Answering a few questions

Who are you?

I thought I covered that in the last post, but if you want a refresher: my name is Frank. I’m in my late 20s, born and raised in Michigan, went to college and graduate school in Chicago, and now I live in Upstate New York. I like burritos, music that rocks, running half marathons, and reading. My college major was English with a minor in American History. I wear thick glasses about which I’m extremely self-conscious, and I’m partially deaf in my left ear. I like cats and most dogs, but don’t own any of either. Any other questions?

What happened to your old blog?

It’s still there for the time being, or at least it will be until sometime in October when the domain name expires. I’ve found that when bloggers want to stop blogging, they either post stuff less and less until they just sort of fade away, or they have to come up with some kind of “goodbye” post in which they explain why they’re quitting. I went for the “goodbye,” and tried to explain my decision, but honestly after seven years and something like 2,200 posts I just didn’t feel like keeping it going anymore.

When I started my last blog in 2007 I was a college junior living in the Chicago suburbs. I drove a beat-up Ford Windstar with over 200,000 miles on it, drank heavily, dated intermittently, regularly saw a therapist for depression, and lived in a small apartment above a pizza place. Today I am married, infinitely happier and more stable than I was in the past, and at the moment I’m in a slightly larger apartment in Troy, New York (I’ve swapped out the pizza place for a downstairs neighbor who regularly smokes his weight in weed). Nowadays I hardly drink at all and I drive a sensible and reliable Hyundai that does not burn through three quarts of oil a week.

As you can see a lot has changed since then. My old blog tracked this continuing evolution but there eventually came a point where I felt I was a very, very different person than I was when I began writing there and wanted to start somewhere anew. Writing there was like writing in an old notebook you’d kept since high school - even as the nature and the flavor of the posts changed over time, you’re constantly reminded that you’re writing in a notebook you carried around when you were 17. There are thoughts and feelings attached to it that just don’t mesh with who you are today. Time for a new notebook, hopefully one without so many Dashboard Confessional stickers on the cover.

Is this blog going to be all about Upstate New York?

That’s the theme I’m going for but here, but I’m still the same person I was when I lived in Chicago and you don’t have to know anything about Upstate to read this and think I’m funny/disturbing/an idiot. The last blog was very Chicago-centric and even after living here three years I still tended to cast myself as a sort of outsider. I still feel like an outsider at times but I want to make a stronger effort to embrace the region and start thinking of myself as an Upstater and not a displaced Chicagoan.

Does your wife blog?

Why yes, she does. You can read her stuff here.

What is your favorite color?

Blue.

Where else can I stalk you?

I’m on Twitter (@Upstate_Frank) and if you stake out any one of the Chipotle locations in the Northeast there’s a pretty good chance I’ll show up there at least once during the week. I’ll even buy you a burrito if you promise not to be too creepy.

Feel free to ask any other questions you may have in the comments section. To all my friends and relatives who I conned into reading my stuff in the past, sorry but you’re not off the hook yet.