Is it gonna be the best time or am I just saying so?

Dear reader,

I was doing a tally recently, and I realized I have traveled more this year than ever before in my life. For the purposes of record keeping, I though we'd do a little review:

• January:    Boston for job training
• February:  Seattle to visit LillieMae & Becca
• March:      The Dalles for my birthday
• May:          Port Angeles/Forks/Port Townsend/Olympia for things with David's family and writing
• July:          Nashville to see Kate; Boston for the company on-site; Boston/New Haven for Jason and Jill's wedding; Maine for vacation with David
• September: Nashville to see Kate
• October:    Boston for work and to see Jill; Chicago to see LillieMae and Chad
• November: Seattle to see Becca
• December: A week at the Oregon Coast with David, Becca, Steven, and Kate

This doesn't even count my random trips to the coast. If 2013 has a theme, it appears to be that I cannot keep still. I was thinking recently that I've been feeling a little traveled out, and now I know why. I think for the rest of the year I'll be content to keep closer to home, though my intense yearning for the Olympic Peninsula tells me that I'll probably head that direction before my birthday.

What does all this running around mean? Well, for one thing, it means that I desperately owe my brother a trip home. It also means that I haven't been as present here as I'd like. It's been tough, particularly given that I've also had a new job this year and the learning curve was, and is, steep. I love what I do now, though, which is a huge gift. As afraid as I am to say it, dear reader, I'm happier than I have been in a long time.

At the same time, I've been entering a new phase of my perfume collecting. I feel like my tastes are starting to settle. I no longer feel that unquenchable urge to buy every single thing I smell that I like. I'm starting to look at my collection and feel like it's time to pare down a bit, time to give or trade away things I'm not really using to a better home.

Feminine Things. has been going for a little over five years now. I still can't believe that. I never imagined when I started this blog what a gift it would be. I've met so many lovely people, I've grown in olfactory experience, and I have enjoyed the crap out of these five years. I've been thinking a lot, though, about if I'm doing as good as job for you as I should be talking about my perfumed life. And I think, if I'm honest, the answer is no.

I have no intentions of closing up shop. In fact, I'm working to make a commitment to myself to post at least once a week, and I will continue to review perfumes on what I hope is a regular basis. Lord knows I have enough unexplored samples in my backlog that I could keep going for years. But I've also been thinking that I might write a bit more about the ways perfume plays into my day-to-day life. I've been thinking I might focus more on the way I interact with scents and other people instead of sticking strictly to reviews (which, let's face it, I never really stuck to very well). I hope this slight shift in focus will be okay with you dear reader. I, for one, am excited about it.

Thanks, as always, for reading. I appreciate every single one of you. And I hope you'll keep reading.

Until next time.

"It really was about driving--
not fame, not wealth,
not driving away from myself.
It's just myself drove away from me.
Now I gotta get it back and it goes so fast, 
so I am traveling again.
Sitting at the all-nite, picking up a pen...
And I'm afraid.
Oh, was there any good reason that I had to go
when all I know is I am all alone again?
And you are the ghost town, and I am the heartland.
And I can say, oh, 
that's a very good reason that I had to go, 
but now all I know is I can never come back.
And I will never go back."
~ "Traveling Again," Dar Williams