And one last post

Here it is. I’m getting set apart as a missionary tomorrow night. Which most likely means no more internet (and even if it is allowed, I won’t have time!).

So this blog is on a temporary hiatus, until I return from Sweden in a year and a half. However, in about December I will be able to start e-mailing my family every week, and my brother will post some of my e-mails on my special mission blog, Haley’s Mission to Sweden (http://systerhegstrom.wordpress.com).

Check it out. And if you want to write me, my mission address is on the “about” page of both of my blogs.

Vi ses!

progress

Have I ever mentioned how much I love WordPress?

See, I am a total dimwit when it comes to computer stuff and internet stuff. So it’s a wonder why I even blog, or try to blog. But WordPress makes everything so easy, and your page still ends up coming out all crisp and clean and professional-looking!

Okay, I am NOT a walking commercial. I have a story of why I’m suddenly gleeful. I set up a second blog tonight (gasp!). And it was surprisingly easy. And there are all these templates you can choose from, designed by different amazing people, and I found the perfect template for my second blog. Soon you’ll see what I mean.

It is my ambition to have a separate blog for my mission. Not that I’ll have too much time to do web design (did I just put “I” and “web design” in the same sentence? Okay, even I will admit that was a little presumptuous) and other blogging things while I’m on my mission—I’ll have more important things to worry about. BUT I’ll most likely get to e-mail home once a week. So what I’m thinking is that I can send some kind of general e-mail out once a week to my brother or another trusty technologically-savvy family member (like my brother), who can then post it on my blog in case there’s anyone out there who wants to read it (yeah Haley, like people actually read this. You’re being presumptuous again. Did you take your anti-presumption pills today?). AND I just discovered that I can add him as a user, so I don’t have to give him my password if I don’t want to (what is he going to do, turn my blog into a shrine dedicated to himself? But the option is out there).

Wow, how cool is the internet? And by the internet, I mean the brilliant inner workings of WordPress (and other blog sites who have probably thought of the same thing).

Do you think if I sing WordPress’s praises enough, they’ll give me free stuff?

Maybe if I had more than three readers

duh

So I was thinking about my blog and about my friends’ blogs. Which, incidentally, I seem to read much more now that I’m a blogger myself. And I was thinking about the discontinuity of my blog. Like, sometimes I’m religious, sometimes I try to be all intellectual about current events, sometimes it’s pictures of my most recent art project. But there’s not much yet connecting the three. Maybe I haven’t done it enough yet, or I don’t do it often enough. but I don’t really write about me. If that makes sense. And, thus far, maybe that’s why no one cares.

Saul Bellow said that a writer is a reader moved to emulation. Basically, if I want to know how to blog, I read other blogs and emulate them, right? But each blog has its own chemistry, whereas mine is still just a bunch of ingredients. So I guess I just need to keep practicing. And now I need to do a little less emulation and a little more me. Otherwise I’ll just sound pretentious, and there’s nothing I hate more than reading the words of a pretentious writer.

(p.s. If you’re wondering who Saul Bellow is, as I did, Wikipedia tells me he’s a Nobel Prize-winning American writer who was born in Canada. He’s most famous for The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Humboldt’s Gift.)

So, for starters (and there’s no way to make a change of voice not awkward), I think I’ll tell you about my day. I was up very late last night talking to a very good friend I haven’t spoken to in a long time, and who I’m excited to see when I go to Utah next month. My parents flew to Maine early this morning and I barely woke up enough to receive a goodbye kiss from my mom and tell her to be safe (at least, I think that’s what I said…I was kinda groggy). I slept in, then I watered the vegetable garden and goofed off all morning, reading Anne of Avonlea. They’ve been showing the Anne of Green Gables movies lately on PBS and I decided to revert to little-girl-ness and read all of the books. I got the boxed set for Christmas a long time ago, but that was the Christmas my brother got Chronicles of Narnia and I kind of read those instead. Needless to say, Anne of Green Gables has (have?) sat neglected on my shelf long enough. I’m actually enjoying them a lot. Anne is hilarious. I worked an afternoon shift at the Hallmark Store, and came home to find dinner in the microwave (my brother is amazing. So is Trader Joe’s). We went to the stake center for institute and the usual afterwards volleyball. And, as usual, I played one game (the warmup game when everyone’s still rusty enough not to get mad at how much I suck), and then went around talking to people. It’s the talking that’s my favorite anyway.

Tomorrow I’ve got a big day. And I don’t even have to work! I’m going to the dentist’s in the morning for a couple of cavities (despite my meticulous habits, my teeth hate me), then splits with the sister missionaries in the afternoon (I’ve really missed having them call me!), then (bum bum ba BUM) my stake president interview for my mission papers!!! I am so incredibly excited. I’ve been waiting since December to get these mission papers done and submitted so I can actually have some concrete plans for the next year-and-a-half of my life. I didn’t tell many people, but I had one new year’s resolution this year (Ben was going over his resolutions recently and it reminded me): to get myself out on a mission. Or at least get a mission call. That’s been the most important thing to me this year. And I am sooo close. So cross your fingers. Hålla tummarna (the Swedish version–they hold their thumbs). Then, after the interview, I have a girls’ night with a couple of friends. We’ll watch a chick flick, do our nails, eat cookies, etc etc. I don’t do that too terribly often (I’m not really a “frilly” girl in general), so I’m looking forward to it.

There. That sounds more like me.

“will I wait for you?”

Well, not like anyone’s going to miss me, but I’m going to be a counselor this week at girl’s camp and thus will have no access to the internet. So no posts for about a week. It’ll be fun to check what kind of stats I have when I get back. Who knows?

Hello world!

Well, I was going to wait a while before I joined WordPress, but I got intrigued with the flexibility of it all (though it may be like ordering coffee–too many options is just stressful). This is still just an experiment (see http://www.xanga.com/theRunestone), but we’ll see how it goes! I figure if I actually like the site I’m blogging on, I may actually have a good chance of being a successful blogger someday.