New Beginnnings

We were saying our goodbyes on New Year's Eve; making the rounds between friends we'd seen yesterday and those we hadn't seen in months. The evening had been one of those rare occasions when, for a moment, we were all together again. In that moment, it was like we had never left, never grown older, never lived different lives or made other friends. Everyone was drunk off the newness of the year; indulging in the feeling of possibility that only comes around every 31st of December. We laughed, hugged, slurred promises we knew we'd never keep, secretly wanted to believe that this year we would.

I went to bid farewell to my friend Ken, who had returned for the holidays from several months of military training. As we were saying our goodbyes and happy new years, he got a serious look on his face.

"So, there's something I've been wondering..." he said.

"What's that?"

"When are you going to write another blog post?"

I burst out laughing.

"I checked your blog the other day, thinking, 'I must have missed tons of posts,' and when I got there, there was nothing! C'mon Katy, I need some 'Courting the Muse' in my life."

That's when I remembered my own collection of un-kept promises; pieces of myself that I had left somewhere on the wayside of the Real World. It began to hit me that when I left "Courting the Muse" I left more than an insignificant blog read by a few supportive friends; I left people, music, and words that were more real to me than anything I've found in the grey corners of my so-called 'Real World.'

I don't know what I plan to do with The Muse now that I've been reminded of its existence. I'm toying with transferring the blog to Wordpress, finding a new music embedding service, radio, and other gizmos, taking my own pictures, adding new features, even doing this for real and seeing if I can get it picked up by a blogging site...all of which have a significant chance of not happening.

Only time will tell if these pipe dreams will join the pile of other un-kept New Year's promises, but I promised Ken a post, and a post he will get.

So here's to you, Ken, for being my most loyal reader, and here's to new beginnings.


ETA: Don't worry, I'm not copping out of writing an actual music-related post. Look for a review of the new Decemberists album coming soon. (Lucky me, it dropped right around the time I needed new material to write about. The New Year really is full of possibility, my friends.)