When the Universe Sends You a Message

 

"Shocked" by Christine Graves via NightCafe Studio

So, as I was working on upgrading the scenery around here, I decided that maybe I should look at some of the old pieces I left on this site. I knew there was a lot of stuff that had absolutely no reason for existing anymore, but I'm leaving it right where I found it. But here's the thing, I think I time-traveled.

Okay, let me explain. I found this blog on the 10th or 11th of this month...June 2026. I was excited and did a quick scan of the site, but didn't really look deep. I just knew I had to get something posted on this site and get it back into circulation. 

I posted my last post a couple of days ago, June 13th, 2026. I was so happy, and it just felt right. I didn't know why, it just did. But then, I got the shock of a lifetime. 

I was looking a little deeper at some of the stuff I'd posted in the past 19 years, then thought, "What was my first post???" It was just a little piece of fodder to get myself in the right frame of mind. But it wasn't WHAT I had posted that freaked me out, it's WHEN I posted it. The first post on this site was on June 13th, 2007. 

WHAT????

No, it wasn't on purpose. I had no idea I brought this site back to life exactly 19 years to the day after I'd first started it. That's when I knew I was on the "write" path. I've been saying for some time now that my calling is to bring back old-school blogging, and I think that was the Universe's way of saying, "No shit". 

In fact, when I created the image at the top of the page, I noticed the book at the bottom of the image said: "The Universe has a Sense of Humor". That sealed it. Now, mind you, the prompt I used in the AI image creator said nothing about adding any words. In fact, here's the full AI prompt:

A whimsical illustration of an older woman sitting at her desk, a look of shock on her face, and eerie wisps of mist surrounding her. 

That's it. That's the whole prompt. And this image is what came of it. Tell me that's not a sign. 

I now have 5 Blogger blogs up and running, the newest of which is about to turn a year old. I've been doing this for a long time. I remember the days of super bloggers. I have to admit, I made quite a bit of money blogging. I know that's not going to be the case this time around, but it wasn't just about the money; it was the creative freedom. But, yeah, the money was nice.

I've decided that this site will be geared toward the everyday stuff in my life, little op-ed pieces I find interesting, TV shows and movies I've watched, and stuff like that. Nothing fancy, just real stuff from off the top of my head. That's a little scary, if you think about it. 

I'm getting more and more excited about blogging again. Even if I only have a handful of readers, I'm still doing what I love. This is my calling and I think it's time to answer the call. Wanna tag along? Come on, let's see where we go from here.

Until next time,
Miss Chris!!!

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Wholly Buckets, I'm Back

Don't you just love it when you're purusing around the Internet, looking for some of your old work online, not really knowing what you're going to find, then...BAM...you find a blog you haven't posted on in 13 years. Wholly buckets. 

Okay, so hi. I'm Christine Graves (formerly known as Christine Senter), and I created this blog back in 2007...almost 20 years ago. DUDE!!!!!

My life has been a whirlwind these past 19 years. Back then, I was a consummate content creator. I did a lot of ghostwriting, a lot of ad content, and I entered just about every blog contest online. You don't find those anymore. 

In 2012, my entire world flipped upside down. My husband and I got divorced, my daughter had a daughter of her own, and I ended up working three jobs just to make ends meet. I didn't have time to write anymore, so I just pushed it off to the side.

Less than a year later, I married husband number 2 and went from being a Senter to a Graves. And now? Yeah, we're divorced too. We had been friends in high school, and when we both found out our marriages of over 20 years each were coming to an end, we found solace in each other. Turns out, we were better friends than we were lovers. 

It took me almost 6 years, but I did manage to get back into writing. However, the online writing game had changed dramatically in that time and I had to start all over again. I can't complain, I think I'm doing better than I ever did before. I'm not making a living as a writer, but I am enjoying being able to write whatever I want and not worry about the technical end of it.

In 2018, I began writing for a place called Medium.com and I found my way in the writing world once again. I was writing a lot of fiction and poetry, then I landed a spot in a writer's publication and started doing writing prompts again. That's all it took. 

I'm not writing for Medium anymore as they're no longer as accepting of fiction writers as they used to be. They still allow it, but fiction and poetry tend to get buried a lot faster than boring, monotone non-fiction. 

When I left Medium, I was determined to keep writing but on my terms. I still have a ton of blogs, most of which I keep updated on a regular basis. Not always, but fairly often. I decided that I don't really care about the money anymore (yes, I got paid on Medium...until I didn't anymore), I just wanted to write.

Now, that being said, I will be adding Google ads at some point. I need to get this site updated and going again before I submit the site for monetization. I could probably do it now, with the age of this blog and the number of reads a few of the posts have, but that's not right. I want to do this the right way.

I won't lie, I have no idea where I'm going to take this site, but I'm going to bring it back to life. I figure if I can start keeping all my blogs updated and add a few Google ads, I might have a shot at making a little something. Don't worry, I have a real job. LOL

Once I have a game plan, I'll be sure to post it here. I found another blog recently that I'm going to use to post a lot of my fiction. I might come up with something similar for this site, but then again, I might decide to use it for other forms of creativity. Hell, I might just use it to write letters to fictional characters. It all depends on what the little person who lives in my head tells me to do. No, you don't need to call for help, I call the voice in my head The Muse, as she's the one who gives me some of my best writing ideas.

So, stick around and see where we go. I'll have the Muse come out and play on occasion, but fair warning, she's not the sweet little fairy everyone thinks she is. She's mean, and a drunk, and she goes missing for months on end. But...she's a helluva lot of fun. 

Let's have some fun, shall we?

Until next time,
Miss Chris!!!