hello netherlands!

Let’s step back for a moment and talk about the purpose of the blog. It is basically an online journal, collection of thoughts, photos, quotes, and ramblings. I love to write – about the serious, the nonsense, and mainly as a way to document memories and events I’d like to remember later. This blog stemmed from a blog I had while in DC – “this district” that was basically a ramblings of ridiculous things that happened to me while I was living in DC.

(For instance: A bird pooping on my head while I was on the way to deliver documents from our office to the West Wing. My three young, male bosses didn’t really care and I’m sure they didn’t even remember thirty minutes later. I, on the other hand, am still talking about it three years later.)

Basically, I didn’t read any blogs or follow any until I moved to Washington. Now, they are all over the place, and people far more insightful and adventurous than I are blogging, and blogging well. I continue to blog because it is a release of stress, or emotion, or brings a smile to my face to know that someone enjoys reading it. It all began when I was a White House intern and we had several – more than one!- ethical briefings about the importance of NOT blogging about this experience until you’ve completed the internship, shut down your blog for the semester, etc. I was like…blog? Blog? Should I do that? What is the fuss about? (Later it dawned on me this was probably a rule from previous administrations, not the George W. Bush era. Can you imagine if Monica Lewinsky had been a blogger?)

So, dear reader, here we are, three years later, and I continue to “blog.” Shout out to the devoted readers, I really appreciate you. You have no idea.

But it must be said that if Mom and Dad, Honey and B, Mary Chen, Renza, Steph, and Caitlin didn’t read the blog – oh, and Gentry, lets not forget the midget audience- I would without a doubt continue to write these things. I keep posts saved as documents on my computer, or tucked in a journal somewhere. Yet I am glad for the accountability that if I post my weird thoughts, someone might read it. And, it also warms my heart when my roommate yells at me, “Why haven’t you updated the blog?! I’m getting bored and about to give up clicking on it.”

This brings me to my point of this post. I learned late one evening last week that you can actually track the “statistics” of your blog. I can see how many hits I’ve had per day, week, month, and year. On top of that, they’ll give you a map of which countries your readers are coming from.

Breaking news: marvelous light has a reader in the Netherlands. What!? How cool is that?

Yes, someone in the Netherlands over the past 12 months has clicked on this blog over 118 times.
So, I ask you, dear Netherlander, introduce yourself! Post a comment, please! I’d love to know who you are and what brought you to this odd online rambling about randomness. I’d love to know where anyone is reading from, any and all of you. Leave a comment. Or email me! Crob.courtney@gmail.com

I’ll never forget when my old next-door neighbor from high school messaged me on face book that she had been reading my blog and was inspired to read more.

I know as a writer and just as a human in general, I find such joy and comfort and camaraderie from reading other’s blogs, memoirs, emails about their lives, and so, if you find that here from time to time, I am touched. Sending my e-love out into the world, and wishes for a happy, healthy, renewing Sunday afternoon!

-Courtney