Well, hello there...

The time that has lapsed between this moment and my last post has *almost* been as long as the pregnancy with The Beast lasted.

Blog Fail, J.May. Blog. Fail.

I could give a long schpeel about all of the ups and downs and major life changes that have prevented me from blogging during that time span...like: going back to the full-time job earlier this year, then quitting after 2 weeks, then starting a part-time job on the weekends just to make ends meet; a move from Chicago, IL to Louisville, KY, after miraculously securing a kick-ass new full-time job thanks to a random email from an old college friend; some major health issues in Sean's family that arose the exact same time Rose and I moved in the Spring, that will - unfortunately - be hanging around for a little bit.  But the truth is, this is life. 
Life is messy.
Life is hectic.
Life doesn't care about your blog.  
The responsibility of finding and keeping a balance between it all is up to those who are living it (ie, ME) and, I'll admit readers, I've been doing a piss-poor job of it.  My apologies.

In all honesty, while I may be rocking it out on the mommy front of life (others' opinions, not necessarily mine, and The Beast deserves more credit for this than I - she is pretty much the easiest, awesome-est baby on the planet...) I have been under-performing in a lot of other areas of life, and am starting this blog again - as my dear friends and future sis-in-law puts it - to hold myself accountable.  Maybe airing my dirty laundry will incite me to take more action, and accept more responsibility for my inaction, all in the hopes of finding that balance that I've so desperately been lacking.

Meeting the Beast started out as a baby-centric blog, taking it's title from the moment Sean and I looked forward to for 9 (well,...8) months of coming face-to-face with the being we created. 
But now, I think, it stands for more than that, as life itself has any number of "beasts" we meet and deal with on a daily basis:  deadlines at work, paying the bills and still having enough to put away, some days it's just getting out of bed in the morning.  This blog will, starting now, be making a conscious shift away from being so baby-centric, and become more all-encompassing. 

That being said, yes I realize there is an entry that's been MIA: the one that wraps up the story of the Beast's birth.  I promise I will not leave those of you (all 2 of you, that is :-) ) who have been reading it hanging - expect that before the end of the week....

Wow, that was considerably less painful than I thought.