Skip to main content

Introduction to This Blog

So I decided to get back into blogging, but with a focus. Just like I decided to get back into my life … but with a focus.

There are four things I love to do — eat, travel, jog and WRITE. They say when you travel you should do things that you love to do at home, so all of these things go together as necessary parts of my body do. I wouldn’t function properly if I were missing any of the parts.

With a Masters in Journalism and undergraduate degree in philosophy, I spend most of my time over-thinking, digesting everything around me (figuratively and literally) and inquiring. I’m that annoying toddler that is always asking “Why? Why? Why?” except I’m in my late 20s. After two glasses of wine I once politely asked a man why he was missing half of his face. I’m lucky to still be alive.

I used to be a full-time newspaper writer and currently teach an intro to mass communications course as well as a media writing course at the local community college. This keeps the devil from working on my idle hands, which keeps my husband happy. Now that I'm happily married and hanging on to a journalism job with dear life, there is only one thing missing from my life since I quit the newspaper — writing. It's what keeps my joints lubricated and the blood moving through my veins. So here I am writing about things I love to do. If nobody is reading, that’s OK. At least I’m writing again. Here it goes!

Big Bend Fall 2010
P.S. I also believe it is possible to travel in your hometown by doing things that are out of your routine. It keeps the mystery and adventure in your life. I was born and raised in Fort Worth, and am finding awesome and new things to do every weekend. So this blog will be about my adventures in and away from Fort Worth and places I love to eat along the way. Most of my trips are weekend getaways in Texas because my husband doesn't take much vacation time from work. Most of you are probably in the same boat (as most working people are), but this doesn't stop us from hitting the road and having the time of our lives at home! Follow me and I’ll give you ideas along the way.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Marfa 2020

By Jocelyn Tatum  I n the 12 years that I have been going to Marfa almost annually, a lot has changed. But the small-town-in-a-vast-desert charm has stayed the same. Here are a few things I always plan to do in my two days and two nights in Marfa.  First, drive. I know it seems like it is far away, and it is, but this road trip goes fast because there is no traffic headed west and away from civilization. Driving is part of the right of passage to get there. I also feel like I shed the societal sludge that builds up on my shoulders as I careen across Interstate 20.  Once you turn off onto HWY 17 in Pecos, the drive starts to transition from sulfur and pumpjacks to pure beauty. It always reminds me of my road trip though the Scottish Highlands. My thoughts change with the landscape. Again, no traffic and no crowds. A tip: when you do pass a fellow road warrior once you get into the mountains, give them the friendly L-shaped finger wave the locals do th...

Big Sky No. 2, parts 1+ 2

  By Jocelyn Tatum   I have an affinity for all things that cause me to look up — mostly trees and clouds. When I walk the dogs or go for a long run, I often trip over something because I am admiring tree limbs reaching toward the ever-changing clouds, or the way sunlight plays with both.    Komorebi is a Japanese word that doesn't have an English translation, which means the way light travels through the leaves of trees. I wonder if there is a word for the way light shines through the clouds. Fall Gallery Night 2019, I stumbled upon a magnanimous canvas of clouds with the sun piercing through. It knocked me back. I took a picture just to admire it from home but walked away knowing I would never allow myself to get it. A year later, it occurred to me that I still think about that art. The strange state of things and lots of extra time at home has encouraged me to do things I never thought possible. And I don't understand the correlation between the pandemic and my n...

My Trip to Port Aransas, TX: Goodnight Summer, Goodnight Beach

photo credit: wikimedia My last trip of the summer takes me to the Texas coast. It's time to go after days of play, but I need one last moment on the shore.  A few others are there doing the same. They stare out at the gilded waves reflecting the new morning sun. Two thoughts undulate in my head—someone bigger than we are had to organize this, and timelessness mixed with newness. Saltwater and waves have been around since the beginning, but the life within is new and ever-changing. Ancient Greek tragedies and comedies, settlers, explorers and travelers find their stories' epicenter in the ocean.  I then remember I'm not alone in my adoration. The opening paragraphs of Moby-Dick speak to humankind's shared fascination with water: "There now is your unsular city of the Manhattoes, belted by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs—commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where t...