Sons Out Puns Out

I Just Bought a Domain Name, Now What the Hell Do I Do?

And other stories of my half-baked plans.

OK, so maybe this one wasn’t half-baked. It was a long, arduous process of feeling inspired, chickening out, stalling, hemming and hawing, and finally pulling the trigger – or in this case, clicking the checkout button to purchase my domain.

So, what’s this blog all about? Great question! I consider myself a writer of sorts. I’ve written for various websites on various topics including self-improvement, business and marketing, health and fitness, and home improvement (shameless self-promotion and a link to my writing portfolio). I wrote a personal story for Chicken Soup for the Soul on how I met some of my best friends in the world, and then later my husband, by chance encounters. (Note: I said chance, not casual encounters. Although is that still a thing on Craiglist? I sure hope so, those are so entertaining!)

Since becoming a mom, I’ve written a couple of articles on my own experience:

• Breastfeeding woes and the resulting postpartum anxiety
• My fears and doubts that I wouldn’t be an adequate mother to my two boys and the resentment, I mean appreciation, I felt early on towards my husband when I discovered he was a natural baby whisperer

I didn’t have a blog of my own, so I pitched these stories to other sites in hopes that they may resonate and hopefully help other moms who were struggling.

I’ve always wanted to start my own blog, and I’m fortunate enough to have some very encouraging family, friends, and co-workers who have always urged me to do so. But every time I muster the courage to do it, the all-or-none thinking kicks in and the little voice in my head talks me out of it:

What are you going to write about?” “No one thinks you’re funny besides you,” (which is proof the voice is a liar because I’m hilarious.) “What is your niche?” “What do you have to say that’s different from what anyone else is doing?” And my personal favorite: “You’re not allowed to write anything unless it’s going to be Pulitzer prize-winning!”

Do they give out Pulitzers for blog posts? Asking for a friend…

Fast forward to December 2021. I still have all these same fears. I still don’t have an Earth-shattering idea to write about. But you know what I do have? A supportive friend and co-worker named Lana. She has a hilarious blog of her own and is a talented writer and published author. She is always encouraging me to pursue my passions and is my self-proclaimed stage mom.

Lana sent me a book for Christmas entitled How I F*cking Did It. It’s Jen Mann’s story of how she created her blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat, and how a viral blog post launched her career as a blogger, author, and public speaker.

One of the first pieces of advice Jen offers is to stop talking and start writing. “I didn’t talk about it. I didn’t think about it. I didn’t research how to start a blog. I just started,” she writes. This resonated with me. It was all the little details that had been keeping me from starting my blog. But as Jen says, all of the research and details can bog you down and overwhelm you.

I still don’t know what this blog will be about, but I hope you’ll continue to follow me as I figure out the kinks and all the growing pains along the way. I guess if no one comes to my site, I can still read my blog posts to my supportive husband or to my three-year-old who will likely just run away screaming.

The plan, at least to start, is to share the shenanigans I like to conjure up with my husband, we’ll call him D and my two boys Big L and Little L. I enjoy making memes of my children and trying to find and make up puns in every situation in life. Because after all, does anyone ever really make up a pun? They’re just there waiting to be discovered based on the words or situation.

But it won’t just be sharing memes and pun pictures; we have Twitter and Instagram for that. It will also be real-life stories about family, life, and pursuing passions. I can’t promise it will always be funny, but I can guarantee it will always be honest.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for helping me put my money where my mouth is. More to come and I hope you’ll join me for this hopefully fun but inevitably bumpy, chaotic ride.