Five Years and Counting...

5 years.

For 5 years (and nearly 500 posts!) I have been writing this blog. It is funny to me how much it has changed and grown over the years—sort of like another child.  Mostly such a blessing, and sometimes a pain in the butt. The other day a woman who had just found it said to me, “what a fun job!” and I said, “It is fun, but more like an expensive hobby.”  People often think somehow I make a lot of money doing this, and the truth is, I make a little —through my Google ads (when someone clicks on them) and occasional other ads from people who approach me (incidentally, always happy to entertain any advertising offers, email me!).  I appreciate every dime, but the truth is (and the fact is) I am clearly not doing it for the money.

I write the blog because I love Indy, and I love food, and because it makes me happy. In some ways it was something I always wanted to do (hubby and I used to write our own little mini reviews of restaurants in San Francisco in our restaurant books or just on our own computer.)  But this baby has grown. Sometimes I can’t believe it when I look at my stats and remember back to when I got excited if I broken double digits in one day. Honestly, I didn’t know if anyone would ever read a word (besides my parents and hubby). (Speaking of--who knew how annoyed people would be by calling hubby “hubby?”  I started with “hubby” just as an affectionate name, way back before I knew how often it is used on blogs and other places in the internet.  I’m always open to change though. We’ll see.)

Something else? When I write, I write the way I would speak if I was talking to you. Yes, that means my grammar isn’t always perfect (as a couple of you love to point out to me). That means there are lots of fragments. But when you read my writing, you are really hearing from me. And sometimes I start sentences with “and.” That’s just how I roll.

One last thing—even though I know blogs are somewhat antiquated these days, what with all the online reviews, and the constant chatter of twitter and all, I want to let you know that I appreciate all of you who take the time and read my posts. And nothing makes me happier than your comments (pretty sure most bloggers consider their “pay” to be their comments—it lets us know someone is out there who cares).  So please keep ‘em coming. Let me know what you agree with, or what you don’t, or what restaurants I should go to, or should not. And hey, if you have any suggestions for ways to improve the blog, please leave them here too.

In that vein, I have decided to try out a new idea. A lot of people ask me to list my top 5 or 10 Indy restaurants, but I always find this hard to do. It is hard to compare Recess to a cheap Chinese place, even though they both might be great in different ways. So, I am going to keep a running list of the best three meals I have had lately—it will be chronological, so when I add a new one, the bottom one will just drop off. That way, it could be a great burger, or a 5 course tasting menu, but they can be equivalent in some way. Also, I don’t always write a full blog post on every meal I eat, so I can incorporate some of those too. So you will find the list, right at the top right side of my blog, under my picture of the Circle. Let me know what you think or if you have any other ideas.

Thanks for indulging me in my rambling anniversary post! I appreciate you all.

-Erin