Friday, January 11, 2008

follow through

this blog was born of my number one new year's resolution, which is "follow through." how many times have you wished that you had followed through on a great idea, pursued something that inspired you, listened to that voice inside your head. if you are like me, the answer is many times, many, many times. well wishing is for losers and doing is for totally awesome people.

i've always wanted to be a writer. i used to sit at the typewriter at my dad's office when i was like 7 or 8 and just type stories. of course most of them looked something like, "jkldsafno. nmoihfgoiglknfolkj .lkjlijoijlkj smcohsn asdkf .lkjoijoij.jkljpoiaueroekajbaddpfjofnljk/," but at least i was pursuing something. as i went through school people responded to my writing. mostly my mom, and i guess she doesn't really count as "people," but it sure felt like people were responding. i got a's on my papers and even went so far as to major in english. i wrote a lot of stuff. most of it probably pretty ordinary (i actually think that was a comment from one of my professors on a short story i wrote . . . "C- you're work is pretty ordinary.") i always wanted to get better. be better than ordinary. i took a writing class at ucla, but dropped out halfway through. i bought a bunch of books on writing, and countless journals to write in (cause i liked the front covers). never finished the books, never filled the journals. now i've gone ahead and created this brilliant resolution with myself . . ."follow through." not that easy, but i am going to try.

so i have a couple of friends that have blogs, and i read some blogs, and blogs are free, but they feel important, so i thought, "i'm gonna start a blog!" and then i thought, "what the hell am i gonna blog about?" i wanted to start one about owning a home for the first time, but the idea was to start the day we bought our house and that was 8 months ago (i didn't follow through on that idea). then i read (well, half-read, again with the following through) a book called "julie and julia" (the first half of which was great) and that whole book came from a blog about cooking, where julie spends a year cooking recipes from julia child's, "mastering the art of french cooking." i think that book planted a little blogging seed in my head. then came new years, and all of my resolutions . . . the aforementioned "follow through," the requisite "diet & excercise," "take better care of my skin," "take my vitamins," "don't stress." it's a very long list. also on that list was "eat out less, aka cook more." and there it was. an idea for a blog, partially stolen from someone else, as great ideas often are, and part from me. i would cook dinner as many nights as possible and then blog about them. what went wrong, what went right, etc., etc. long story short. "what's for dinner," "what's for dinner tonight," "she cooks," and "my cooking blog" were all taken. "becoming a foodie" was not. so for my blog of 2008, the year of following through, i will become a foodie.

7 comments:

MeganTMcC said...

I so want to try intelligentstia or whatever it's called. Yummy

Paula Ford said...

Following through is the hardest thing ever. I'm impressed with what you've done so far. Keep writing...I can't wait to read more!

jen gotch said...

meegs. i'll take you there the next time you are in the hood. or i'll make you some here.

jen gotch said...

paula. thanks for that. i will do my best not to let you (or me) down. hope you are well.

Nicole said...

Hi Jen. Nice site. I just started a blog (about food and art... mostly food) myself. I hadn't had much familiarity with blogs but like you, want to write. I really like to write and have so much in my head. But am I good? Would anyone want to read it? So I started a blog in the hopes of learning IF I can be a writer and if anyone WOULD be interested. We will see. Time will tell and hopefully I will find my voice. Keep blogging!!!

tangobaby said...

Hi Jen,

I've just found your blog and I'm enjoying it very much so far.

I read that book, Julie and Julia, and although it didn't occur to me at the time to start a blog, I eventually did and it's been really great.

I've got you on my blogroll and look forward to reading more.

heartbreakingly beautiful said...

just stumbled upon your blog. LOVE the pics! and thank you for the "follow through" new year's resolution. It is my secondary res for 2009 (first being "stop complaining")! Can't wait to read more.
xo