Friday, May 25, 2012

A Thousand (and Outta Here)

The time has come.

You’ve seen it coming and so have I. 

One friend said:  don’t stress it, just stop it.  Meanwhile, my brain said I had to give you an explanation of why I’m stopping it while my gut told me to not be an overdramatizing cliché.  In the end I wanted to write 1000 words for my 1000th post but then feared that might end up being tedious and nauseating to all of us.

(FYI:  It’s 754, give or take a few. Feels long enough, right? Right!)

So instead:   I’m hoping what comes out here on the Friday night before summer, from the 28th floor of the John Hancock tower looking out onto a purple sunset, strikes the balance.

Starting with me thanking you for reading this blog.  You did.  You let me overuse ellipses and sentence fragments and declarations starting with "and".

You tolerated my training for 4 of 9 marathons ... Boston, Philadelphia and DC and, almost, Stockholm.

You liked my legs. (1000 pageviews, baby.)

You read a whopping 43 posts about my insomnia, as well as all the ones I forgot to tag because I (obviously) hadn’t slept enough.

You sat on my patio with me at 1:24 a.m. and admired the basil and impatiens.  Once we listened to Jethro Tull together and I’ve not listened to them since.  (Have you?)  

You let me sell you on Charlie Brown and Secret Garden and Jason Robert Brown musicals and, occasionally, showed up at the shows.  You saw me buy my first piano.  You believe I can play the piano (don't you?), many without ever having heard me do it.

You tolerated my bikini challenges and my weight loss attempts and my cereal binges (and my copious apologies for them after the fact).   You tolerated 18 (and maybe more) Inexplicable Photos of My Feet and never asked why.  (Still inexplicable, BTW.)  You let me use the word penis as often as I wanted.


You heard me say kissing C-2 is better than just about anything in the world and didn’t throw up because of its idealism….or at least hid it from me if you have.  You didn’t chastise me for going back to him, and back, and back. You didn't know his name doesn't even start with C.  No, I'm not going to tell you what it does start with.

You didn’t ask for more information about the Man from San Francisco, despite my reticence to share details about him.  He is still in the picture, by the way. 

You didn’t give me a hard time for having (at least) 86 weekends where I was without a date.  Or for shamelessly transcribing OKC Instant Messenger chats.

You let me turn 36. Then 37. Then 38.  Then 39

You’ve met my mom.  Bobbo.  (The ever-awesome) Martha, on many occasions. The sisters older and younger.  Joshua.  JustinStudent Driver.  Balint.   Bill.  Cousin J. The CFO.  Many, many others.

You let me bitch about Southie.  And an ancient vehicle I refuse to replace.  And parking tickets.  And parking. 

You took my recommendations for good songs.  Sometimes for good poems.  You never told me if you liked them (or even read them) … but that’s ok.

You went with me to Hungary, San Francisco, west coast Florida, Minneapolis, the North Dakota prairies.

You tasted Pretty Things Baby Tree and PBR and homemade Altbier and Grain Belt and Left Hand Milk Stout and Guinness.  And Guinness.  And Guinness.  And Guinness.  And Guinness.  (Yeah.  Guinness should have had its own tag, I'm seeing.)

And for all that, what is there still to say?  But thanks.  For being my friends, my critics, my motivation for observing.  My motivation for drinking too much.  For staying up too late.  For whining.  For chatting with 21-year-old penis-pictures and female wrestlers.  For trying to be good at things.  For trying to get better and for trying to excuse bad habits and for never really trying to sleep enough.

I'm still (sorta) single.  Still thirty-something.  Still renting.  Still in Southie. 

It's time to go. 

You can write me at sage (dot) risotto (at) gmail (dot) com (if we’re not already Facebook friends) and you want to stay in touch.  I promise to write back if you promise not to creep me out.  I promise to tell you when the inspiration returns and when I start writing .... something ... again.

And with that, this blog is over and out.

J

Karin -- May 21, 2012

11 comments:

klk said...

Aw...You are making me sad. :-( It's been a fun ride, thanks for sharing your life with us. But since I'm an old college friend, I hope you will continue to share what's going on in your life. Many blessings, Ms. K! Love you!

Cousin J said...

With hearty congratulations for an amazing job and the chutzpah to bare your life, hats off to you! Also, just a bit of sadness not to have the regular dip into your life. But, we'll up the phone time to compensate! Love, Cousin J.

Anonymous said...

@Karin. Thank you for your excellent exposition for these last four years. Sorry we never met, but good luck with with your career and your life and family.

---squigkato

Audrey said...

We'll have to get together more often now so I can stay updated on a life that doesn't involve diapers and spit-up... It'll be a while still until we can drag ourselves to late service and see you more often that way. But we can always arrange something once things settle down on this end - besides shameless exploitation of your babysitting skills, of course.

Kristin M. said...

Congratulations dear sister....I have thoroughly enjoyed your willingness to bare your life with the internet world. With the busy life you lead, I was always amazed that you had time to keep this up, but feel very privileged to (occasionally) have been a part of it. Nice job....and here's to a well deserved break! And a Guiness... :)

Bill said...

Congrats! Loved the blog, looking forward to following your next adventure! Looking forward to another run together through Southie sometime soon

Tashia said...

Awww i've so enjoyed reading your blog Karin. I'll have to catch-up now through facebook and cousin j of course. :) Thank you and congrats and good luck!

Heathen said...

Nice goodbye post! Good luck with everything. I'll miss reading your updates!

Heidi said...

I've really enjoyed your blog, and will miss your stories. Best of luck with all your future adventures! And, also, with your marathon in Sweden. you are an inspiration!

Evan said...

THINK ABOUT ALL THE FREE TIME YOU'RE GONNA HAVE ... I WANNA QUIT BLOGGING TOO ... IT TAKES SO LONG!

ASALAM ALAIKUM!

Unknown said...

I've really enjoyed your blog. Thank you for sharing with us.

And good luck in whatever comes next :)