Missy Stevens

You? I like you. A lot. Because you’re kind enough to poke around the blog a bit. Or maybe you’re just nosy, and I’m okay with that.

I started blogging in April 2010 when I had a one-year-old, a four-year-old, and what I suspect was undiagnosed baby blues. I googled something along the lines of, “does parenting ever not suck the life out of you?” and found the mother of all bloggers, Dooce.

(For the new and new-ish moms out there, the answer is yes, parenting stops sucking the life out of you. Sort of. It never stops being hard, worthwhile work. You can do this, and you will do it beautifully, but promise me – your new internet friend – that if you’re feeling like I felt in 2010, you’ll get help. Call someone, schedule an appointment, let someone know you are in need.)

After hormonally blog-stalking Dooce‘s entire archive, I thought, I like to write, why don’t I try blogging?

Five years later – roughly 20 years in blog time – my original blog, Wonder, Friend, is retired and Missy Stevens Writes is my new home. All of the Wonder, Friend content lives here now, so feel free to browse old posts. We’ve already established that you’re nosy – go on and continue looking around.

Over the five years, I have traversed all the stages of blogging. I considered walking away. I essentially did walk away, in the form of long (looooong) breaks, more than once.

Every time I take one of my wee, small (super long) blogging breaks, I think about why I blog. I’m not a talker, or at least not a good one. Oh, to be a funny talker, as Mel Brooks says. But that’s not me. Words get stuck between my brain and my mouth, while they take a relatively smooth path from brain to fingers. So I blog in order to share my thoughts, to ask questions, to connect.

I’ve always agonized over having a rhyme and reason to my posts, and as I rarely have rhyme or reason you can imagine the turmoil. During the Blogging Hiatus of 2011, I came to the (it’s so obvious and why didn’t I accept this before) conclusion that this is my blog, and I can write about anything, everything, or nothing of consequence. The only common thread needed? Me.

While my posts will be selfish in origin, springing from my warped mind, I would like them to become a dialogue. My hope is that we can start some discussion, whether it’s serious, heart-to-heart stuff, or joking around. You in?

Other stuff to know about me…

I live with my husband, two sons, one dog, 237 sea monkeys, and a beta fish in Austin, Texas, where I’m something of an oddity – a native Austinite. We’re a rare breed these days, thanks to Austin’s casual city charm, which seems to draw people from all over the world.*

My professional experience includes corporate community relations, non-profit communications, public relations, and freelance writing of every kind. I’ve written letters, business plans, print/web advertising copy, event scripts, radio/television PSA scripts, brochures, web site copy, blog posts, Facebook and Twitter content, and a whole lot more.

Thanks again for reading. Contact me any time, for any reason. I love it when you whisper sweet nothings, i.e. comment on posts, and I love random emails, tweets, and Facebook comments.

*Before you move to Austin, let me tell you, we like extremes here. Biblical drought, followed by Call-Noah-Get-the-Ark floods. It gets pretty cold in the winters, sometimes. But don’t come here looking for something cute, like snow. Our cold equals ice, and the city shuts down, and there’s no school, often for many days in a row.

It gets hot in the summer, (and, no, it’s not a dry heat, as if that’s a good thing?). It’s Austin heat. It will melt your face. By August it’s usually too hot to swim. That’s right: too hot to swim, because the pool feels like a bathtub. Not that you remember what a bathtub feels like, since tubs use a lot of water, and… drought.

It’s also crowded around here these days. A trip that used to take me 20 minutes now regularly takes me an hour. If you want to be downtown for dinner and a show at 6-ish, you should make plans to be downtown by 4-ish.

We’re a welcoming bunch, though, the friendliest place on earth. We have good food, too. You can eat tacos three times a day – nobody thinks that’s weird. If barbecue is your thing, you can get that… inside a taco. Or you can go straight up BBQ at places run by James Beard Award-winning barbecuers. So if you’re in for extreme weather and extreme-er traffic, nice people, and good food, I know a realtor.