Peacock 2.0

So, you may notice a bit of a different look around here. The changes are mostly the result of my 2am tinkering and saying things like "I wonder what THIS button does". For all of the hours I have spent obsessively reading blogs over the past years, you'd think I might know a thing or two about html or blogging. Turns out, I don't!

I am quite pleased with the results, and I think that everything still works (bonus). I hope that the end result is a blog that is easy to read, has a couple of nifty gadgets, doesn't drive you crazy with ads, and is maybe a little bit attractive.

Let me know if you have any feedback, if you find any broken links/bad buttons, or despise the color yellow (to which I will say, "Oh, I'm very sorry. I love a pop of yellow, and it is definitely staying"). And as always, thank you for stopping by!

Cheers!

Photo credit: Rachel Ferney via Oh Happy Day

The journey of a thousand miles...

...begins with a single blog post.

This is HARD!  Oh my gosh, no one ever told me the first post was going to be so hard! What do I want to say? Who am I talking to? Here goes nothing...

On December 31, 2010, I went to bed with the following thoughts about the New Year:

1. I want to run a marathon
2. I want to write a blog
3. I want to stop procrastinating so much

Huh. *checks calendar* Yup, right on track. Oh, and if I am being completely honest, I had quite a few more goals for myself in 2011, and I am doing just as swimmingly with all of them!

In the past two months, I have certainly spent a lot of time *thinking* about what I want to do and how I want to accomplish it. While I wish there had been a little more action over the past weeks, I do feel like I have a really clear picture in my head of where I want to go, who I want to be, and what the life I want to create for myself actually looks like. And this is big. Huge. I feel like I spent a lot of my early adult life drifting, floating, bobbing one way or the other. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was following one narrow path, meandering along wherever it took me. But there is SO. MUCH. MORE. I want to do, and I am just starting to figure out that I need to be the one to plot that course for myself.

So here we go! Who do I want to be? Well, I want to be a blogger. I have been a voracious blog reader for years, and I am inspired every single day by the amazing, insightful, and honest blogs that are out there.  I read blogs about everything -- fashion, design, cooking, reality television, disturbing cake art -- I am not an expert in any of those things. The only thing I really can talk about with any kind of authority is me, so my blog is going to focus on my goal of unleashing my inner marathoner, and all of the places that journey takes me.

For now, I am going to keep this anonymous. I am a wallflower by nature, so it just feels right for right now. I do truly appreciate all of the wonderful bloggers who just put themselves out there -- you are so brave! Maybe one day...

XOXO,
Alison the Peacock

PS - Why "The Peacock Diaries"? Kinda arbitrary. I do love peacocks -- they're beautiful and strange, and they are quite fast runners. And yes, I know the females are peahens, and I am a girl...but would you read The Peahen Diaries?

PPS -- Newbie Blogger Mistake #1 -- no pictures. Yes, this post looks boring as heck.  I shall do better next time!