cake?

Today is a milestone of sorts for my little blog. This is my 100th post since I've started, and it also falls on the three month anniversary of the very first posting. I think we need cake and streamers or at the very least some really boring introspection and dissection on the whole blog process. I promise not to babble too much. Really. Prop your eyes open, grab another cup of caffeine and let's go...

Shortly after I started doing this several people asked me why. (Translation: Why do you think anyone would want to read it?). And I had no concrete answer. (Translation: I didn't think anyone would read it either). I just knew I wanted to do something, and this seemed like a good idea at the time. My original purpose was to reconnect with people I had neglected, either through inertia, laziness or just plain life. And that's what happened. The bridges I wanted to be reestablished were, for the most part, and I felt relief that my olive branch was accepted. As time went on though, things kind of took on a life of their own and this blog started becoming very important to me, in ways I never would have imagined. It had met it's original purpose and than started shape-shifting on me. (Sorry, Harry Potter marathon!)

So what would my answer be now to the "Why" question? Well, first and foremost is that it's mine. There are so few things in my life that are really mine, and I'd forgotten how much I like having my own stuff. That book with my name in the front cover is being read by someone else and that furniture that I helped pick out is being trashed and that piece of pizza I hid in the fridge is being inhaled by someone else. My house is chaos, my kids are everywhere and there is no "mine". Virtually everything I do has to be considered as to how it will affect someone else, and if it's even worth it once other people start expressing an opinion.

But the blog...I can do anything I want. Bored with the color? Change it. New layout? Done. Produce verbal diarrhea on any subject known to man? I'm there. (Pretty sure I won't get any arguments here). It's mine mine mine and I love it. I have so little creativity in my day to day life anymore, and I'd forgotten how nice it feels to invent something from nothing. I can throw together a great meal and in fifteen minutes it's gone. And there's a mess to clean up. Paint a room a gorgeous color and then not be able to see it through all the video gaming equipment and empty Cup O' Noodles containers. But to go from wracking my brain for a topic to having something written, posted and responded to is wonderful. It stays the same unless I change it. And I've become quite addicted. There are endorphins flying around everywhere. (High above the stadium, searching for the golden snitch. Oops.)

And then there are the fellow blogsters. I've "met" some wonderful people on the web, and it never would have happened without our blogs. From Mya in France to Jen in Georgia to Stacie in California...I now follow their lives too, and sadly for them I feel free to comment as well. (Check out my new links on the sidebar). My friends (relevance and revolution) and family (cinamattographer and happy in the abyss) use our blogs as a way to communicate as well.

Now that I have a meter on the blog I can check to see who is actually stopping by to read it, and that's always fun, too. How many hits did I have on Monday compared to Thursday? Which posts get the most comments? (The Surfer Dude post is the most commented on, if anyone is interested). Which ones go clunk and head to that great blog junkyard in cyberspace? (Too many to count). How many people read regularly but don't comment? (That's okay, by the way. :o) I know you're there).

I'm having so much fun with this, I just can't tell you. It's filling needs I didn't even know I had. Thank you all for that. Thank you for your feedback and your encouragement and most of all for the fact that you're still reading this interminable ramble.

Now we can have cake.