It’s been a long time coming, and I’m proud to say that the new and improved City Sparkle has officially launched!

Many may remember me from my personal blog in 2005-2007, City Sparkle. I’m back as City Sparkle DC - with a whole new attitude.

I started blogging back in 2005 with a group blog (The Butterfly Network) about dating and relationships. In July 2005, I broke out on my own with City Sparkle, under the pseudonym Asian Mistress. I met a lot of great people in the DC blogging community, learned about blogging, and even secured a great job from my success. Some of my old blogging friends are still writing away, others have since retired.

The blog was my personal diary, documenting my good times with friends, reflections on the world, and of course the ups and downs of being single in DC. I grew a lot in that time, and can see that reflected in my writing, some of which is cringeworthy now.

In the past year, I took some time off from personal blogging. My personal and professional life had finally come together, and I needed time to dedicate to that. And now, I’ve grown up.

The blog is back, and this time - I’m coming out. If there is one thing that being a social media consultant has taught me, it’s that authenticity and transparency reign. I could have deleted all my older posts and started a fresh, new, more professional blog. But, that would mean not being true to myself, and dismissing the very words that helped bring me to where I am today, and shape the person I’ve become. Some of my past posts may be unflattering, too personal, and unprofessional - but I was learning, and growing through it all.

So, here I am, just Larissa. And, I hope to become a conduit to bridge together the DC blogging community that got me started, and the local PR/tech/social media community that has embraced me since then.

City Sparkle DC’s focus will shift slightly from what it was before. I plan to feature the following post topics:

• Current event commentary (politics, entertainment, etc.)
• Restaurant reviews - local and while traveling
• Movie reviews - because everyone Googles movie reviews
• Recipes and cooking photoblogs - from recipes I’ve made to ones I want to try (maybe we can do a joint post sometime, M!)
• DC events round-ups - where the hot parties are at, cool things to do around town, etc.
• Shopping and playing in DC - where to go, what to do, where to live, etc.
• Guest posts and Q&A’s with local DC bloggers
• Social media marketing analysis - check out some of my past posts on The Buzz Bin

Thank you to everyone for their support, and I hope that I can contribute some great content to a wonderful community. Over the next week, I’ll be updating my blogroll, tweaking the look and feel of the site, and hopefully sharing a bit more about what I’m up to these days. I hope you’ll join me for the conversation.

A very special thanks goes to Shannon Whitley - who migrated and set up this new blog for me. Shannon is a great asset and well known and respected in the technology and Web 2.0 community. You can contact him on through his blog, Voice of Tech, on Twitter or via e-mail at swhitley [at] whitleymedia [dot] com.

I was thinking last night about relationships and life. I look around at other couples (ones I know and ones I don’t) and I think, how do they do it? There are so many of my friends who are still struggling, still seeking. We’re all searching for that perfect relationship, the one that we think will knock us off our feet. I guess the question is, is it real?

Have all these people found IT, and are done? Or are they just settling? Maybe that’s too cynical of me, but sometimes I look at people and think how do they do it? How does it work for them? What makes it different than what I have, or have had?

In my experience, the feeling of head over heels falling in love, crawling out of your skin crazy for them…isn’t always real. I think that love is much deeper than that. But, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you should have that, and should always have that feeling about the one you’re supposed to be with. But to me, that head over heels feeling is more infatuation, it’s the other things (intimacy, commitment, understanding, openness, caring) that come into play that make it true love.

There are different types of love - and there are three components that should be there: intimacy, passion and commitment. Does every relationship that works have that? All the time, from the beginning? Is that the magic formula?

Various combinations of these components result in different kinds of love: (1) liking (intimacy), (2) infatuation (passion), (3) empty love (decision/commitment), (4) romantic love (intimacy and passion), (5) compassionate love (intimacy and decision/commitment), (6) fatuous love (passion and decision/commitment), (7) consummate love (which includes all three components - the best of all), and (9) non-love (the absence of any of the three components).

Aside from the relationship aspect, it’s just life in general I wonder about. I have friends that range from 26-36 who are still trying to figure out life. I’m not saying that there is a certain age limit to knowing what you want, and how to get it…or, getting it. I’m also not saying that people can’t change and grow and change directions of their life.

