From Ukraine With Love

Well, heck, it sure has been a long time, hasn't it?  Where does the time go?

To briefly recap and to introduce my blog, I started a blog on another site several years ago, whilst traveling in Albania (a.k.a. "Sweet Home Albania") in 2005 for work (and continued through a job in Montenegro in 2006), primarily because it was getting expensive and time-consuming to explain to friends and family via email my day-to-day activities, and to assure certain concerned family members that I was JUST FINE, MOM, in internet cafes, again and again, several times a day. 

And, because I have a tendency to prefer shoes of the stiletto variety -- many of which I had brought with me to Albania, wherein I was stationed in a town not exactly known for its well-paved streets and sidewalks -- I named it Stilettos in Sand.  (And by the way, there's no more powerful-turned-deflating feeling than walking into a soiree (that's right, I said "soiree."  What.), strutting your stuff in the perfect dress and KILLER shoes, knowing you actually, TOTALLY managed to get yourself together for a change, and feeling completely confident, only to lose your stride and stumble as you step onto a sandy road or a gravelly garden and get taken down a few pegs.  Literally.  And, at just a hair over 5 feet tall, people not only notice you're shorter, but actually tend to think you have suddenly, completely without notice, physically left the room.)

Anyway, the blog.

Long since abandoned (and with nothing really interesting to write about), the blog kinda faded...
UNTIL...
I got offered this temporary gig in Ukraine.  And I told some people (courtesy of Facebook) that I was coming here.  And a lot (and I mean a LOT -- I was shocked!) of them asked, "Will there be another Stilettos in Sand blog?  Please?!" and actually said they wanted to read one, so....

without further ado (translation: "without more of my rambling nonsense," but actually, that's a huge lie)....

TA-DAAAAAAA!

Here's the new Stilettos in Sand blog, in all its wondrous splendor (or splendour, for my Brit-type friends).

Sarcasm?  Check.
Obsessive detail?  Check.
Observational humor?  Check.
Occasional self-absorption?  Check.  (It is, after all, a personal journal.... You want politics?  Read The Huffington Post.  Or, if you're craving a more serious approach to politics than Arianna, try The Onion.)
Parenthetical tangents?  Check (and check).
Run-On Sentences?  Check, but I really think that's not a fair assessment to make; after all, a sentence can have many parts that are inter-related enough to warrant inclusion together in one continuous thought (sans period), yet independent enough to require a modicum of punctuation like, say, my personal favorites, the semi-colon (;) and the ellipse (...)... but I digress....

So anyway, that's what this whole Stilettos in Sand thing is, for all you newbies.

And for my lovely, wonderful friends who actually think my writing is entertaining enough to read, THANK YOU (writing is my favorite thing to do -- especially when bored or sad -- and knowing someone actually cares enough to read it makes me all warm and fuzzy when I need it most!)!!!

Welcome back to the blog, everyone -- and welcome to Ukraine!! :)