Blogosophy

One of the 1,279 blogs (maybe not quite that many, but it feels like it!) I read is Tip Junkie. Tuesdays at Tip Junkie are kind of special, because they're open for audience participation. I love audience participation! On the cruise this summer, I was hoping and hoping that I would get randomly selected for audience participation (but I NEVER would've raised my hand to volunteer for it. Which was fine, because John, the very best cruise director, said that he wasn't going to pick someone who had his/her hand up. He wanted to pick a shrinking violet.) Anyway, I never got picked. But on Tuesdays, I have a chance to participate and I don't have to try to catch anyone's eye by making it obvious that I want to be chosen, whether that be by waving my hands in the air and screaming "Me, Me, ME!" or crossing my arms and not making eye contact and slinking down low in my chair. All I have to do is link my blog to Tip Junkie's!
So today's "Talk to Me Tuesday" asks, "Why do you blog?"

So, I started blogging just over 3 years ago...that's really hard to believe, especially because I haven't even made a year's worth of posts. But it looks like 2009 could be my bloggiest year yet.  I started my blog because a few of my friends at ScrapVillage had blogs and would write thinks like, "check my blog for pictures" or "you can read about it on my blog". And I decided that I wanted one too. Because, you know, the cool kids were doing it.
In the beginning, I thought that I might look at blogging as a way to tell my family and friends about where I was and what I was doing (I was in Japan at the time) without sending out mass e-mails. When I learned how to post pictures on my blog, I thought, "Oh goody, I can post pictures without clogging up anyone's e-mail box with big ol' files". Because I am sweet like that. (And remember, this was before Facebook made it possible to share every detail of my life with everyone I know, including the random girl that sat 4 rows behind me in math class one semester 14 years ago.) Well, it turns out that probably five or fewer friends or family members read this, and really I would've had time to write five personal e-mail messages.  But, by the time I realized this, my blogosophy (maybe I just make that term up...get it, like philosophy?) had started to change.
My blog had turned into a place where I could just talk about whatever I wanted to, regardless of whether there was someone who wanted to have that conversation with me. I tend to talk a lot. David told me that when we first started dating, he didn't really think he liked me because I talked too much. One of my running partners in Okinawa advertised me as "a human iPod" (podcast, not music). In high school, I said that I was considering becoming a dentist and my friend's mom said that would be a perfect profession for me because I could talk and talk and the patient couldn't a--talk back or b--get away. So, my blog is a place where I can talk as much as I want to, without getting a sore throat or watching your eyes glaze over. And you, dear readers, are free to "get away" or skip ahead when it starts to be too much. And I never have to know about it.
This year, I'm home alone, and when you are home alone, you can talk to yourself all the time and nobody looks at you funny. There have been a few times when I've been around others and accidentally talk to myself and get called on it. I just say, "it's the only time I can be sure anyone's listening." So, since I've been free to babble, I kind of got away from blogging. And also because I am home alone, unemployed, and tend to do the same 4 or 5 things every day (run, watch either Ugly Betty or Gossip Girl, knit, play on the internet, and read. Oh, and eat cereal. So 6 things.) I didn't really have all that much to talk about. But, then I found out that there are actually a few crazy people out there who like reading this blog.--some who have to love me because we are related, and some who I don't even know in real life but, for some reason, get a kick out of me! And so, I make it a point to think of something to blog about, even if it ends up being an entry about nothing. Because, you know what? It feels good to know that somewhere out there, someone might laugh or smile or think about something new or different because they read what I had to say.