And I think, maybe sometimes, I’m not happy. Don’t get me wrong, my life is great. And I am lucky. But, certain things about my life and decisions I make seem to always drag me down. And, it’s up to me to change them. Right? I’m the only one with the control over my life, and what I can do. However, it’s hard for me to think for myself. I always ask opinions of friends, and I always end up wondering if I’m doing something for ME, or for someone else. Maybe that’s just immaturity on my part.

We all like to think that one day, it all comes together. It makes sense. Suddenly we’ll have all the answers. And maybe it’s just because I’m young that I’m feeling this way and thinking about this stuff. But, I wish I knew more.

Hah, and this was my horoscope today:

You are blessed with common sense now and you know what you are feeling and what to do about it. Your feelings are rather large today, and they might not fit appropriately into the narrow social context of your current life. If you’re not sure of exactly what’s going on, at least try not to react so strongly. Remember, a steady hand is better than a forceful one.

I have had a great birthday weekend…dinner out with my girlfriends (finally not the youngest) on Saturday in Georgetown, Skins game (and victory!) and Fogo de Chao with my boyfriend yesterday, and tonight dinner and a movie (The Heartbreak Kid). Things are good.

Born October 8
You are more able to rise above petty problems and stresses this year, freeing yourself up to enjoy life from a broad, happy perspective. Getting organized and working steadily towards well-defined goals is also featured. Mental pursuits thrive, and an organized approach to life takes you places. Dramatic improvements to your romantic and social life, as well as finances, are likely this year. Your love life transforms in surprising and satisfying ways–there is nothing light or superficial about your relationships during this period of your life!

Has anyone ever done a debt consolidation program? It sounds like a good idea, finding a reputable agency that will help me get all my debt into one payment - while lowering or eliminating interest rates and still allowing me a budget to have money to live on. Part of my current problem (in addition to shopping sprees every few months) is having the money to pay my debts, but then running out of cash by the end of the pay period, so using the cards again.

I went to the AICCA website and got a few locations in Virginia that will help me…but I’d like to see if anyone out there has any advice before working with these kinds of companies. A few questions I have:

• Will this consolidation include my car loan, or is that separate since it’s a secured loan?
• Does my personal loan payment (which is about the same total amount of all my credit cards combined) count under this consolidation?
• Will it mess up my credit score (which is currently good - almost 700) to consolidate like this?

I took a look at the current state of my debt, and also prioritized what bills were the most important to pay off the fastest - based on interest rate (taking advantage of the ones that have 0%) and total sum of money owed. But, I think that maybe doing something like this may be a better, more manageable option.

Somehow, over the past year, because I’m brilliant (or not), I’ve managed to consolidate and shift around my debt twice (between loans and balance transfers) and also actually increase my overall debt from April to October by over $7,000. Yep, I’m a real winner.

So, you can see…I need help. I’ve needed it for awhile.

Random side note for fun: I have 4,100 messages in my Gmail (personal address) since February 2005. Think it’s time to clean it out…

It was a little sad the other day when I looked up my Technorati stats and saw that they have gone way down over the past year or so (and lost about $15k in “value”). I’ve been blogging for about two years now (since June 2005), and hey, it takes a lot of upkeep. Especially when I don’t particularly want my personal life displayed as freely as it once was. But, I have met some cool people, received some awesome press (DC Blogs, Washington Post Express, and Wonkette) and learned a lot about blogging, enough that now I am able to do it for a living.

I’ve noticed my posting frequency trickle from every day or every other day…to once a week…to a few times a month, to once a month. At this point I feel like I can’t really call it a “blog” but more of a random update of sorts where the few people who still link/read this are able to get a little bit. Sure, sometimes I’m inspired by a current event that I would like to comment on, or something big happens in my life…but truth be told I’m even slacking on the big things.

The reason I have kept my blog up is because it’s a hard habit to break. It’s been a long term relationship, and I like knowing that if I do need to get something out, in writing, that I can. It’s there for me to look back and see what I’ve done and how far I’ve come (or not). How often is it that we find old diaries or papers from our adolescence, and reminisce in that way? I have a great set of archives (OK, so they are not all tagged as of yet) that I can go to and see if I still feel the same way I once did about work, the world, my relationships, and myself. It’s pretty cool to have that all there at my fingertips.

I’m now working at a job where I am blogging professionally, and I like it. It’s giving me an opportunity to really get into social media and take the knowledge and interest I currently have and expand on it. I’m hoping that catching the blogging fever on the professional front, will increase my hunger to update the personal side. But, until then it’s going to be hit or miss…and I’m OK with that.