Girl Clown Dancing is six years old this month.   
 
So, as I’ve done each February since 2016, here’s a roundup of my favorite GCD essays from the last year. Looking
back helps me remember where I was over the last 12 months; also, it’s a glimpse of where I might be in 2021.    
 
Not surprisingly, almost every post touched on COVID-19.
 
Of course, just like most folks on the planet last January, I knew nothing of the coming pandemic.
 
So, I wrote then about having to stop the yoga class I loved after one pose that screwed up my glut so severely
that I needed to go to urgent care (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/hip). (Initially, I thought I’d
injured my hip; hence, the post’s title.)
 
I took some time off and in early March, found a different teacher who had a gentler practice. I paid for a series
of classes, but my timing was lousy. A week later, the plague was official and as of this posting, the studio
remains closed. 
 
However, and still blissfully unaware that the Hubster and I were going to be home a lot more, another purchase
was spot-on.
 
On an impulse, we bought an oversized puffy recliner not long after the glut incident, placing it in front of
our nearly floor-to-ceiling bay window. For a piece of furniture, it’s given us many hours of peace and
comfort (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/reclining).
 
Also, like many folks who have found that spending time in the kitchen is cheaper than therapy, cooking and baking
old-timey favorites helped me cope.  
 
To that end, I wrote about the Zen that comes from making snowball cookies in March
(https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/snowballs); the nostalgia of whipping up a vintage, lime green Jell-O
salad in June (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/jell-o), and finding the best carrot cake ever in a
most unlikely place in October (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/carrot-cake).
 
There were somber essays, too.
 
May’s post is my take on a sermon from the Hubster’s pastor, first heard on a spring Sunday via Zoom. I knew
this piece probably wasn’t going to get the same number of views as my thoughts on snowball cookies, and
I was right. Now, I’m hoping more people might take the time to read it (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/in-between-time). 
 
My final post of 2020 reviewed one of the worst years ever. And because there was a lot of not-great stuff to
cover, it's one of the wordiest posts of the year. (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/2020).
 
On this topic, raconteur Mark Twain once wrote, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” I concur; mindful wordsmithing that produces a just-right piece is absolutely more challenging to do than spilling out every thought about every little thing.  
 
So, a promise.
 
I’ll continue to do my best toward keeping a tight rein on posts, trying for 1,000 words or less.
 
Thanks for continuing to hang with this Girl Clown. 
 
Also, here’s to a year of great fortune, which includes wrangling a once-in-a-century pandemic that in one way
or another, has affected all of us. 

Girl Clown Dancing is five years old this month.
 
So, like every February since this blog’s one-year anniversary, here’s a look back on some events and posts from the last 12 months.    
 
Some things are different and a lot is the same.
 
The biggest channel changer was the Hubster and I moving north to Oregon last summer.  Why we choose to leave California is explained in my April blog (hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/moving).  Five months later, I wrote how we were doing eight weeks after settling into our new town (hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/hellohome).   
 
There have also been fewer essays—one posted each month instead of the two I did for years.  
 
One reason for writing less is because I’m busy—more about that in an upcoming blog.  But also, with so many reading choices online (not to mention movies, games and eBooks), there’s an intention to make every post count.  I’ll admit this, too: I want to leave GCD fans wanting a bit more so the next essay is one they’ll want to read.  
 
Another change is a new and, I think, better way to view past posts.  
 
Looking for older essays has always been doable by pointing the cursor over to the Archives list, which is to the right
of the screen for those reading GCD on a laptop or office computer.  (I can’t speak to the location for iPhone or Android readers, since neither accommodate a full website page on one screen.)  But since Archives is organized by months
(it’s an automatic function of the Weebly server), there’s no way here to zero in on specific topics. 
 
Now, thanks to a savvy computer neighbor, posts can be accessed via another list titled Categories, just above Archives.  Here, you’ll find 14 topics by subject that include Living Life, Activism and Remembering.  Hopefully, this will be a more efficient way to find old posts.     
 
