When Life Hands You Lemons............

then make lemonade, as the old saying goes........ and that's just what I plan to do. Two weeks ago today was one of the worse days in my life. My relationship with my partner came to a screeching hault and then to make matters worse, I got in a car accident on the same day. Thank goodness, no one was hurt in the accident and I was not at fault for the accident, so hopefully it won't have any impact on my rates. The accident reminded me so much of those damn All State commercials on TV that show car crashes. I hate those commercials! The front of my car was pretty jacked up and not really drivable, so I was without a car for 2 weeks and boy did I miss not having it on the weekends. I decided not to bother with a rental for the weekends because I figured at the rate things were going, it would be just my luck to have something happen to the rental while it was in my possession.

I spun into an acute state of depression for a few days and was amazed at how fast life circumstances can change, for the better or worse. Unfortunately in this case, for the worse, but nothing that I won't get through with the support of family and friends.

So I have found myself back in the dating pool, which should be interesting. Between my two jobs and the work of the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council, much of my energy will be taken up, but all work and no play is not the way I plan to live. No time to sit around feeling sorry for myself, and in case anyone is wondering.......yes I am taking applications for meeting new people, hanging out and possibly casual dating......LOL, I have no shame.

It's My Belated Blog-a-versary!!!!

Yes, that's me when I was almost 1 years old......wasn't I cute? I wanted something that was symbolic of Lee's Space turning a year old and what better way than to show my readers what I looked like when I was turning 1!

Wow, I can't believe it's been one year (and 2 weeks) since I started my blog. In this one year time frame, I have had 68 posts and over 5000 hits to my Blog! When I started I wondered if anyone would even come to my Blog other than the friends and family who I'd beg and send "friendly" mass email reminders to visit, so that I knew someone was looking. Since the start of my Blog I've been able to attract more people than just my friends and family. Blogging has also been a cathartic tool for me, allowing me to share my thoughts and views on social issues and hear what others have to say whether pro or con on my views.

How I Got Started
I remember hearing about blogs a couple of years ago, but didn't quite know what they were. Over time, I came across a few blogs online, but they were mostly news blogs and I wasn't really interested in them. Then I was on Keith Boykin's website one day and he had a post about 2 people, both of which I have had the pleasure of meeting since, who were dealing with life crises and Keith asked his readers to pray for them. He also had links to their websites and one of them was a Blog. The Blog I went to was that of the notorious Blogger No4Real4Real. After viewing his Blog, which is on Blogspot, I was intrigued by it as I had been trying to find an outlet to write what I wanted, without it having to be edited and packaged a certain way to fit in a magazine or journal. Blogging fit the bill perfectly. While on No4Real's site, I noticed the little icon at the top of the screen that said create your own and it was on from there. I remember being at work at the time and taking time out to create my profile for the Blog and selecting a template.....I was enthralled.

Hmmm.......What to Write About?
I remember wanting my Blog to be about my thoughts and views on social issues on a variety of topics, not all LGBT related. My very first post was about none other than ME! I wanted to give my readers, if there were going to be any, a glimpse of who I was. I hoped this would help people who visited my blog to connect with me a little more. I was also a bit leary about putting personal information about myself in such a public place and over time I have selected carefully things that I really don't care who knows about me, so that it wouldn't come back to haunt me.

When I first started blogging I was posting a couple of times a week, though I've found it difficult to keep up that pace, especially as my life has gotten busier with work and other activities I'm involved in. By time I get home most evenings I'm beat and don't have the mental energy to put together a post. Over time, I have also wondered what niche could I have my blog fill. A few months ago I was talking with someone and he was saying that he goes to my blog to find out about what's going on in the Black gay community of Philly. I thought to myself afterwards, wow.........that could be my niche. Though I haven't been posting as frequently as I'd like, I do try to post things that are going on here in Philly related to the Black LGBT community. Of course I don't capture everything, but I am going to try to make an effort to inform folks who visit my blog about what's going on here.

The future of Lee's Space
What will the upcoming year hold? I really don't know. I would like to get to a point where I post more frequently; time will tell if I can make this happen. Unfortunately I wasn't able to accomplish one of my New Year's resolutions, which was to make my Blog more visually appealing. I have seen other Bloggers create really nice pages on Blogspot, while mine continues to be the template I started with, but hey it works for now. Maybe this upcoming year will bring me some creativity in this area.

I'd like to thank all the people who have visited and/or commented on my Blog over the past year. Knowing that people are viewing and finding something useful on here is what helps to keep me going. Cheers to the next 365. Stay tuned.........