Cousin

A big HELLO to my cousin Debby who has re-found my blog! She said she felt 'guilty' that it was anonymous but she knew it was me - hey, I'm FINE with people knowing this is my blog when you KNOW me. This town is a 'small' town in many ways and I work in the 'public sector' where every facet of my life is subject to public scrutiny. Seriously, you feel strange when people who 'know' you through your job peer into your grocery cart - God forbid, it's the day we're restocking the wine or the alcohol cabinet - which we do once in a blue moon. But you realize that people pay attention to things you wouldn't think they would....hence I try to lie low under the radar in things related to my opinions and feelings. It's just not something I 'broadcast'.

A few of my coworkers know I have a blog but I don't give them the address. In fact, our local paper actually linked to my blog for some time - I saw a few comments from people I didn't know and wondered. A couple weeks later, I received an email from the editor of the paper thanking me for 'allowing' the paper to link to my blog. I wrote her back and politely said that I thought it was 'amusing' to be thanked for granting permission to link when in fact I had never been asked nor given my permission. The link was down within an hour of her reading my email.

I WANT people to read - in some small way. I write because I love to write - and it's good 'therapy' for me to express my thoughts and hopes and fears somehow. But writing has no value if there's no one reading - so there's a part of me that WANTS people to read. And hopes they keep coming back to read day after day. If they're inclined. Heck, there are blogs out there that are now supporting entire families - that's the 'job' of the writer - to keep writing things people find interesting and generate revenue from ads, etc. I'm not going there - and probably never will, but wouldn't it be lovely to have a job that just involves staying in your PJs all day and writing about your life? That would be great fun!

Any readers out there: you are welcome to link to my blog on yours, if you're inclined. And you are welcome to pass on the web address to other friends and family you think might enjoy it. It's OK. 'Anonymous' will still be maintained 'cuz I'm not using my 'name' - if I'd married a guy with the last name of 'Smith' (and I dated a guy with that last name in college), then I'd have no worries. But I married a guy with a fairly unique last name - and every other person in the US with that last name are all related to us. EVERY SINGLE PERSON. So I try to NOT use my name - any of my actual names - and that helps keep me below the radar a bit. And the uniqueness of that name, combined with the small bit of knowledge of what I do for a living would make it VERY easy for a Google search to find me - and it's THAT I'm hoping to avoid. I don't want to be 'known' as in really KNOWN. But I LOVE that people are reading and hope they continue to read - and hope more people read, as time goes by.

Debby, thanks for writing me. It was great to hear from you and I do hope you'll send me YOUR blog address. I'm honored you read and glad you enjoy it! It's a great medium for 'getting to know' people - and the fact that you're family and we haven't spent much time together over the years makes your reading very, very special to me. Thank you very much!