with a dear friend. My Maid of Honor Jessie lives out west and came into town for a couple of days, during which we got to have lunch and watch the Davidson game on a big-screen TV and devour cookies and brownies a la mode when things didn't go so well on the court. I was so happy to have some quality time with her.

Bridal shower. One of my wonderful childhood friends is getting married this summer, and we celebrated her - on her March birthday, no less! - with delicious food, gifts, laughter, and the fun moment when her fiance surprised her with his homemade apple pie. Can't wait to celebrate Allie and Sam in a few months!

Meals with family. Sean and I have gotten to have multiple meals with both of our families this month, which is lovely, and one of the prime reasons we chose to move back home. It was especially fun one weekend to meet new additions to the family from Tennessee and to go through old photos at my grandmother's house, laughing over good memories (and bad hairstyles).

The farmer's market. There's a Tuesday farmer's market near my office, and my coworkers and I have started making a regular trip. Of course we usually wind up with sweet treats instead of organic vegetables, but who says that's a bad thing?

Books! I have absolutely loved my reading list for this MFA semester, and feel like several have really moved me in particular. Literarily (is that a word?), Roger Rosenblatt's Boy Detective: A New York Childhood is sharp and cool, so snappily written it makes me want to write his way instead of flowing on and on like I tend to do. Literarily but also life-wise, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry have been beautiful reads and have inspired me to try and live more simply and gratefully. Let's just say it's an ongoing process, but I was really drawn into both books and their characters, but also their rootedness in faith, community and simplicity.

Marilynne Robinson. Speaking of that esteemed author... in March she spoke at a conference at Emory, where they had a book signing afterwards, so now I have a little shine of Marilynne Robinson in my book where I hope it will somehow seep through into my own fingers to give me a little boost on writing and life through the years.

Before work... I've really been enjoying my morning routine, sitting in the dining room (we have a dining room! in my old place I barely had a place to sit), drinking jasmine green tea with skim milk, munching on granola and a banana with peanut butter, listening to NPR. Writing and reading sometimes, or just watching the birds outside.

After work... Since the time change, Sean and I have made a point to take a walk through our neighborhood most every evening, which has made for a new and beloved part of the daily routine. We catch up on the day, meet neighbors, walk quietly, enjoy the now-blooming trees... A great way to end the day.

P.S. Food, y'all. Some of the best eats this month... almond butter cookies, sauteed garlicky kale, white bean chicken chili, pimento cheese sandwiches, chocolate peppermint biscotti.

Winter is going (finally!)...

Well. So much for a good blogging schedule to start off 2015, huh?

Although, I have to promise you that I have a good excuse. I'm in my third semester of my MFA program, which means that I am actually writing all the time, just not where you can see it. Hopefully someday you will see it in book form, but to get to that point, it's nose to the grindstone in Microsoft Word, not the blogosphere. But hang with me - I'll be back one of these days.

So, since we're a week into March, I thought I'd recap the best bits of January and February. That's logical, right?

January:

- Rev. Bill Mallard was a beloved professor at Emory's Candler School of Theology and a devoted member of our church next door. He passed away on December 23 after nearly a year of hospice care, and his funeral service at the start of January was one filled with stories, laughter and singing, which we ended with the spiritual "Amen," his trademark. It was yet another moment that gave me gratitude for my communities of faith, from beginning to end.

- I went back for my third residency week at Goddard College in Vermont, where it was very cold and snowy, but at least this year I knew what to expect! And I have wonderful friends there now, so going there for a week of fellowship, good food and writing workshops is a joy. But suffice it to say, I'm more excited about the weather for this summer's residency.

- The night I returned from Vermont, around 11:30 p.m., I made Sean stay up as we looked through every.single.one of our wedding photos that had arrived while I was gone. They are the best, and Jeff captured the day in all of its joyous thunderstorm and sunshine mess. If you're getting hitched in Atlanta, check out Jeff Roffman Photography.

- My sister-in-law recently got engaged, and we had a fun dinner gathering for the adorable couple with both families. That's one of the reasons I am so grateful to be living near family; it's been wonderful to get to see them more often (on both sides!) and to be present for special occasions like these.

- If you haven't been paying attention to college basketball (who are you?), little Davidson College is doing pretty well in its rookie year in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Won the regular season outright, in fact, and today, swept conference Coach of the Year and Player of the Year, among other things. [Although technically that didn't happen 'til March... shh!] This is the first season that I have not witnessed *in person* in nine years, so I've suffered some withdrawal, but local watch parties with alums, Twitter, and texts always make me feel like I'm side by side with all the Wildcat faithful.

