Although I do pop up from time to time on INS’ Facebook page (and love that more and more discover the site each day) I have been woefully neglectful of INS in recent months. Since a lot of people who hang out at Facebook are relative INS n00bs I just wanted to give you a little background about why there can be months of downtime around here.
INS is a labor of love for me. I make absolutely no money from it, no one pays me to run it. The overhaul last September was the first time someone other than me worked on the site; INS is basically a one-woman show and has been since it was created in January 2003. Granted, its current platform is far easier for me to work, but in the end it’s still work, and being intrinsically lazy by nature sometimes I have to force myself to do the work.
I also have a life outside of things INS and lately it’s been busy. The biggest event going on right now is my and my husband’s decision to downsize and move into the actual city of Richmond–despite the Richmond address we live in the county southwest of the city. We found a beautiful condo in a circa-1907 house in the Church Hill section of Richmond and amazingly were able to sell our current house within twelve days of listing it (take that, real estate slump!). We’re three weeks away from closing and moving, and I seem to spend my evenings after work making piles for Goodwill as a four bedroom house apparently can hold a lot of crap. It’s a lot of headaches and hassle right now but it’ll be worth it in the end–our commute will be cut from thirteen miles to roughly two and a half; I’ll be able to get out and walk without worrying about being sideswiped by a soccer mom in a minivan yakking on her cell phone or having some perv try to pick me up as there’s no sidewalks in the ‘burbs; living in a beautiful, historic and friendly neighborhood in a place that has character and doesn’t look like a McHouse. Considering that when I met my husband we were about as low on the financial totem pole as you can get we’ve come a long way.
So once we’re settled in the new place and I can breathe again I can turn my attention back to INS. Again, if you’ve submitted a story I promise you I still have it. Maybe I’ll be all hipster and take my laptop to the coffee shop two blocks from my new place and use their wi-fi, heh heh.
Congrats on being able to sell your house so fast, Patricia! Sounds like you and your husband found a great place! Hope your move goes smoothly too-I moved for 2 and a half months over the summer (long story but it was horrible).
Hey Patricia, glad to see you’re back. It’s been quite a while, six months! I think it’s neat that you were able to sell your house that fast. And I hope everything goes well for you, your new neighborhood seems really nice, best of luck!
By the way, some bad news. My aunt, who actually contributed her story on here, has just died almost two months ago. She was only 56. I’ll miss her forever.
Emie-so sorry to hear about your aunt-(((hugs))).
Awww, thanks Robin. I appreciate it. I’ll still have pictures and great memories of her, so it’s not all that bad. But it’s still weird to lose a loved one, and think you will never actually see them again. Very sad thought indeed and only people that have experienced that would of course know that feeling as well.
Ok. I am pro-choice and I had an abortion and I do not regret it. However, I am tired of seeing this hate mongering and immature nastiness coming from the pro-choice side. This site is a huge disappointment. It could do a lot of good but all you seem to do is rant and rave about the anti-abortionists. If you just shared stories of women who had positive abortion experiences that would suffice enough, but I think people who are undecided on the issue are going to be completely turned off with the name-calling, immature arguments and no sources to back up the facts.
Others do. I don’t. Take it up with them.