No, I didn’t lose 72% of my body weight (though I would not be opposed to that). After an especially embarrassing incident involving several glasses of wine, a 20 hour day and a few completely nonsensical comments on my part, I have decided I’m cutting back on my OS usage. The good news is that all that is for a reason – I got a promotion!

As most of you know, I have been a featured contributor and food critic for a regional food site here in Jacksonville for almost a year. Thursday night, the bosses announced that they were promoting me to Managing Editor of the site. (Quake with fear, mortals!!! Go on! Start quaking!) This means that I am now essentially running the entire site. Advertising, content, and management – it’s all on me now.

I am excited about this change. I have a lot of ideas about how to expand the site, generate more ad revenue and multiply readership. The bad news is that I can’t just mirror what I do here on Foodie Tuesday and do a restaurant review whenever I happen to have my camera with me. It’s exciting, but it’s going to be a lot of work.

I’ve heard the pleas from the masses crowding my inbox and saying, “Why aren’t you commenting? Don’t you love me?” Yes. I do love you but, I’m tired. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, but I’ve already been burning the candle at both ends and now I’m down to the decorative fat cherub decal in the middle. Poof!

I’ll continue to write here at OS – after all, who else will attempt to defend racism, sexism, Wal-Mart and bacon? But, my delicate sensibilities cannot stand to hear the private messages crying out for personal attention. In all seriousness, I value you all as friends and I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings by appearing to ignore them.

I have done my best in the past few months to get out of everyone’s way. I’m not immune to the public outcry for me to get off the swings and give someone else a turn. I don’t know if me not being on the cover will give anyone else a chance, but I guess you’re about to find out. When the kitchen challenges started, I specifically didn’t participate because it was a lose-lose situation for me. If I won the contest, it was because I was a “favorite” of the editors, if I lost then boy, they showed me, right? So, I just didn’t play, yet I still got messages saying, "I'm glad they aren't picking you for these contests!" This was my first indication that I might be in slightly too deep.

I’ve never been paid by Open Salon or SMG in any way. They didn’t find me living in a cardboard box in Times Square and offer me a cover position in exchange for generating content. I’ve used OS as an online portfolio to try to get a bigger gig. I’ve been honest about that from the beginning. I’ll continue to use it for that purpose, but I can’t feel like I’m missing an imaginary deadline if I don’t post for a few days.

I joined OS in August of 2008. In that time, this place has become a real home to me. I consider many of you to be close friends. There is no “political” reason for me scaling back my participation here. I’ve gone from commenting hundreds of times per day to maybe a dozen (at most) because of work already. Arguments and petty in-fighting are a part of any online community. While I do believe the tone of the site has changed over the past year, it’s just different flavors of the same tired spats. Please take a look around at other sites and see that OS is much more civil on our worst day than most other sites on their best. That’s the reason I keep coming back here.

Over the holidays, it became abundantly clear to me that I did not have time to continually fight for my right to be here. If I comment too much, I’m an ass kisser, if I comment too little, I’m an elitist bitch who takes her trophies and goes home. The truth is much less dramatic. I’m a mother of four with a job. When the day is over, I don’t get to go back to being an accountant or an astronaut. I am a writer. It’s what I went to university for and I am attempting to make my living in that way. I came here to contribute my writing to this site for free in the hopes that I could use the body of work I’ve created to gain a paying position. I’ve succeeded in that way but I don’t plan on abandoning the site. I genuinely enjoy this place and I plan to remain. I just don’t want anyone to get their feelings hurt if I don’t seem to be paying attention.

So – good news – 72% (roughly) less Jodi to put up with. I will continue to read most of what is posted and post here occasionally. Just because I don’t comment doesn’t mean I’m not reading. If I have something positive or productive to say, I’ll comment. If I don’t, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you, it means I’m changing diapers and writing about heirloom peppers.

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter (treesofthemind) or Facebook (Jodi Kasten). If you have an exceptionally awesome food posting, please send me a message on OS mail and I'll see if I can mirror it for you on EatJax.com. I won't pay you, but I'll put you on MY cover. How's that for community spirit?

Be excellent to each other.
Party on.

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Image: foundshit.com