Thank You for Reading 500 Posts!

When I started this blog 12 days after moving to New York City in October 2007, I didn't have a clear plan or vision. Heck, I didn't even have a job. In fact, I think it was my unemployment that was the impetus for Pay a Visit. After more than four years as a full-time journalist, I couldn't give up writing at the drop of a hat. What I could do, however, was write what and when I wanted to. And that's what I've been doing for 500 posts.

Yep, this is post #500. Thank you to all of my loyal readers (that's you, Mom and Dad!) and everyone else who pokes and prods around the site every once in a while (that's you, Paul!). Mostly, thank you for giving me the illusion that I'm not just writing for myself. Yes, I would write anyway, even if it were only for myself. But it's nice nonetheless to think that others have an interest in it too.

To use a very New York expression, my blog is what it is. But I am proud of how it's grown over the last four years. Pay a Visit has received more than 17,700 visits as of last weekend, with an average of about 40 per day. Granted, a lot of those people aren't sticking around too long, but it's a nice number to think about all the same.

Most visitors come from the United States (surprise, surprise), but over the last couple of years the site has received several hundred visitors from Canada, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Germany and Argentina. About 300 people have even wandered in from Vietnam and South Korea.

My proudest moment as a blogger came just last month, courtesy of a story told to me by a coworker. This coworker was planning to bring cupcakes to work for my birthday, and he Googled the name of the bakery where he wanted to get them. What popped up? My blog post on Carlo's Bakery, of course! That story makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.