- My graduate program at Goddard requires that in my third semester, I teach a writing class in my local community. (Yeah, that's another reason why I haven't been blogging.) I began doing that in January, and it's been such a treat. I really enjoy leading the group and watching folks realize what they can do with their memories on the page. It's my first time teaching, and I'm grateful to be having the experience with such dear folks.

- Our church did a Children's Sabbath Sunday, where children led every part of the worship service. Every part. They prayed (wonderful, relevant, honest prayers), sang (the beauty of a young brother and sister singing "Jesus Loves Me" with their choir member mom I will never forget), and a fifth-grader preached an amazing sermon with a message that has stuck with me since: it's better to be kind than to be right (something I always need to learn). Oh, and there were balloons.

- One of my closest friends from college and Charlotte years came to stay with us for a night, which was a blast. I am continually thankful that distance and time apart never seem to matter with my Davidson friends; we always pick right back up where we left off.

- This is not a happy thing, and by including it I don't mean for it to sound that way: Someone I went to church and high school with passed away unexpectedly at the end of January. I had not seen him in years and did not know him well, but I do have many happy memories of him, and I know he brought great joy to his close friends and family. His deeply moving funeral service was full to bursting, with so many faces that I had not seen in years but knew in a snap. It was another reminder of the significance of community in our lives, and how I feel uniquely tethered to this one. Please say a prayer for this awesome family.

- The month capped off with a lovely girls' night dinner with three colleagues who have become friends in these last nearly-8 (!) months. Fruit, cheese, quiche, kale salad, baklava and laughter - what else do you need?

My first visit to Davidson back in 2006, and my most recent visit, nine years later to the day.

February:

- The weekend before Valentine's Day, Sean and I took an evening jaunt over to Decatur Square, where we browsed in Little Shop, ate at Brickstore (maybe my favorite restaurant in town), and topped off the night with a-maz-ing Jeni's Ice Cream. I got a scoop of dark chocolate with a scoop of honey pistachio and homemade whipped cream - okay, *really*, what else do you need?

- Former President Jimmy Carter spoke at Emory, and I was one in a packed classroom to hear him. His talk was great, his responses to questions were thoughtful, and his faith palpable. Also, you could not once tell that he was 90 years old. It was also pretty neat to see this byline a few days later.

- I had coffee with a fellow Davidsonian that I knew mostly through other friends, and it was awesome to have one-on-one time to catch up and get to know each other better.

- There was one weekend where I had, I think, three? meals with my family over the course of a day and a half. Again, I'm so thankful that this is possible nowadays.

- Our office had a Mardi Gras party and lunch, which was fun and delicious, and a time to connect with co-workers. It also meant that I got to bring Sean one of his favorite things: King Cake.

- We gathered for another Davidson basketball watch party in the middle of the month, and this group is so dedicated that when the bar found out that the game was actually blacked out in our area, someone drove home and got their laptop to bring back to the restaurant. It was set up just in time for us to watch the second half, where we won on a last-second three pointer.

- Three beloved cousins came into town for the weekend and we got to catch up over dinner one night and breakfast the next morning. It was wonderful to see them!

- From there, Sean and I headed up to Davidson for a basketball game and to see friends. We saw so many people in less than 24 hours that when we got home, we collapsed from introvert exhaustion. But we wouldn't have traded it for the world, getting to see so many people that we love in one place that we love. It helped inspire my piece on our most famous Davidson basketball player (who's also getting some good press these days - well, all the time), too.

- I had an unexpected snow day in the middle of the week, which was a perfect time to catch up on writing and reading, and lunch with my brother and mom, where she had Ella Fitzgerald on the CD player just like she would when we were kids.

- The youth of the church put on an excellent rendition of "The Music Man" at the end of the month. Having idolized the youth group musical "stars" when I was growing up, and then acting/singing in six productions myself, this tradition has a soft spot in my heart and the energy and joy is just the same no matter how many years have gone by. It's so neat to see these youth embrace it just as deeply as my friends and I did. And now I've had such good tunes in my head!

If you've gotten through this list, boy do I salute you, and thank you for putting up with me during this time of writing-where-you-can't-see. Blogging is one of my favorite things and I mean to return to it as soon as I have the time!

[I should also mention that we finally started Game of Thrones four years late and by started I mean purchased and watched the whole four seasons and 40 hours of epic awesome television in an ungodly amount of time but YOU GUYS JUST IN TIME FOR SEASON FIVE!!!]