Thanks for reading She’s Right!

For another, I don’t want to be She’s Right anymore.  I don’t want to blog politics.  I don’t want a clever, yet in-your-face name.  Besides, the need for a good conservative Vermont blogger is no longer there, and there are plenty of ladies filling the conservative woman niche to overflowing.  It’s the right time for me to move on.

In the first post on my new blog, which is called Shatter Nicely, in case you missed the last two times I mentioned that, I put it this way.

I just can’t go on being She’s Right.  Maybe it is that I am getting older, starting to realize that I am not always “right.”  Maybe it is the toxic political environment that makes me want to eschew the right/left dichotomy.  Whatever it is, I am done with it.  It’s no longer who I want to be.

I am not giving up political blogging altogether as I had originally planned.  I just can’t seem to stop.  So, my new blog will have some political stuff, probably more around elections, less other times.  (In fact, you should head over there right now and try to guess which two issues I disagree with on the proposed RNC litmus test.)

I just want to tell you all how much this blog has meant to me.  Not the blog, but you all.  I have made some real friends here.  I am not going to name names because I don’t want to forget anyone, but if we have ever had e-mail communications, if I ever gave you something I made for your newborn daughter, if you ever drove up to meet me for coffee and help me through a personal crisis, if you ever gave me your phone number in case I needed someone to talk to, if we ever had a beer together, if we have ever met in real life and hugged, or even if we didn’t, just know that I consider you a friend and I consider myself very fortunate to have to have met you.

People say that the internet is having a negative impact on friendships, that people are not forming meaningful relationships because they are, instead, spending time online social networking.  I could not disagree more.  I would not know any of you were it not for the internet and this blog.  I love you all and you made running this blog a wonderful experience.

So, enough with all the mushy stuff.  If you are even remotely included in the above list, you are totally going to read my new blog.

With that, She’s Right says, Good bye.

It is not primarily a political blog, but I just did my first political post about none other than Sarah Palin.

I have two more posts to do here before I officially sign off (which, I guess will be a third post), which will be done this week, come hell or high water.

Thanks for bearing with my total and absolute flakiness.

And, since I just looked this up to make sure I was doing it right (yes, I am that neurotic), I thought I would share this will you.  It’s part of my new value-add approach to blogging.

Hyphenated Words in Titles

A general rule of thumb is to always capitalize the first unit and capitalize the second unit if it’s a noun or adjective or if it has equal balance with the first unit.

Right:

• “Twentieth-Century Poets in South America”
• “City-States in Nineteenth Century Europe”
• “Non-Christian Religions in North America”

The second unit should be in lower case if it’s a participle modifying the first unit or if both units constitute a single word.

Right:

• “English-speaking People throughout Asia”
• “Medium-sized Companies with Unions”
• “E-flat Minor Melody”
• “Self-fulfilling Prophecies in Small-Town America”
• “Re-establishing a Youthful Outlook”

Speaking of blogging, what on earth am I still doing here, you may be wondering.  Yes, I am being a total flake.  I am sorry.  Life happens.  As you have read, I have been going through a lot of changes and just haven’t been able to focus on wrapping up She’s Right the way I wanted to.  I have not changed my mind about ending She’s Right for good, though, and my new blog is almost ready for the big reveal.

I really had the best intentions about wrapping up She’s Right with a series of posts about things I wanted to post before I officially closed the blog, but as my 11th grade World History teacher once said to me, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  (Yeah, I did hate her.)

The problem was, once I decided that I was done with this blog, I was done with it.  I could not make myself post on it.  I have quite a few posts in draft, but I just couldn’t finish anything.

I does seem that I need to do something.  This blog was so important to me for so long.  It deserves better than this.  Besides, I have something that I should share with you that I think you might find interesting.

Check back the rest of this week for some parting thoughts and some good news about where else you can find me.  There is life after political blogging.  Really.

I kid you not.  Someone honestly made that statement after 8 years of “He’s not my President” and “stolen” election BS from the left.

Laugh out loud, or bang your head against a wall.  Take your pick.

So, yes, I am still around.  I know I never gave this blog a proper send off, still a few loose ends to tie up.  It is still on my to-do list.  With the arrival of the school year, my life will take on a more predictable routine.  And, with school work dominating the day, the kids will be happy to be rid of my company come afternoon.  So, I hope to get it to the top of the list very soon.

I have continued to resit the urge to blog about the political topics of the day for lack of anything nice to say, but I couldn’t resist posting that quote above.  It was too rich.

Basically, I will try to get them done this week, but I am very busy with the kids, so I might not get to it.  Next week, though, the kids have camp in the morning Monday through Friday, so I will have some free time.  In other words, the blog will be wrapping up by the end of next week, at the latest.

Thanks for sticking around.

While you await my final days of thought-provoking commentary, check out this really cool stop motion video using post-its.

