In August of 2008 I started blogging for skirt.com. Skirt.com was the online sister to the regional women’s magazine, skirt! You had to apply and be accepted to blog for skirt.

When I was accepted I was beyond excited. I deluded myself into thinking there was an actual screening process and that not just anyone could blog for skirt! (I just re-read my blogger application which makes me pretty sure that’s not true, but I still delude myself into thinking that some days.)

What is not a delusion is the fact that my first published piece was for skirt! magazine. The print one. That pays money.

Blogging for skirt.com is literally one of the best things I’ve ever done. In 2009 I became the editor of skirt.com’s Ventura site. It was a fantastic opportunity that lead to writing for another local website, Patch.com.

Writing for skirt.com helped me grow so much as a writer. I received amazing feedback and the feeling of knowing I might be kind of good at this thing called writing (at least sometimes) is truly indescribable. (Of course if I were a better writer I might be able to describe it!)

Of course it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway), I met some amazing women through the site – both virtually and in real life. Reading the words of Tina, Kim, Cheryl, Elizabeth, Ginger, Abby, Renee, Jodene, Susan, Pamela (start writing again Pamela), Amy, and so many others and calling these women friends, in the true sense of the word has made me so very blessed.

The skirt! convention in Atlanta in 2011 was truly one of the most incredible weekends of my life. Meeting Claire Cook and Kim Romaner, listening to Emily Giffin, introducing Caleb Lovely, attending the seminars, and meeting so many of my skirt sisters for the first time is a memory I will cherish forever.

When I started this blog last year I always intended to keep blogging for skirt! But the busyness of life overwhelms me sometimes and I found I could never really manage doing both. I never stopped reading though.

On November 30th, skirt.com as we know it is closing its virtual doors. As I understand it, it will still exist, but the blogging portion will be shut down. I’m unclear as to whether or not the blogs will remain posted or whether they’ll be taken down, but I’ll be moving my blog posts over here and archiving them. I do have them all on my laptop, but I don’t want them taken off the web. (Hello Writer’s Ego, so nice to make your acquaintance.) As not to overwhelm my email subscribers I won’t do it all at once, but I will probably try to post one a day. (Hopefully that won’t overwhelm those of you who subscribe – trust me as soon as they’re all moved over I’ll go back to my lackadaisical ways of only posting about once a week – I promise!)

I’m so very grateful for the opportunity to blog at skirt! For the friends I made. For Heather and Angelia – the amazing women who made it happen. For the people who took the time to read my words. Thank you my old friend. And Goodbye. You will truly be missed.