Seven years ago, I started a blog. My only criteria in choosing the name was that it had to be funny and it couldn't be my own. I called it The Flying Chalupa.
The Flying Chalupa was always a humor blog because (1) that's where the big bucks were (hahaha - oh, blog humor!) and (2) making things seem funny was easier for me than writing honestly.
In the beginning, it was a mommy-blog because writing about this insane new endeavor in which I was entrenched (motherhood) was the best form of survival-therapy. For two years, I wrote entirely about sleep deprivation, and for two years, I wrote completely anonymously (this actually could have been a good thing).
But if writers are supposed to write what they know, to share a piece of themselves, and to connect with others, then anonymity disables. In trying to protect my children and my media-shy husband, I cut myself off from both past and present and was, like Ron Burgundy in "Anchorman," trapped in a glass case of emotion.
The beautiful thing is that with time (and sleep), there is often growth and introspection.
Unless you're in Congress.
As I was saying, over the course of seven years, I became painfully aware that I had to write under my own name and about my own life. So I created this new website and new blog. And I told myself that I would keep all the funny over at The Flying Chalupa, until I realized that I have a job and two kids and a husband and a life and who the hell has time for two blogs?
Oh, and also? I decided I could be honest AND funny in one place. Professional and potty-mouthed together again for the first time! (Please acknowledge, if you will, latent themes of feminism, claiming and using my voice, understanding who I am and what I want, and general female empowerment.)
I wanted the honest and the funny to be in one place on Facebook too. Not under The Flying Chalupa, as it has been for years, but under my real name. I put the change request in and was shocked when they denied it. They told me: this isn't what your followers signed up for. I appealed it and said, YES IT IS. I'm still going to use humor to talk about the stuff that's important to me. Facebook agreed to the change, bless their hard, pointy hearts.
All of which is to say, The Flying Chalupa has been folded into this site and my social media accounts like a beautiful origami swan, except with my face, so that at long last, there will be only one.
And her name is Tarja Parssinen.
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WHERE I'M PUBLISHED
I wrote about living on the edge of the wine country wild fires in California for the Marin Independent Journal. You can read it HERE.
WHAT I'M DOING
Through my company, Moxie Road Productions, I will be doing a writing retreat on January 20th at The Hivery in Mill Valley, CA. NEW YEAR, NEW MOXIE will be a retreat of action and inspiration, with time to write, breakout sessions, and keynote speakers. Come join me and get your creative mojo back after the holidays! Click HERE for more info. (psst...use the code EARLYBIRD for a special discount!)