5: A little introduction

As of this morning, we have 30 +1 participants for NaBloPoMo. Hooray! NaBloPoMo and this community thrive because of every single one of you and I am so thrilled that you’re here! As I clicked through our official participant list yesterday, I was excited to find a few new-to-me faces this year. I am excited people found this page and decided to participate this year and I look forward to connecting with you!

I’d love it if all of you briefly introduced yourselves. I go first. Many of you know me already, but in case we haven’t met: Welcome! I am San, your NaBloPoMo host. (My full name is Sandra, and I learned last year that people didn’t know that So, I am fully disclosing it again, but I’ve been going by San online for as long as I can remember.)

I am a wife, daughter, (twin) sister, proud aunt, and loyal friend. I grew up in Germany, but have lived in the U.S. for more than two decades now. I met my husband Jon during an exchange semester here in California and what was supposed to be a 6-months stay turned into a long-term relocation to a different country. I wrote a little bit about the decision to come to California here. It was the last thing I expected, but here I am.

I live in California’s beautiful state capitol Sacramento. I work as a geographer for a government agency and I am a bit of a nerd. I am very detail-oriented and love to crunch numbers. I am a West Coast Girl that cheers for the Boston Red Sox (and here’s why).

What else? I turned 50 earlier this year, which I can’t wrap my head around. But lest you think I am afraid to age, I am not. In fact, I am thankful for every year that I get to be here on this beautiful earth because I know that many others are not that lucky (including my best friend from home whom I lost to cancer last year.)

In my free time, I run a lot and have a slight obsession with Peloton (the bike and the platform). I love books, knitting, travel, Friends reruns, and good food. I bake my own sourdough bread and I love to cook.

I’ve had this blog for 20+ years, have participated in NaBloPoMo since 2006, and we’ve built a beautiful community here. For a little while, it looked like social media was taking over and blogging was dead, but you’re all proof that the opposite is true. There’s still a space for long-form written words and still pictures.

My favorite season is coming up! I love exchanging Christmas cards and I’ve been hosting an annual Secret SANta Swap for 10 years (stay tuned for that).

This was just a brief introduction, but if you have more questions for me (and also want to help me with a couple of blog posts this month), you can submit your questions here: Ask San Anything!

In the meantime, tell me a little bit about yourself and why you decided to join us this year!

 I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2026 Links to the Participants List. Happy Writing!