You asked for it

Now that I'm back from Europe, I've had a couple of people say that they wish I would keep posting. That is flattering, but...about what, exactly, would I post? The suburban working-mother angle is well and tediously covered online, and I'm confident that blogging about life as a government hack would (1) get me fired; and (2) bore even a British historian to death. The fact that I'm a sex researcher is good fodder, but it is also my job, and there is a limit to the time I'm willing to spend organizing my thoughts on it outside the office.

So what could the theme be? What am I better at than anyone else I know? The answer, of course, is a fat lot of nothing. No, I'm not being modest or negative. I'm assessing this realistically. I'm not the smartest person I know, though I'm a damn safe distance from the dumbest. I'm pretty funny, but I don't have the ruinous emotional scars that are the jet-fuel of real humor. I don't have a story to tell. I'm not an artist, a writer or a DIY geek. I haven't survived life-threatening events and I'm fresh out of conspiracy theories. I don't even have any party tricks. I'm a good wife and mother, but I don't have any advice on the topic, not that anyone actually takes advice when it is offered.

So here's what I'm left with: I'm the absolute best person in the world at being me. Not only that, but I can be me -- a relatively ordinary human being -- and observe myself being ordinary, and find every day vastly amusing. Or absurd. Or inconsistent, or maddening, educational or ridiculous. And coming back from a tour of extraordinary places and stepping out of my own life for a month has made me even more appreciative or respectful of the ordinary, and the tiny revelations and insights that are present where people rarely look. I see the ordinary through my own lens, and it might not be your view, but it keeps me entertained.

So, this new blog, more than anything, is about keeping me entertained with my own reconsiderations of the ordinary. And if you're entertained too, well so much the better. Welcome.