NaBloPoWhoa

Wow, I didn't sign up for NaBloPoMo until Tuesday because I didn't want to pressure myself (and also because I don't really care; I participated for the same reason Edmund Hillary climbed Everest), but after I did, my daily hits quadrupled via that ring randomizer thing.  (Which may tell you a little too much about my average volume of hits, but that's okay, I count any day somebody gets here by actually typing out the URL as a successful day.)

Which, I should also add, is not to say I read too much into my stats.  Vaguely Urban started her blog (and mentioned it) nearly a year before I looked it up, and it wasn't because I wasn't utterly interested in what she was up to and what she had to say.  I just didn't "get" the whole "blogging" "thing."  Then one day a mutual friend related some incident of which I was unaware because I had just completely forgotten about the blog.   

But the next day I looked it up, and whammo, it was like falling down the rabbit hole.  Not only did I spend the afternoon reading the entire thing (and commenting - I didn't realize at the time that comments were popping onto her Manage screen and into her Inbox all day long - I thought I was being stealthy), but I followed her links and discovered: a whole new world, a different set of people, a keyhole view into all of these different lives, expressed in all kinds of ways.  (I don't know what I did with my time before I discovered the blogosphere.  Sudoku?) 

It's like a different life stage now, like that summer I listened to Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley again and again and again until the tapes unraveled, or the time when I was looking for a job but was actually spending a majority of my waking hours making the Sims way more successful and productive members of society than I was, or even the couple of years when I was trying to get my hands around religion. 

Where do you begin, where do you end?  There are people I started out reading whom I never look up anymore.  Some because their lives were too divergent, some because they didn't update (I still don't have a reader, I'm stuck in 2004!), some because they intimidated me, some just because they were big names who were out of my league and wouldn't notice if I came or went anyway.  (With one exception, I don't think I read anyone who regularly gets more than ten or so comments.) 

I think everyone I read nowadays is someone who genuinely impresses me one way or another, but also someone I would be tickled to meet someday.  (But of course it's unilateral.  They may think I'm numbingly boring.)  Some blogs are invariably good for a snuffle-laugh, some blogs have good ideas for self-improvement, some blogs have neat cooking or crafty ideas that let me domesticate vicariously, some blogs are just like comfortable friends you don't have to change out of your sweat pants to enjoy spending a little time with.  (I'm pointedly not making these descriptions into links, because I know you're all, "Wait, am I sweat pants or am I snuffle-laugh?  I wrote about painting my toenails that one time...does that mean I'm not funny?  Why don't you think I'm funny?  Is it because I'm always going on about my job/ diet/ baby/ wedding/ pet/ backyard/ book-in-progress/ neighbor's Christmas decorations?"  No, it's not.)  It's nice to know you all.

My mom won't read my blog unless I've been radio silent for too long.  I kiddingly gave her a hard time for 'revealing' Ace's name in a comment early on (when I don't care that much, you all know who I mean, and if you don't the sidebar provides a pretty generous hint, and also, did you know you have cancer if your palm is bigger than your face?) and she got scared off.  And a couple of Real World People have mentioned that they check in now and again but never leave a note.  I guess I don't really know who's out there, but I'm glad you stopped by.  For what it's worth, I aspire to be in the sweat pants category.

So anyway, a shout out to anybody who's visited here today on purpose - right back at you!  Leave a comment, or better yet - give me a call.  I'm going to get way less frequent now that this NaBloPoMo obligation is off my back.  A Super Shout Out to the Queen, for her phenomenal participation in NaBloPoYe.

Jazz hands.

Comments

[Angela]

Oh hey! You changed your colors! Sneaky.

I love it when people talk about why they blog and why they love it. It's like falling in love all over again! With a website. Which is... weird.

And you get extra points, because not only do your blog posts almost always make me laugh, but your comments on my blog usually get a snuffle-laugh out of me as well.

[TheQueen]

Quantity, not Quality, that's my motto. And I would be in sweatpants right now if I hadn't grown out of them.

[whymommy]

Snuffle-laugh. Snort.

Also laughing because I got here today via the randomizer. But I'll be back!