Kvetching, the official inspiration of Sarah O’Grady’s foray into bloggerdom. After developing a sassy take on New York City, Sarah found roots in Durham and channeled her experience into her now-prominent blog, Escaping New York. Her locale might have changed, but her honest, earthy writing style has not. Here’s Sarah’s take on North Carolina life, a mash-up of creative development at Lenovo (her day job), grocery shopping snafus and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” sing-offs.

Kicking Off a Kvetching Trend

I started blogging in 2006 while living in New York City. My best friend Keren and I came up with an idea for a blog called Kvetchette; our tagline was, “We complain so you don’t have to.” We’d post about things that annoyed us about living in NY, or about work, or celebrity gossip. We took turns writing posts about things like “Umbrella Etiquette 101” and “Dear Crazy Lady in the Massive Mercedes Who Almost Ran Me Over.” It pre-dated the snarky nature of digital media today (Gawker, HuffPo, Buzzfeed) so I like to say we were blogging trendsetters in some respects! I have had a few blogs since then, and have now settled into Escaping New York – my take on life after having escaped the Big Apple Bubble.

I blog because I love making people laugh, I love knowing I can help someone who is looking for answers, and because I’ll always be a writer at heart. Despite what else is going on in my world professionally or personally, it’s my creative “release.”

Juggling Parenting and Blogging

Well, I juggle more than just that – I also run content and creative at Lenovo. (I am woman, hear me roar, right?!)  I write at night after the kids have gone to bed and my hubby is holed up in his own office, busy building his media empire (The Cauldron, which he recently moved to Sports Illustrated! Shameless plug, I know.) Juggling all things “life” is part of the fun. I’m a worker bee… I need to constantly be in motion, thinking, doing, creating, exploring, brainstorming.

My Inspiration: $200 Chia Seed Snacks

Sometimes, a great idea for a blog post will come to me in the most random place. Like when I’m in Whole Foods, and realize that for me, Whole Foods is an escape into a world I only dip a toe into now and then. Like pretending I’m super health-conscious about everything I put in my body, because let’s be honest, I’m not. I love a Chick-Fil-A sandwich as much as the next person. So I wrote about it later that day. I mean, I can’t be the only one who puts on her fancy hemp hat when walking in there to spend $200 on random chia seed versions of things. So that’s what I love most about blogging. Having a point of view and sharing in with the world – and hearing from other people that I made them smile because they’ve totally felt that way too.

My Down-Time Fuel

What do I when I’m not blogging? I sing a really badass version of Itsy Bitsy Spider. I save recipes to my Pinterest boards for things I’m probably not qualified to be making. I bribe my children to snuggle with me. I come up with career ideas for myself, and file them in my brain under “Some Day.” And I convince my family to pile in the car each weekend and go explore corners of the Triangle, together.

If My Kids Could Blog…

Hot topics would include Top Ten Moments My Mommy Has Tried to Capture on Instagram (But Failed) and Top Ten Things My Mommy Has Tried to Make Me Eat But I’m Not Having It.

Sarah’s Top Picks Right Now

• The Walking Dead franchise
• CC Skye jewelry
• Hillary Clinton
• Date nights in downtown Durham, which is poppin’ right now – so many amazing options!