Should’ve Been Freshly Pressed 2: Sanctuary

Today, after the Boston bombs, I have nothing to say, so it’s a good thing that I can repost this beautifully written post by The Evolution of X, formerly known as Fork in My Eye.

Does Your Favorite Post Feel Neglected?

Hey readers,

I have absolutely no inspiration right now. I just read a post by The Byronic Man about being featured on Peg-o-Leg’s Ramblings, and that gave me an idea. Or rather, the idea is to steal this idea.

The Grand American Canyon

(Image from sodahead.com)

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people in America can live in what has been called a “parallel universe”. A universe Fox News not only helps to create, but apparently believes in itself, as witnessed on election night, when its pundits were taken completely off guard by Obama’s victory.

Thanksgiving 3: Friends all Over

‘s up?

I am thankful for my friends. From my best friend since we were almost fifteen and my other Dutch friends, to my friends right next door here in Austin, and everyone in between. I don’t need to blog about my appreciation of them, because I connect with them in other ways. (But if you’re reading this: Hi. I love you.)

Here, I want to give thanks to the blogging friends I’ve made.

Freshly Pressed: The Aftermath

Ah, it was wonderful, being Freshly Pressed. But it has its downside as well.

Before Being Freshly Pressed (BFP), I was perfectly content with my 72 followers, which meant that about an average of one new reader per week was joining. I was proud of my stats, which showed that my record number of visits in one day was 139. People from an average of ten countries visited my blog each day, and I enjoyed seeing them on Feedjit.

Oh my Gosh, I’m Freshly Pressed!

What an honor! Thank you WordPress. And thanks to everyone who visits my blog. I suddenly got so many likes and responses today that it will take me a while to visit all y’all’s blogs, but I will try. How exciting!

Stressed? Blog!

While B was in the hospital, or rather hospitals, blogging kept me from freaking out about things I had no control over. At first I still had several posts to do about the Rockies, and then I started blogging about the hospital experience.

Happy Birthday, Dear Blog!

My blog is a year old today! Well, officially I started it in April, but the first two months I was mostly filling it and the hits during that time were mainly mine, because I kept visiting my blog to see what my writing looked like when published. I hadn’t yet discovered that I could preview my posts without them being counted.

Versatile Blogger Award

My goodness, it must be award week! This time I got the Versatile Blogger Award from Sat Nav and Cider, an American blogger in the UK. Check her out. She has beautiful photos of British landscapes.

So now to pay it forward. I will:

Hello? Anyone?

One of the Mindbump prompts was: What makes your blog different from any others?

Well, I regularly google to see if I can find any other individual Dutch bloggers in America writing about being Dutch here,  and I have yet to find a single one. I just can’t believe it! There are tons of Americans in Holland blogging about their expat experiences, and I know there have to be way more Dutch people in America than Americans in Holland, so where are you guys?

Hi There!

(For my Dutch-English translating and proofreading business, please go to D-E Translating. You can also go to my D-E Translating WordPress site. Thank you.)

Welcome to my blog.

I’m an energetic, slim, reasonably pretty thirty-year-old. However, I reside in a rather shocking, obese, aching, apathetic 52-year-old body. I love living in Austin but I’m chock-full of criticism of America in general. The Rockies bring me to tears, but so does the health care system. I’ve adopted Thanksgiving, but not the Pledge of Allegiance. If I seem elated and unbearably grouchy in sometimes schizophrenically quick succession, this is why.

I love the usual: my husband, my children, my friends and our pets. I hate heat, stupidity, shoulder spurs, spiders and walking, cycling and stair-stepping in place.

I collect raft books and I’m currently developing a weird obsession with the bottoms of bridges.

When I lived in the Netherlands, eighteen years ago, I loved hot tea, wild camping in Great Britain, gardening, reading for days on end, and I walked and cycled everywhere. Now that I live in a pretty darn hot part of the US, with kids that have to be driven everywhere by car, I love reminiscing about hot tea, wild camping in Great Britain, gardening, reading for days on end and walking and cycling everywhere…

My blog is a crazy—some might say completely unhinged–collection of posts about any of the above-mentioned issues and then some. Nothing is sacred. I blatantly ignore all American no-nos. Which means I talk politics, religion, I don’t idolize  teachers and I swear (but not that much).

As you read my posts you might laugh, seethe, weep or shrug your shoulders. If you like a post, great. Let me know. If you hate a post, great, let me know. It’s all good. I’d like to think I’m always right, but don’t let that stop you from telling me if you disagree. We Dutch love a good argument.

If you want to know more about how I ended up in America and an overview of how that’s been, visit my Reading Guide.

Otherwise, have at it!

(In my posts, I refer to my husband as T, my 16-year-old son as B, and my 13-year-old daughter as R.)