Still, 2019 essays are the same—musings about life in my corner and my POV regarding other people’s corners. 
And because I’m a journalist, I like to include facts and/or links when it helps to clarify the topic.
 
As it has been from the beginning, most essays aren’t political (there’s plenty of that on my Facebook
and Twitter accounts, though), and instead, tend toward the whimsical.  These include why I still write checks
(hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/checks); my favorite tea, rediscovered in Guatemala
(hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/hibiscus), and finally getting around to assembling sauerkraut
balls, a Midwest appetizer that makes the Ohio-born Hubster swoon 
(hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/sauerkraut-balls).
 
But I also wrote about Empire actor Jussie Smollett, and his arrest for staging a clumsy hate crime attack in order
to gain sympathy and a fatter paycheck (hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/jussie-smollett).  (Last week,
Smollett was indicted on six new charges of disorderly conduct, which include filing four false police reports.)  
Then, after being front and center with a very angry customer at my favorite supermarket, I thought about
​the collective PTSD that so many of us are experiencing right now (hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/PTSD).
 
I promise to keep writing. 
 
For both old and new Girl Clown Dancing fans, especially my new peeps in Oregon, I hope you’ll keep reading.
 

Girl Clown Dancing is four years old this month, which means it’s also the time to reflect on posts over the last year.
 
Most often, I don’t have to think much about what my next GCD essay will be.  There’s always something going on, whether it’s a story in the news; from a friend, or about a personal experience. 

But in 2018, I also gave myself some wiggle room, so I didn’t post as often.
 
However, there were reasons.  
 
A year ago, in January and February, I was in Guatemala, attending a memoir writing retreat run by best- selling author Joyce Maynard.  I met, played and worked with about a dozen extraordinary women, all writers.  Some have been published, some not, but each had terrific stories to tell.  My biggest takeaway was learning how to edit GCD posts with the goal of keeping every essay on point.  To that end, I’m now doing my best to write posts 800 words or less. 
 
Some of these tighter blogs include memories of the Bakelite View-Master I had as a child (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/view-master);how social media came to me (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/social-media), and the secret to living a long life (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/the-secret).  I’ve also used GCD to write about my Bill Cosby petition, which now has over 35,000 signatures, but received only a few comments on the Weebly platform  (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/the-monster-named-bill-cosby).
 
A few months after that retreat, I began working with an extraordinary woman, now 75 years old, on her memoir.   
A retired environmental attorney, she has lived a big life, including traveling the globe; marrying three men
(with romances in between), and raising two children, mostly on her own.  She has also saved nearly every scrap of
paper detailing these events, and many more, so there’s a lot to organize, and then, write.  Later in the year,
I was honored to pen four articles for Cornell University. 
     
All along, I continued to conjure up ways to attract new readers.
 
I now post Girl Clown Dancing on Next Door, the social media platform that bills itself as the world’s largest social network for local communities.  While its main purpose has nothing to do with blogging, most have welcomed my essays, seeing them as an opportunity to get to know another person in the area. 

Then, I created a Facebook business site which allows me to post my essays, and advertise my writing services as well.  (The link is here, at: https://www.facebook.com/girlclowndancing/)  A few more Facebook friends have also kindly permitted me to post new blogs directly on their timelines.  
 
Finally, I’ve become a partner on Quora, the global question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered and edited by its community of users.  When appropriate, I’ve used GCD essays for answers, another way of introducing my writing to yet another pool of readers.. 
 
As for this year, the goal remains the same:  I’ll keep writing.  I hope you keep reading. 

February has lots of celebrations.
 
There’s St. Valentine’s Day and Presidents' Day, of course, and this year, the Super Bowl was on the first Sunday of
the month.  February is also Black History Month, as well as Canned Fruit Month, Great American Pie Month and even
An Affair to Remember Month.
 
But for me, this time in the calendar means a special anniversary.
 
Girl Clown Dancing is three years old. 
 
Broken down, that’s another 25 (or so) essays on a bounty of topics, some harder to write than others.  No matter
what the subject, this blog provides not only a space to say what I want to say; it's also a forum for polishing
my writing.   And, too, GCD is a venue for readers to voice their opinions; tell their stories, and sometimes, join a
like-minded community. 
 
