It's been a long road, friends

I started this blog way back in 2002. I was a few months shy of 21 and just graduated from college. In a few months my life turned topsy-turvy: I had my first job, left that, moved to my second, got married and then moved into my own place with my son and husband, where I experienced firsthand what "keeping house" really meant -- and no, it was nothing to sniff at. Since then I've been through a whole lot more: I wrote four chick lit novels, got crazy into football, learned to accept my body, and last year, I had my second baby. This blog witnessed it all.

But I'm afraid the growing up process hasn't been pretty to witness at all. I have posts and thoughts that I positively cringe to read. When I started this blog, I thought anything I wrote would stand the test of time, and that I would always stand by what I wrote. Obviously, I was either exceedingly arrogant or exceedingly dumb. Not everything I've written is worth remembering, actually.

And while it's accepted that a person grows and changes, there's something awfully permanent about the written word. Once it's down on paper (or published on the Internet for the world to see), well, it seems significant somehow. You can't say, "No, I was 24 when I wrote that and on the South Beach Diet so I was always cranky, I don't really think that way" without sounding like a bigger douche. As long as it's out there, it belongs to me -- the person who is no longer the one who wrote it down.

And then there's the fact of that all that baggage -- the years of negativity and much too much openness and the willingness to be arrogant and say whatever -- weighing down on me every time I try to write in this blog. It's as if it's tainted by the spirit of what I tried to be, and whenever I try to write here I'm trying to live up to that old voice...which isn't mine anymore.

What these past paragraphs are getting at is something really simple: This is the end of the road for Bang & Blame, friends. There will be no more banging nor blaming.

But there is still writing, and much of it. Won't you follow me onto my new digs, Plus Size Fasyon Mudra? It's my style blog and there's more of me here -- in all my grizzled 30something glory, body acceptance and positivity and all. Yes, I still have my bad days and my sad days, but I'm less willing to indulge them as I have. Tama na ang pagdadrama at pagmamaktol, matatanda na tayo. Maging maganda na lang tayo!

You can also read my projects over at my portfolio. My latest work is The Thrifty Mom's Guide to Style, an ebook with quick and fun tips, tricks and shortcuts to achieving style on a budget. You might want to get a copy for your gadget of choice too! Click for Amazon (Kindle) and Smashwords (Kindle Mobi, Nook, Smartphone).

So, that's it, folks! Thank you for the nine years and 980++ posts we've spent together, for keeping me sane when I was doing a poor job of it, and for helping me figure it out. I apologize for whining or insulting anybody, I really truly do.

Much love and light (for the final time),
Iggy