Do your friends read your blog? By friends I mean those, you know, "in real life" as they say. As far as I can tell most of mine do not (or if they do, they never mention it). Which is of course okay, I am shocked that anyone reads this stuff, but when I think about it I start to wonder why they don't. If any of my friends had a blog I'd be all OVER it. Like crazy-ocd-refresh person all over it. I guess I expected that people who know me would be more interested than strangers in my musings about my extremely exciting and important life but that does not seem to be the case. (Um, if you are one of my real-life friends that does read this blog, then present company excluded and all that. And, I love you). On the other hand sometimes I think that my entire extended family reads it religiously (hi guys). That gives me a very warm and fuzzy feeling. Kinda like vodka... I mean, tea with milk. I don't know why I bring it up, I just wonder if I am the only one or if other bloggers experience this phenomenon with their friends. (A little footnote to this: one unexpected perk of blogging has been the emergence of long-lost friends who have googled onto this site and gotten in touch. This has happened a few times now and it makes me want to just hug the Internet).
I am ready for fall. Actually I am ready for winter if only to kill all the f*cking bugs. Jaysus. I am still not down with all of the bio-diversity up here. Everyday it seems like a new thing bites me. I almost posted a picture of my lower extremities that were set upon by a serial-killer mosquito. They were polka-dotted with welts. I chose not to post the photo because 1. it was really disturbing since my skin is so pale and 2. the camera adds 10000 lbs to my already ample calves. Also, what is with spiders? And the constant web-making? I have walked into more spider webs in the last 3 months than I have in my entire existence on this earth. Can I tell you that spiderweb-on-the-face is possibly my least favorite sensation? I have trained Lowell to spot them and so he is pretty good at saying "spider" now. I am surprised that he hasn't picked up "Oh f*cking hell spider aaahhh! Motherf*ck!" (Speaking of which I have been trying so hard to clean up my potty mouth lately since I know that the reckoning is coming. This might be the most difficult part of parenting yet. Why, god? Why was I raised by sailors?). Anyway, bring on the frost. I have had it.
A handful of my friends read my blog. They're mostly the friends who live out of town and who I don't get to talk to on a regular basis -- I think they read it more as a way of 'keeping up' with my life, not that my life is like, interesting or anything, lol.
And I hear ya. Bring on the frost. I hate summer.
Posted by: mamatulip | September 02, 2006 at 09:57 AM
I have a couple of friends who know about the blog and read it fairly regularly. I also have two sisters and two cousins who know and read. Otherwise, everyone who reads (that I know about) is someone I've met through blogging. If I knew anyone who had a blog, I would SO be reading it every day. I'm that nosy--er--curious.
Posted by: wordgirl | September 04, 2006 at 12:15 PM
I have a couple friends that read mine, but have admitted to feeling uncomfortable with the voyeuristic feeling associated with peeking at my life without me knowing. I also have several friends that don't read, and I think it's because they just don't get blogging. I think those of us that blog are ultimately very curious about the lives of others AND we enjoy telling others about ourselves. I find it interesting that several of my friends aren't like that. I'm the same way as you and Wordgirl, though. If anyone I even remotely knew had a website I'd be all over it because I'm TOTALLY nosy.
Also, after thinking about it a little, I realize, even if they are reading, I'm kind of glad my real-life friends and family don't comment. I think if they did it would feel strange for others to paricipate. As if they were crashing a party in which everyone already knew each other. But on the other hand, your family comments and I have no issue crashing... but then I have no shame. Huh.
Posted by: Mignon | September 04, 2006 at 04:00 PM
My stepmom can't read because she also has that uncomfortable voyeuristic feeling of which you speak. I am a stone voyeur (i.e. nosy parker) so I find it hard to relate. As a kid I used to watch my neighbors do their dishes for hours from my bedroom window. I have no idea why it fascinated me but it did. I couldn't tear myself away until their kitchen light was off. It prepared me well for the blogging life.
Posted by: LetterB | September 05, 2006 at 12:45 AM
you were not raised by sailors. you were raised in a barn by wolves with potty mouths.
Posted by: kara | September 06, 2006 at 11:02 PM
And then there are those old friends like me, who googled (make that "Googled", those kids deserve some credit) you, read a few posts and smiled, and then moved on without posting or emailing. Sorry about that.
I was never able to shake the feeling that Hungarians spoke English all the time, and that it was just around me that they didn't let on. Likewise I find it hard to believe that my friends have actual, interesting lives even when I'm not around. Reassuring? Certainly, but still it just doesn't ring true.
Posted by: Kevin O'Bryant | September 07, 2006 at 09:06 AM
Just reading the phrase "doing dishes for hours" has me in a tailspin. That might not have been one of the chief afterlife terrors in Dante's hellish circles, but it certainly is in mine.
And I suppose this answers the question of whether "real life friends" (call me "RLF" for short) can both read your blog and hijack comment threads.
Posted by: knisk | September 07, 2006 at 12:51 PM