What'd I miss?

Quite a bit, it seems. The second half of the Trump fiasco — and a pandemic. And that's just on the widest-picture scale. Life has changed so much, everywhere, for everyone, since Saturday the 23rd of June, 2018 (the date of my last post), that it feels herculean to try and catch up. Which is part of the reason I've let so much time pass without writing here. Every time I thought of doing so, the sheer amount of information I felt I'd need to cover just... tired me out before typing a single word. 

(Disclaimer: I'm not sure I will be posting with any semblance of regularity, even now.)

A shame. I've missed writing here. I've missed many of the people I connected with in the blogosphere (is that still what it's called? I feel so out of it, haha.). Friendships forged through distance, without ever meeting, and yet so powerful, so close. Some of those people I have still on Facebook (I've also almost forgotten Twitter exists), but... it's not the same. The connection feels... well, different. So I'm looking forward to reconnecting with some of them, if they're still around. And if they still find something interesting in what Quiet Laughter will be.

Because things are going to change around here.

This is another — maybe a larger — part of the reason I've been 'away': those Trump diehards. Some of the people I interacted with on a regular basis back in 2018, and earlier, would've been not just delighted but honored to be at the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — maybe they even were there. And that's not ok. Not on this blog. This blog is my space — mine — and I get to decide which voices (if any) besides mine are heard here. If you're one of those (or if you feel the need to speak out in favor of Trump, of antivaxxers, of QAnon, of lizard people, of...) please do that in your own space. Not here. And I'll tell you right now: any and all of those comments will be deleted. This is not a public forum. Not your cup of tea? Please unfollow / block / do whatever you feel you need to. For both our sakes.

My space.

(Aahhh, that felt good!)

About a year after I stopped writing here, I realized that I didn't actually miss blogging. And that kind of shocked me. I'd always felt I loved blogging; why didn't I miss it? Why did the thought of writing an update leave me so... well, indifferent? Back when I started blogging — 2011, if you can believe it — it held such joy for me. What happened to it? Where did it go?

I don't have the answers. Not all of them. But reclaiming this space as mine — where I don't compromise, where I can write if / when / what I want — feels like a good place to start if I'm going to find it again. Quiet Laughter began as a sort of journal... a writing journal, a life-in-Curaçao journal, an I-dreamt-this-last-night journal, a journal of milestones. That's what I want it to be again.

Coming soon (ish): an update on this new crazy hobby that's been eating up all my time since 2019 — and the business that's sprung up, kind of like a weed after a surprise rainshower, from it.