LONG TIME NO SEE
Oh hey, remember me? I used to (co)run this little website. Where the hell have we been?!?
Yes, it’s been over to a year since either Elise or I posted anything. Yes, that blows. There are no good excuses, just explinations. But before I go near that territory, I just want to say this: “Hi. I’ve missed you. I needed the time off, but now I’m back, I’m good, and I’m ready to start this thang up again.”
So, where the hell have we been? Since you last heard from us, we both have tackled a plethora of intense shit (good and bad) in our personal lives. Jobs, relationships, friendships, travel, family… Stuff that we needed to handle on our own. When it came to running Reign in Blonde, it just got to a point where we were creating unnecessary stressors in our lives that eventually ran us down. When we first started the site, we truly thought it would just be a fun little thing that MAYBE our friends and family would read and get a little kick out of. We never expected for it to take off quite like it did, and while having so many readers and so much attention was extremely exciting & flattering, after a year and a half of trying to keep up it just got too hard. It put strains on our personal lives, and possibly the most unexpected negative turn it could take- it put a major strain on our friendship. We were now living 300 miles apart and thus, never getting to hang out and hardly getting to talk to each other, and trying to remain as close as we were WHILE trying to be “business partners” and run this site was just to much to handle. RiB went from something we started together to do for fun, to something we both resented, felt overwhelmed by, and something that torn us apart. If you ask me, that sounds like the exact opposite of “fun”
Now, this next part is speaking for me and only me- Elise has expressed that she is not interested in keeping up with RiB at this time (but like you I’m sure, I’m hoping that eventually the spark reignites in her as well)- just because I haven’t been writing doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about Reign in Blonde. I think about it constantly. Every day. Not only was writing a lot of fun, but it was a distraction from the negatives of everyday, real world, grown-up shit. The one thing that hasn’t changed (and this makes me proud I must admit) is that my love for metal and heavy music hasn’t faltered. Not at all, not even a little bit. Although I haven’t been present on the interwebs, I’ve been keeping up with new releases and metal news just the same as I was when I was writing all the time. And at my core, I’m still the same Julia who blasts Behemoth and Slayer from her car to and from the grocery store wearing leggings and a v-neck t-shirt.
In a way, I feel like Reign in Blonde was my sobriety and I’ve fallen off the wagon. I understand that I may not have as many readers as before, that some of you might have just said “Fuck it” and moved on to other blogs/news sites. That’s ok. But I’m asking for your metaphorical support to bring me back to life (Not an Evanescence reference I swear, just unintentional cheesiness).
So what do you say? Shall we give this another go? I can’t guarantee regularity- I WANT to write as often as possible, but sometimes shit just gets in the way, but I will be making the effort to write as much as I can, whether that be several times a day or once a week. I can’t promise anything, but if I make someone smile or laugh or think once in a while, thats all the motivation I need to keep going.
Let’s do this.