Back in 2001, I wanted to start a website to post my political rants.  The first name I came up with was Right Wing Wacko.  I liked it, but I wanted something that reflected that women can be outspoken conservatives, too.  She’s Right was born.  Of course, the blog would not come for another 5 years.  I did have a website on AOL, though.  (Yeah, lame, I know.)

Over the past 8 years, a lot has changed.  In 2001, I was a working, single mother of 2 in my twenties.  Since then, I got married, became a stay-at-home mom, had another baby, came to Christ, started homeschooling, and started a business, to name a few things.  And I am no longer in my twenties.  Haven’t been for a few years, now.

I am just not the same person.

Politically, I have changed, too.  I have become a lot more libertarian leaning.  Many of my beliefs do not fit neatly into a box.  I no longer see any benefit to the left-right dichotomy.  The world is more complex than that, and so am I.

It seems like it is impossible to have a conversation with someone on the left, without first going through the painful process of undoing all of the stereotypes they hold about me.  If I am conservative I must also be [fill in the blank].  Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not, but mostly not.

Most of the time, I don’t get through all of the negative stereotypes.  There just isn’t enough time.  The process just leaves me aggravated and sometimes even hurt.  Political blogging has become nasty, to say the least.  Life is just too short.

I just see very little personal benefit to political blogging anymore.

We decided to move to New Hampshire this summer and I though, great, this is a perfect time to end She’s Right.  I want it to forever be a Vermont political blog.

Well, we put off moving until next year.  So, I was left with a choice.  It’s a hard choice because She’s Right is part of a community of Vermont bloggers.  I like being a part of that.  But that community has changed into something I don’t like very much anymore.  I thought it was because of the election, but that wasn’t the case.

It’s also a hard choice because She’s Right makes me money.  Money that I have been using to get my soap business going.

Then, I saw this Venn diagram on Althouse the other day.  It’s called “how to be happy in business.”

She’s Right was something I did well and wanted to do, so I learned how to monetize it.  Once I was being paid to do it, I was all “Hooray!”  (Yea!)

But, I don’t want to do it anymore.  It is life-draining.  It is hurtful.  And most of y’all don’t read a darn word I type!  I cannot count how many times the responses to my posts totally miss the point.  (Maybe I have become too obtuse?)

So, now She’s Right is just something I can do well and can be paid to do, not something I want to do.  Now I need to learn to say “no.”  (The Venn diagram must be obeyed!)

With that, She’s Right is saying “goodbye” at the end of the month, as I originally planned when we were moving.  I still have a few posts that need to be posted, not the least of which are the lost Vermont Tiger symposium posts.  It was February 2, for Pete’s sake!  I still have my notes, though, and they will be posted.

Those of you that have been with me since the Blogger days have been through this before.  I will not be back in 4 months like I was last time.

For one, I am putting all of my spare time into my soap business and my personal/soaping/cooking/crafting blog, All Things Hold Together.

For another, I don’t want to be She’s Right anymore.  I don’t want to blog politics.  I don’t want a clever, yet in-your-face name.  Besides, the need for a good conservative Vermont blogger is no longer there, and there are plenty of ladies filling the conservative woman niche to overflowing.  It’s the right time for me to move on.

The original plan was to start a new blog that focused more on technology and other geeky things that I love, with occasional political bits.  I even came up with a name, registered the domain, and designed a blog theme.  But that is tabled for the time being.  I need to focus on my family and my soaping, and myself.

Thank you all for reading, commenting, and e-mailing me.  You are what kept me doing this for so long.  I will keep the domain and the e-mail address, so you can all still reach me at that address if you have a poem you want to send me or something.

And, as I said, I will be posting for the rest of this month.  Be sure and tune in.

I am having a really hard time blogging about politics these days.  And I don’t mean just because I have to wear these blasted wrist braces that go more than half way up my forearm.

I guess I heard one too many times that old saying, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

I have nothing nice to say.

I am completely baffled that, when faced with a president they believed was disastrous for the country, liberals were motivated to carp about it endlessly, day after day after day, for eight years.

My word, how did you live like that?  I think I would have killed myself.

Honestly, I just want to forget about politics and go hug my kids or make soap, or something.  Anything, but politics.

But then, I never did have that saving-the-world-through-blogging sense of self-importance you see so much on the left.

I do this for fun and, frankly, it hasn’t been fun to talk about politics lately.

I will though.  As soon as I get these homeschool portfolios ready for the ever-watching eye of the nanny state.  It’s real important stuff, like quizzes to prove that I teach my kids hygiene and proof they are getting physical education, and other complete wastes of our time.

But there I go again, fearing the government, like some kind of crazy right-winger.  It’s not like the over-bearing, ever-expanding government actually has a negative impact on my life or anything.

Bagh!  See what I mean?  Nothing nice to say.