I’m a journalist, not a memoirist, so essays almost always include facts and figures and news. Thus, while not meant to convince readers to agree with my opinion, many of the posts have information that some may not have known about prior to reading the post.
 
Stories this last year include seeing our flag at half-mast (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/half-mast); global warming in the beach town where I live (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/heat), and buying groceries for strangers (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/my-grocery-store-challenge).  Also, The Teenage Daughter moved away, so I wrote about becoming an empty nester (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/empty-nest).
 
Serious topics were addressed, too.
 
These included sexual harassment in my own back yard (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/terms-of-endearment); an obituary for a hometown hero I wish I had had the chance to meet (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/a-requiem), and what the future might hold for entry level workers (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/working).   
 
This year, my promise to you is to keep writing. 

Once upon a time, and not all that long ago, February didn’t mean a heck of a lot to me.   
 
For starters, I wasn’t married, or even proposed to, on any of these 28 (sometimes 29) days.  It’s also not The Hubster’s birthday month or The Teenage Daughter’s. 
 
Come to think of it, neither of our two dogs came into the world at this time of year, nor did I.
 
Obviously, there’s President’s Day, but the least said about that this year, the better.
 
And of course, it’s the season for Valentine’s Day—probably the most in-your-face holiday behind Christmas.  High end restaurants boast romantic dinners; flower bouquets triple in price, and extra aisles of chocolates magically appear in supermarkets across the land.
 
These are all pleasing (and profitable) sentiments.  But frankly, I spent a lot of my early adulthood with hardly any of those accoutrements, and am none the worse for wear.  I can always buy my own box of cherry cordials, thank you
very much.
 
But now, there’s a reason to celebrate February.
 
It was two years ago this month that I wrote, then posted, my first Girl Clown Dancing blog. 
 
While I’m not certain exactly how many loyal readers are out there, I know that 500 page views in one week, often more, has pretty much become a given.  (Inexplicably, one post about growing avocados from seeds saw close to 2,000 hits.)  No matter what the numbers, about every two weeks I have a new GCD piece on Facebook and Twitter; I also email the blog to more than a dozen friends who are generally absent on social media. (Yup, they’ve made the request.) Doing so keeps my writing polished and, at least theoretically, does the same for my brain.  
 
This past year, I’ve also discovered the website Medium, which could bring another whole new set of readers from a whole new pond.  Not adverse to the old-fashioned way of advertising, I now also have a license plate holder on the back of my car with the blog’s name.  I’d like to think locals in my sweet beach town have found GCD this way.     
 
However, the theme of the blog remains the same, which can generously be described as All Over the Place. 
 
Writings this past year included my thoughts on surviving tuberculosis (hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/tb-and-me); not-so-happy Halloween memories, courtesy of UNICEF (hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/no-candy-for-you), and why, despite being a wife, I still want a wife (hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/why-i-still-want-a-wife).
 
One of my best posts, and certainly most heartfelt, was the essay that struck a chord with a whole lot
of people, mostly parents and kids being gob smacked by the high price of college today.  That was
hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/the-right-place-is-right-here, with a comment thread that’s just as important
​to read as the post itself. 
 
Lastly, I’m thrilled to report that GCD remains a work in progress… something I’m determined will never change.   
 
Once again, thank you for coming to my dance.    

I wasn’t sure I’d make it.
 
But I did.
 
This month marks the one-year anniversary of Girl Clown Dancing, the blog you’re reading right now.  (Just in case you’re wondering, that comes out to 525,600 minutes, or 31,536,000 seconds.  Isn’t Google great?) 
 
Purposefully intended to be an essay driven site with a dash of memoir mixed in, this platform has allowed me to polish and nurture my writing… but it has done a lot more, too. 
 
Those were my original intentions for starting a blog.  But just as important, and it’s something I realized soon after inaugurating this site, GCD has given me the freedom to write about exactly what I want to write about.  And, for someone who has long made a living writing for others, which also included meeting their point of view, word counts and deadlines, that’s a real gift.  (This is not to say that a good part of those assignments weren’t satisfying to do.  It’s just that they weren’t my ideas.)          
 
