Guess Who’s Back?

Well, after a short year and a half hiatus, I’m rolling away the stone and emerging back into the sunlight. Are blogs even relevant anymore with the ubiquity of Instagram? Do the kids today want to read anything more than a paragraph (based on some of the IG posts I’ve been seeing, the answer is clearly yes)? What is Tik Tok? I don’t know the answer to any of these (although the news just told me that Tik Tok might be a Chinese spying app…fun!), but since I’m always just a step behind whatever is trending (except for Iceland, being there before it was overdone is my one hipster attribute), this tracks and I’m soldiering on.

On a more serious note, it’s been an interesting year both personally and professionally. My first inclination is to say it’s been a tough year. I’ve had to reset in a way, and while I don’t know that I’m coming back stronger than ever, I am coming back a little more centered, and can confidently say I’ve never had a stronger sense of myself. In relation to this project, I feel like I finally have the time and luxury to devote some time to blogging again, which excites me. This has always been a fun, creative outlet, and even in my down time, I’ve been taking copious notes on things I want to put up here. I apologize for all the self-help-navel-gazing-language, and for being more than a little bit vague, but I guess as the creator around here, that’s my prerogative.

I’ve always been a big starter and stopper of projects. I’m not exactly a trend/hobby hopper, and there’s plenty of projects I do see all the way through to the end, but I flirt with the concept. I mention this, because while I’ve certainly taken breaks before, I’ve maintained www.paweekendfun.com since its inception in 2011, which is something I’ve always been proud of. It’s allowed me to write consistently, experiment with writing styles, and to share something I’m deeply passionate about, and feel very knowledgeable on, with a like-minded audience, however small that may be. In preparation for this post, I looked back on some of my earlier work, and man, does some of it make me cringe. I also found some work I’m very proud of, and I even impressed myself a couple of times. More importantly, I realized how much fun this has been.

PAWeekendFun started because I wanted to create a travel blog, wanted to find a niche, and needed to justify starting a travel blog with limited travel experiences. I decided to focus on PA based weekend travel because that’s what my lifestyle allowed, and ultimately, the blog did reflect exactly how I like to spend my leisure time. I mention this because going forward, PAWeekendFun will still be very much a reflection on how I spend my down time, and the places I travel on the weekends, but because the ways I spend my downtime have slightly changed, the blog may look a bit different.

I started PAWeekendFun when I was 24. At that age, I drank much more, ate almost solely for sustenance, and stayed out late multiple nights a week. I still enjoy some adult beverages but have greatly decreased my intake. I eat a lot more for pleasure than sustenance, and these days my ideal Saturday is up before the sun rises and in bed before it sets. I also consider weekends spent catching up on reading, podcasts, and my programs to be a win, so in addition to my new obsession with farm breweries, my deep thoughts on how New Hampshire is the most underrated state in the Northeast, and more celebrations of a magical place known as The Jersey Shore that you’ve come to expect, expect me to also expand more on the things I read, watch, and listen to, since that’s largely my fun these days (don’t worry, I will not be sharing any recipes I attempt, because I’m not every girl you’ve mostly forgotten about from high school you’re still Facebook friend with).

I also tended to shy away from personal information and/or divisive opinions my last go around. That’s probably changing a little bit too. Expect more personal. I realized that without it, sometimes the posts came across a little too cookie cutter. Expect some political too. We’re living in a world where that unfortunately has bled into the ways we spend our downtime. I might even flirt with social justice type things, because again, older, wiser, realizing they do intersect with what I’m doing here, but don’t worry, I will try my very best to not get too “woke” on you.

Anyhow, all three of you reading this, thanks for doing so. I’ll see you back here shortly.