Welcome Home

It seems like an introduction is in order.  My name is Susie and I might be addicted to blogs.  Reading blogs has become a hobby of mine, especially since I don’t really have the time or the patience to read anything that is more than a grocery list.  When I first started reading blogs, I thought that I should just go ahead and write my own.  After all, I like to write and I like to talk about myself.  This, of course, meant that I had to research this blogging phenomenon by reading more blogs.  If I were going to be serious about this, then I needed to know more about what other blogs are out there.  Hmmmmm…   Do you know how many blogs are out there?!  Some have cute and catchy names, themes, and styles even – this was way more than I expected. Benchmarking led to procrastinating. I couldn’t start my own blog because I was intimidated by all the other blogs out there that surely are better than mine could ever be.  I mean, really, we need one more blog like we need one more reality TV show. With all these other blogs, how can mine be at all extraordinary? And besides, I didn’t have time to actually create a blog since I was too busy reading everyone else’s.
 
I also needed to work out some critical questions – some of which I haven’t fully answered yet.  For example, how anonymous do I want to be?  Do I want to invite friends and family to read this or do I want to be able to use it as an outlet to work out some issues. But wait, what if my parents did read it?! Should I curtail some entries in the off chance they do?  Should I not let my husband or kids read it? Where will that line be between disclosure and privacy?  How will I keep it real without giving too much away?  Will anyone even read this? Will I even have time to keep a blog or will this just be another extra something that I don’t ever get to do like knitting and getting a haircut?  At this point, you might ask, “So why blog at all?”  Because I have been reading some amazing blogs written by some incredible people.  But I feel like I am watching a party through the window and it is time to come inside.  From what I have been reading, I feel welcomed to finally do so.  I too have a voice and I am ready to share it.
 
Doubts and worries aside, one positive thing I have learned in my explorations is that while there are indeed many blogs, the blogging community is a cozy and personal one.  I am often awed by the sense of sisterhood that exists here - from setting up virtual baby showers to making videos of support, there is a wealth of brilliance, strength, humor, and courage out there to be read and I want to be apart of it.  As I would read one, I’d follow a link to another, and so on, only to come back to another link to the original blog that I started with.  So from the uncountable number of blogs out there, the blogosphere started to feel more like a community, a neighborhood.  I am inspired to build my home on that block.  So come on in to meet your new neighbor.  Get yourself some coffee, don’t mind the mess, but please do make yourself at home.