It somehow escaped my notice in the last entry that my blog turned five years old on the eleventh of March.

I started blogging after happening on Ann Arbor Is Overrated during the "dark days" of my Washtenaw County existence and noticing how many people had blogs. I followed suit, and it's interesting to ponder how many things have changed and how many have stayed the same in the half-decade since. At the start, I still worked at Chateau Fluffy, and most of the friends I'd made on my initial move to Ann Arbor (the vast majority of which were work colleagues) had moved away themselves. I enjoyed my work, if not my job, and had just started making a habit of actually finishing stories I began. Within a couple of months, I started going to shows at the Madison House, made an avalanche of friends and acquaintances, and much of the blog became devoted to the local music scene. After a couple of years, the scene began to fragment (at least from my perspective), and the overwhelming dominance of folk and alt-country was getting a trifle wearisome, however much I enjoyed many of the individual acts. I stopped seeing the crowd as much, but am profoundly thankful and grateful to keep the comradeship of some greatly cherished friends, who I'd like to thank once again for being there (and for reading!).

I noticed a few trends reading back over the posts--the entries became a lot more focused (he laughed mirthlessly), dwelling less on the vicissitudes of my personal life and the goings-on at shows and more on recipes, films, and books. I'm pretty comfortable with that, as I hardly ever go to shows anymore and I figure people will find recipes and film reviews more interesting anyway. It parallels my life in a weird way--I used to live a lot more aimlessly, which wasn't surprising in that my idea for a career in academia had run into some nasty realities and I found myself needing to retool. I'm still retooling to some extent, but I've got a much better idea of what I need to do both in my professional and personal lives; I'm taking actual steps on one and making firm resolutions on the other, which is better than nothing. Life isn't so generally carefree as it was five years ago, but that's the nature of age and my "denial closet" (as it's been defined for humanity by a couple of colleagues) isn't nearly so stuffed as it used to be.

Remembering the proliferation of friends' blogs back in the day, I'm even proud in a little way that this one's still going relatively strong (even after three name changes--it's been "The Decline," "Clown's Death Rattle," and "Beat Them Gherkins" along the way). It's been a lot less coherent and specific than other blogs, but it's a reflection of my personality, and so I guess that's fitting. I'll be interested to see if it runs another five, or if I'll even be in Ann Arbor at that point (which certainly isn't the official plan). In any event, I feel pretty good, it's turning out to be a surprisingly nice day (hopefully not too nice, as I want a pleasant day at work), and the blog still provides me with an outlet that's occasionally interesting to others. It's done its job, and I'm grateful for it.