Indeed, thanks to the magic that has made it possible to create this web site, I can now think, muse and pontificate about life from a unique point of view—mine. 
 
When it comes to word counts, I get to write as much as I want to write about until the job is done. Deadlines still loom, but because they’re self-imposed—I  post a new essay  every two weeks, usually on weekends—they’re  somehow  easier to meet. 
 
When I began, I had three topics I knew I’d write about.
 
Those were old cookbooks (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/my-beautiful-love-affair); how I accidentally (literally) found yoga (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/yoga-by-accident), and the suicide of my daughter’s first father (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/a-shot-in-the-dark).
 
 Other than that, I was at a complete loss. 
 
The Hubster—who, after more than a decade of marriage, remains my biggest cheerleader—knew otherwise. 
 
“Don’t worry about that,” he said.  “You’ll never run out of things to write about because you’re a journalist.  Observe and look around you, and you’ll see there’s always something happening.  Once you do, the ideas will come.”  
 
Oh, okay. 
 
Of course, he was right.
 
To date, I’ve penned nearly two dozen essays, including dredging up topics that aren’t exactly festive. 
 
Yes, there was the big thing: the story of my late partner’s sudden death, which has impacted my life, and my daughter’s life, about as much as any single event can do.  But I also wrote about the challenges of a marriage that included eviction from a home that I loved (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/a-decade-down-many-more-to-come), and the time I was snookered into buying a new vacuum cleaner that really was too good to be true (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/getting-snookered). 
 
I’ve also rejoiced over finally getting my very own, pink Princess phone (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/the-princess-in-our-house), and attending my first professional wrestling match, which was way more entertaining than I could ever have imagined (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/wrestling-makes-the-bucket-list).  Then, too, there are my thoughts about New Year’s resolutions (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/resolutions), and remembering the time I decided to never read again (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/the-healing-and-happiness-train).  
 
There have also been those posts that matter so much to me.
 
These include remembering my weekly violin lessons of so long ago (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/saturdays-with-mr-muma) ; making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/ode-to-the-grilled-cheese-sandwich), and grieving the loss of cursive handwriting (http://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/where-art-thou-cursive). 
 
At any given time, I might have three ideas lined up—or none.
 
It’s all good, and it’s also a labor of love that I plan to continue for as long as I can.
 
Most important of all, I want to thank you, my loyal readers (especially those kind enough to regularly leave a comment or two, here’s a special kazoo honk out to you), for welcoming Girl Clown Dancing, and this girl clown, into your busy lives.  
 
It is welcomed and appreciated more than you can ever know. 
 
P.S.  Don’t be shy!  Please feel free to comment on any of my posts over the last year.  Simply head over to Archives, found on the right side of your screen, and click on any month.  Thank you!  

The idea of starting my own blog has been simmering for a while now, for a whole bunch of reasons.  Maybe the stars are correctly, and finally, aligned to make me actually do something to make it happen, so, here I am!

In any case, this all just feels right, right now.

But how, you may ask (or not ask, that’s okay, too), did I come up with the blog’s name?

Well, I’m a working journalist, editor and foodie, but for those who may not know all of the crazy hats I’ve worn in my life, I was also once a professional circus clown… one of the few “girl clowns” in the United States.   And nothing amateur, either: I’m a proud graduate of the famed Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College (which, sadly, is no more).

Nope, I no longer put on the greasepaint, sequined costume and jumbo shoes, but I’m still a clown at heart.  Indeed, my ratty circus trunk—complete with worn lunchbox stuffed with makeup; peacock feathers (great for balancing on a perky red nose), and LaCrosse balls (both the perfect size and weight for juggling) still holds a valued spot in my garage.

What about the dancing part?  Well, I really do try to live by this wonderful quote from the late, great ball player Satchel Paige… “Work like you don’t need the money.  Love like you’ve never been hurt.  Dance like nobody’s watching.”

So once again, welcome to my dance!