How Things Change…

I have had this blog since the fall of 2004, when I started culinary school, and I have had my food blog, ReTorte, since shortly thereafter, since food was such a big part of my life. I started this Wandering Coyote blog originally using the Blogger platform, but eventually switched here to WordPress because I wanted some more privacy but also I just felt this platform was better. And I needed a change.

This blog has seen me through a lot of shit. It was so very key to me after my divorce and subsequent major depression in 2005/2006 through about 2010. I was a regular writer, and over the years I created a community for myself with other bloggers, many of which I came to meet in person, and many of which I call friends to this day. This blog saved me in so many ways. It, along with ReTorte, gave me an outlet via writing, my first love; it gave me structure in my life as I was on disability most of the time I’ve had it, and only worked sporadically till 2015; it gave me a sense of purpose and belonging that I didn’t have anywhere else in my life after I left the full-time work force in the spring of 2006. ReTorte provided a more creative outlet in the form of food, and I similarly, through that site, met a lot of people and had a sense of community there, too.

Blogging provided me with some cool opportunities as well. Remember in 2008 I went on national TV (the CBC) for that trivia show, where I was part of Team Blogger? The CBC paid for that entire trip, and I took advantage of it as much as I could, going to see one of my favourite Canadian celebs, George Stroumboulopoulos, at his then popular evening show, “The Hour”. I also was in the neighbourhood of my family so I got to see some relatives and spend some time with my mom, who lived in Kingston at the time. I met a blog friend on that trip to, and made some more blog friends as well.

I also got my journalism gig via blogging in 2010, thanks to my Owe-lympic protest when the Olympic torch came through town. I got to be a reporter with the local paper through that and it was a very cool job I held down as a freelancer for several years.

This blog has given me so much over the years. But blogging is less of a thing now, thanks to other social medias like Facebook and Instagram, both of which I use regularly (can’t stand Twitter!). Once in a while, I like to pop over here and write something, but I am not as regular with it as I once was.

For one thing, I am way busier now, with a full time career and full social life. For another, FB and IG have both kinda taken the place of blogging, but I sometimes feel that those platforms have made me a lazier person when it comes to having outlets. FB has gone through so many changes and is way better than it used to be, but still, it isn’t the same as blogging at all.

As for ReTorte, I have pretty much abandoned it since 2014. Again, busyness. Again, laziness. But also, food is not as fun to me anymore as it once was. In fact, I do so much less food-related stuff (baking, researching and experimenting with recipes, etc.) right now because I am A) trying to lose weight; B) I have no one to bake/cook for anymore on a regular basis, and C) menu planning all that stuff has become a chore for me in my older years, probably because I am single and give less of a shit now. I don’t even enjoy grocery shopping anymore, and I used to love a good grocery store.

I do some NSFW writing on a site where I have a lot of anonymity, I still journal every night, and I update my FB regularly with all kinds of content. I like FB for the flexibility and for keeping in touch. But like I said before, it isn’t the same as blogging and I am kind of missing what blogging gave me back in the day.

That being said, I’m not sure I’m going to start spending more time here updating. I am not sure I have the audience any more, which was half the fun. But then again, nothing is ever written in stone, right? I have no intention of deleting this blog, as I think it really represents the tapestry of my life over the past decade and a half, and I want to be able to keep it here for posterity’s sake. And once in a while I meet someone who is interested in what I write, so I direct them here. I now share my posts on FB as well, just in case anyone might be interested.

The times they are a’changing. And have already changed a whole lot. And this space, which represents so much of who I was and who I have become, will still be here to honour that. I may not be here a lot anymore, but I am also not going to abandon it.

As for ReTorte…I don’t know. I am not going to delete it, either, but I sorta don’t see myself going back to food blogging any time soon, unless I am really, really inspired to. And I still use it to look up recipes I posted there in the days of yore, so it’s useful to me that way.

Anyway, that is it for now. I hope all my readers who still come here are well!