I just realized that I didn’t take a single photo of the cupcakes Annalie decorated for her birthday party today. I took the photo above of one of the unfrosted cupcakes, because happy cupcake is happy, and that’s kinda neat. I took a few shots of the kids eating cupcakes at the party, but the decorations probably aren’t very visible, and who knows when I’ll get around to downloading those photos off the memory card anyway.

I’m bummed that I don’t have a picture of the cupcakes, because she really had fun decorating them. But I also think, “Eh. Whatever.” And that indifference bums me out a little bit too.

There was a reason I was kind of distracted today, though. Sonja—one of my favorite people on this or any other planet—was busy having her baby yesterday and today, and I was checking my phone every time I even imagined it might have beeped or buzzed, anxious for news. From the little I’ve heard, the day was far more exciting than they would have liked, but everyone is fine. Whew. Also, yay! Baby!

I was going to try to blog every day this month. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to make a big thing of it, I just wanted to set myself the goal and see if I could reach it. I did great for nine days. Maybe I should just be thankful I got that many posts written, and work on keeping myself afloat until there’s another calm week when I can write a post every day. Maybe intermittent blogging is all I can do right now.

I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that it’s impossible for me to do all the things I need to do in my daily life (homeschool an 8-year-old and parent a toddler, be a halfway decent wife/daughter/sister, keep the clutter and dishes and laundry from taking over the house, cook the occasional meal, crochet baby blankets and golden snitches, keep up email correspondence with friends, sleep more than four hours a night) AND ALSO blog on a regular basis. At least not like I used to, with lots of photos and thoughtfully composed paragraphs.

I just…can’t. And that makes me really sad. I don’t know what else could possibly give at this point. I guess I could give up reading and TV. I’ve already basically given up painting, and am trying to find a way to cram exercising back in there somewhere.

Sigh.

How is it possible that I haven’t blogged any crocheting since October!? Oh, wait…I guess I did blog about some cup sleeves and crocheted golden snitches back at the end of February. But still! The lack of blogging about it certainly does not indicate a lack of crocheting. Let me show you.

This rainbow blanket is one of the most recent things I’ve crocheted, and I love it. It’s probably one of my favorite things I’ve ever crocheted. It was made it for my friend Joanna‘s sweet baby boy, but Elliora tried claiming it as her own. First she came over and plopped down on the blanket when I was trying to take photos. (That was only two months ago. Now she runs if I point a camera at her; forget her voluntarily inserting herself in a photo she wasn’t asked to pose for in the first place.)

Then she stood, gathered the blanket into her arms, and walked off with it. She climbed into the blue chair still holding the blanket, and hugged it, grinning at me, daring me to take it away from her. The goober.

A photo of the rainbow blanket before Elliora tried staking her claim.

Photo taken two months ago. It’s bigger now, since the blanket is one-third done!

Have I told you all about the sky blanket I’m crocheting? You might have seen the sky scarf on Pinterest. I liked the idea, but decided I wanted a blanket, and went with my trademark spiral squares instead of stripes. I started just after the first of the year. Each day, I look at the sky around noon (or whenever I remember; or unless it rains or snows anytime that day, in which case the day’s square is sparkly gray or sparkly white), and that evening I spend about 20 minutes crocheting one three-inch square out of the appropriate color yarn and then attach it to the blanket. I’ll end up with 360 squares arranged in 20 rows of 18, and maybe a six-round border for the last six days of the year, which will make a decent-size blanket in shades of blue, gray, and white. It’s a totally different color scheme than my usual palette of brights. I’m surprised by how much I like it and look forward to cuddling under it at the end of the year.

My sister-in-law Dana sent me this bag for my birthday. I love it.

These two little nine-patch blankets were made for our friends Lynette and Med’s twin girls.

I didn’t notice till after I’d started working on the purple one that the colors were very Mardi Gras. Good thing Lynette and Med appreciate (and throw!) a good party.

This photo was actually my Day 6 photo from 7 Days this past December. (You know, that 7 Days week I never finished blogging about because (1) it was Christmas, and (2) I got sick on Christmas Eve. Sigh.) Summer complimented a similar coffee-cup sleeve in Mandy’s Day 2 photo, so I offered to make her one.

Queta, another 7-Dayer, complimented the same coffee-cup sleeve. I made one for her too. (Apparently, all it takes is a compliment and I’m falling all over myself to make you stuff.)

Erin peeking over the blanket I crocheted for Indira Jane.

Two-month-old Indy, sleeping under her blanket. She’s EIGHT months old now, and I have not seen her since this picture was taken. That’s so sad. Once we’re back on the west coast, I think I’m gonna be visiting Oregon a lot more often. How else are Elliora and Indy going to become best friends?

