...and we're back

Hey, all.

How's it going? I hope all's been well since I announced my semi-retirement from the blogs a few months ago. Still collecting, I hope?

It's been a strange few months for me. A lot of ups and downs, steps forward and steps back, etc. I had a short story published. My undergraduate days are officially over. I completed my final college courses earlier this week. Grad school is fresh on my mind now, and I'll still be auditing some other courses at my college for my own mental enrichment in the meantime, but it does feel odd to say that I'm no longer an undergraduate. Hard for me to spit out.

As you might guess, going to school four days a week and working the other three didn't leave a ton of time for blogging, which is why I decided to step away from the game for the better part of the winter and early spring thus far. And, although I've probably spent less time with my baseball cards over the past few months than any other point in my life, I've come to realize just how therapeutic my collection can be.

There have been many times so far this year in which card-related activities -- sorting old cards, filing away new cards, or simply flipping through a binder in the wee hours of the morning -- have helped put my mind at ease and make everything else a little less scary.

Now that school is done for the summer, I think I'm finally ready to dip my toes back into the water and return to something I genuinely enjoy: blogging. I can't promise consistent posts -- I'm moving to a full-time work schedule for the summer -- and it'll probably be more of a gradual comeback, but I'll do my absolute best to be here at least once or twice a week these next few months.

I have a lot planned -- a card show recap, a flea market run, a couple Just Commons orders, and the ton of trade packages I've accumulated both before and during my hiatus...along with some (hopefully) original material, too, of course. I also want to get moving with my frankenset posts, as we only have about a dozen pages left before we can finally move onto the big Frankenset Bracket Extravaganza I've been looking forward to for nearly two years now.

I'm excited for all of it. While I've been reading and commenting on other blogs during during my semi-retirement, it does feel good to say that I'll be back to get my own posts up in the near future. I've missed contributing to this wonderful community.

To be honest, with the way my mind has been working lately, I've been worried that my baseball cards had become a distraction, a detour from an abstract vision of something larger I felt like I should be doing. But I see now that it's exactly the opposite. Baseball cards -- or any hobby, for that matter -- help to maintain our sanity. In a strange way, it's these very kinds of "distractions" that keep us focused in the long run, I think.

Sometimes, you just have to pick up a baseball card and laugh. Whether it's a devilish cartoon depiction of Anthony Rizzo or whatever else, I've learned to never underestimate or underappreciate the power of this hobby, a hobby that genuinely puts a smile on my face, day in and day out.

They really are more than just pieces of cardboard, you know.

Anyways, that's it from me for now. I'll see all of you very soon, most likely with Part 1 of a recap of a recent card show I attended.

Thanks for reading...and collecting.