Hi. Hello, everyone. Hello, readership.

I have no idea where to begin. Um. Since this is my first post, I suppose I should talk about why I want to do this at all. Ehh? Let’s give that a shot.

I began thinking I might like to have a blog way back in high school, when logging into AOL Instant Messenger seemed like the most forward thinking action a girl of 14 could take. I have kept a journal since I was 9 and it was starting to feel claustrophobic. Also, it wasn’t edited for future purposes, i.e. the day my daughter wants to read her mom’s diary from middle school (who DOESN’T want to get a glimpse into their parent’s minds?). At this point, literally all that was in my diary were long, desperate entries with titles (titles!) like “Why won’t he even LOOK AT ME??????”. Not exactly what I would want to pass on to the future generation. I am also the type who thinks everything can be fixed by starting over; thus I have probably eight or nine half-full journals that were discarded the moment my focus wavered. (“Oh, I NEVER write in this lame blue diary anymore. I’m so over it. Oooh, lookit, this journal has different colored pages! I need this so I can keep writing.”)

So, when I heard about the new, ultra-hip, extra-cool blogging phenomenon, I knew it was my big chance. It was going to be so different and so great. I was going to share my thoughts with the WHOLE WORLD–and brilliantly, while gratifying my ego and allowing me to go on pretending I was a good writer, it would also force me to edit my thoughts so that they were cool. I figured any daughter of mine would care that her mom was cool. I wanted to set a good example. And yes, even when I was 14 I was sure I wanted to have kids. And no, I did not actually take steps to make this happen at that age, Mom. And NO, I’m not trying to have a baby anytime soon, Ryan. Glad we cleared that up.

So I signed up for a Geocities account. I became the mayor of my very own Geocity. Geocity of Carol, population one. It was pretty fun, actually. I ended up a huge nerd online after all, and I was okay with it. As I slowly came to grasp that my nerdiness would likely plague me my whole life, I somehow grew more confident in my opinions and my writing. Screw it, I thought. I might as well enjoy who I am if I’m going to be spending this much time writing about myself. I would love, at this point in the narrative, to link you all back to my Geocities page, but alas, it’s too late. Yahoo decided, apparently, that we were all just too uncool and removed all the content in 2009. And, because I believed that the internet was permanent and we had all been sternly lectured by our teachers that “nothing ever gets deleted on the World Wide Web”, I did not save any of my posts.

I opened a new blog on blogspot, but this of course went the way of all my old journals and was abandoned the moment I found something better to do. I suppose there are many better things to do than blog, and I’m happy I’ve been able to experience so many of them. Which brings us current, I think.

I am starting to blog again for several reasons. For one, my life has changed a lot (a LOT) in the past few years, and it’s still changing. I’m in the midst of a Major Life Transition, and it’s wonderful, and I want to document it. Also, I love to cook and take pictures of food…and I figured this was a pretty good way to share that passion with you. I’m sure this blog will take many forms, but mostly I plan to use it as a place to share recipes, photographs, travelogs, poetry, and life philosophy. I figure it’s better off here than on facebook. And, I’m constantly inspired by so many friends (Lauren, Annie & Amy, Duff, Heidi, Emily) and strangers (Honest Fare, 101cookbooks, My New Roots) that now just seemed like the right time. I have a lot to learn and a lot to share!

So, with that, I think we have enough to get started. Thank you very much for reading. Without further ado, I present to you: Eating Sweet.

{images courtesy of:  disney and thealmightyguru.com}