“It used to be like we were just sending messages out into space, like something in a Carl Sagan novel” she said, and gestured here with her arm, in the rough direction of Alpha Centauri.  ”And yet, here we are,” and there we were, the four of us around the table in a bar in Sellwood.

The best jokes never quite make it in translation to the blog, we say, going from white bicycle to white horse to white ghost Hyundai cruising the streets, all in quick succession and in a way that wouldn’t make any sense in the retelling.

*****

Those two paragraphs have been sitting here in my blog drafts for what I thought was oh, surely not that long at all, just like I had thought, oh, surely it hasn’t been that long since I paid attention to my blog, and then one day  I realized that not only had it been eleven months since I had last written a post, but I was at the same bar, with the same friends, and I thought of this draft and how I had put these words down the summer of the previous year.

Maybe I should write something here, I thought, but what am I going to do with my blog after all this time? Should I take it in another direction? Do blogs have any place, these days? And then I thought, did they ever? Haven’t these always been something we sort of made up, carved our own place on the Internet for?

I thought about just deleting these old drafts, but events had come full circle in a weird sort of way, and I thought, why not dig it up? This blog has never really been a source of breaking news for anyone, and I have a few old tales I might tell here. No need to tell them in any particular order, or chronological relevance.

Anyway, I’m back. I think. FOR REAL THIS TIME PEOPLE. And I know I tempted you with a post a few weeks ago but I mean it this time. I miss this space, and I miss you imaginary people out there. So let’s give this another shot, shall we?

Speaking of old news, that same night, in an impromptu ceremony at the Limelight, my friend Kristi married Sarah and I, sealing our union with rings she’d fashioned out of a bar napkin, and we toasted our PBR Tallboys in celebration.

And then, a few weeks later, we got engaged, so you see what I mean about things being a little out of order.

It’s big news, even if it is old news at this point, what with the speed at which the world turns these days, but as my long-time blogging friend Claire pointed out to me, it’s not like I can’t say I don’t have anything to blog about now. And she’s right, there’s always something to write about. Just not in this post. Come back tomorrow, people, I MEAN IT THIS TIME.