Last but not least, some yarnballs! I’ve made a bunch of crocheted balls for my friend Rebekah’s kids over the years. Her husband Jason loves them (balls you can play with relatively safely IN THE HOUSE) and periodically puts in an order for more. Not long ago I made these three for them. And I just remembered, I need to make them a few more! I should add that to my crafting queue…

Mystery yarnballs! For the life of me, I cannot remember who I made these for. Was it more balls for Bekah’s kids? Did I make these for Jen‘s Preston? Did I perhaps make them for you? I honestly can’t recall.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get cracking on about three baby blankets, including one for a baby who is already several months old and another one for Sonja‘s baby who will be born any minute now. (ANY MINUTE, Sonja. I’m sure of it.)

What kinds of crafty things have you been doing lately?

*I have never actually crocheted any ketchup. But now I kind of want to.

Last week, we made an impromptu trip down to Southern Virgina to see Karyl and her girls.

Karyl and I are both Navy wives. We’re accustomed to our husbands being gone for weeks or months at a time, and working long hours when they’re not gone. Most of the time, we deal with it just fine.

Once in a while, we struggle. It just happens that last week, we were both struggling a little bit. That made it seem like the perfect time for a 7 Days meet-up.

And you know what? It was. We arrived on Tuesday and had a great time hanging out, eating good food, playing outside, talking and laughing together. Grace and Annalie immediately jumped right back into the friendship they established when Karyl and her girls visited us last summer, when Sonja and Noah were visiting. And Mary Ellen loved Elliora. She seemed to think she was a living doll, and Elliora didn’t seem to mind that at all. Anytime we walked anywhere, Elliora walked straight to ME and grabbed her hand.

I dragged everyone all the way to Virginia Beach, to my favorite Greek restaurant, Elia’s. The hummus and pita there are to die for, and the rest of the food is delicious too. We were regulars at Elia’s when we lived in Virginia Beach over a decade ago, and just like every other time we’ve been there since we moved away—even when years have gone by between visits—Elia remembered us as soon as we walked in the door.

We sat in a booth right next to a high wall. On the other side of that wall was the grill, and Annalie and Grace amused themselves by occasionally standing on the seat and peeking over to chat with Elia and the other people working that day, all of whom seemed to get a kick out of it. Everyone enjoyed the food, especially Elliora. She took bites out of a lemon, rind and all; ate the hummus by the fingerful after we ran out of pita; and gnawed a kabob full of chicken clean. Annalie even branched out from her usual chicken nuggets, and thought the chicken kabobs and rice were really tasty.

The next morning, we all walked Grace to school and got to see her classroom and meet her lovely teacher.

Walking back to Karyl’s, I spotted this heart-shaped rock in the dirt path. I love finding random hearts in the world like this.

We stopped at the playground to let the kids blow off some steam, and so we could get our 7 Days shots.

The theme for Day 5 was FRESH. Karyl’s had the idea that we could be getting some fresh air, which we certainly got playing on the swings. But even more than the air, the time spent with a friend refreshed me. Thanks again, Karyl! We went home with lighter hearts, already looking forward to the next visit.

Isn’t it amazing how the internet makes neighbors and friends of people who live across the globe from each other? Lauren and I had a bit of fun with our Day 4 photos, uploaded as she was getting ready for bed in Australia and I was waking up and having breakfast in the U.S. (When my photo is viewed here in the 7 Days pool [look to the thumbnails at the right] we are waving at each other.)

Comment #6, Kuky!

I’m glad you REALLY want to read Attachments, Kuky, because you’re going to get a paperback copy of it and a signed bookplate from Rainbow in the mail soon. Congratulations!

For the rest of you that didn’t win, you can still purchase Attachments at Amazon (in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, Audio CD, and Audible Audio) or your favorite independent bookstore. (If they don’t have it, ask them why they don’t!) And did I mention that Rainbow has posted several deleted scenes from Attachments on her blog? It’s like her book is a DVD with extras—how cool is that!? My personal favorite involves Data from Star Trek.

And then there’s Rainbow’s second book, Eleanor & Park, available late 2012 or early 2013 in the U.S., but available in the UK in a few weeks (because of the way it was sold; Rainbow explains it on her blog). If you’re in the U.S. and don’t want to wait, you can purchase Eleanor & Park on amazon.co.uk for about $25. Here is where I admit that I have had the privilege of reading E&P already, and tell you that it’s a really excellent read. Set in East Omaha in 1986, it’s a story of first love and how it’s almost always doomed. It’s funny and sad and geeky, taking you right back to those breathless, stomachache-y days when love was desperate and overwhelming and just holding your beloved’s hand was enough to make you walk on air for days. I think if you liked Attachments, you’ll probably love Eleanor & Park.

Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing! Kuky, I’ll be in touch with you about how to claim your prize.

If you’ve been reading my blog for the past year, you probably know that I have a friend named Rainbow Rowell. I went to high school and college with her, but wasn’t really friends with her back then—more like friendly acquaintances. We reconnected over Facebook around the same time that her first novel, Attachments, was published last year. I read it and LOVED it, and we emailed back and forth a few times and then had coffee in Omaha when I was there and somewhere along the way we bonded like whoa over books and Harry Potter and Downton Abbey and kids and Tom Felton and now she’s a really good friend. A marvellous friend, even. (Internet friends, FTW!)

Attachments is being released in paperback on March 27th. In honor of that release, here’s a review of the book, an interview with Rainbow, and a chance for you to win a paperback copy (a lovely trade paperback) of Attachments now!

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Attachments is mostly about Lincoln, a 28-year-old college graduate who has just moved back home with his mom temporarily and works as the IT guy at a newspaper, helping them prepare for whatever coding disasters the year 2000 might bring, while he figures out what he really wants to do with his life. Part of his job is to make sure employees aren’t using their email for nefarious (i.e., non-work) purposes, so he reads everyone’s email. Even though he feels uncomfortable with that part of his job, he starts looking forward to reading emails between two particular women who work in the newsroom. Beth and Jennifer’s emails are funny and smart and cover a wide range of topics. Eventually, Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, and he doesn’t know what to do about it. It’s not like he can walk up to her and introduce himself as the guy who monitors her email and then ask her out on a date. The book alternates between chapters that consist of email conversations between Beth and Jennifer, and chapters about Lincoln becoming who he wants to be.

You might be thinking, An underachieving, living-with-his-mom 28-year-old man whose job it is to read other people’s emails as a hero? What was Rainbow thinking? She did set herself a tricky task, but you know what? Lincoln might have been drifting and unfocused at the beginning of the story, but he was also kind and intelligent and loyal and wanted more from life. He’s one of the most likable and loveable characters I’ve ever come across. Of course that might be because Lincoln—a D&D gamer and a big fan of the show “Quantum Leap,” who didn’t mind sleeping on flowered sheets or letting his mom cook for him because it made her happy—kind of reminded me of a lot of guys I know and love, including my husband. It was really refreshing to read a love story where the guy was a normal, socially well-adjusted geek. It didn’t come off as even the tiniest bit creepy that he had a crush on a woman he’d never met.

And the women! I loved Beth and Jennifer. Their email conversations are hilarious, smart and emotional. I want to be friends with them.

By the last third of the book, I was reading as fast as I could to see how everyone would manage to get their happily-ever-after. As I read the final chapters I was laughing and crying at the same time. I’ve read Attachments three times now, and enjoyed it just as much the third time as the first—maybe even more.

(NOTES: One of the reasons this book was especially fun for me to read is that it’s set in my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. It’s never mentioned explicitly that it’s set there, but to anyone familiar with Omaha it’s obvious. It won’t detract from your enjoyment if you don’t know it, though. Also, when I wrote these interview questions, I was in a book-club frame of mind, asking Rainbow questions as if we were at a book club meeting at which everyone had already read Attachments. That means that some of this interview might not make sense if you have not read the book. But there are no major spoilers and I think most of it’s interesting even if you have not yet read Attachments, especially if you’re interested in the process of writing a novel.)

On to the interview! Details about the book giveaway are at the end.

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1. Did you have a similar system of email monitoring at the Omaha World-Herald when you worked there in the late ’90s?

Yes. We were very late to get email and internet access, and when we did, it was very controlled. At first, there were only a few computers in the building that had internet access, and you had to get special permission to use one. When we got individual access, we all knew we were being Big Brother-ed. But even then, it was hard to resist using email to gossip or talk with your friends. It was so much easier (and more subtle) to email than to crouch in each other’s cubicles.

2. As you were writing, did you make sure that the emails were all ones that would really get flagged?

Well, I gave myself a pretty big umbrella…I say in the book that their emails can get snagged for being too long or too frequent. And I say that the list of flagged words is long and ridiculous. But YES, I usually tried to make sure there was a curse word—or a near curse word, or something that could be construed as sexual or even financial—somewhere in the conversation. Once, in real life, I had an important email get flagged and sent into IT limbo because I said that I was a “hardcore reader.”

3. How did you remember so much about 1999? Did getting the details right require a lot of research and fact-checking, or did you just remember a lot about that period in your life? I was struck in particular by details like which movies were out, what color lipstick was fashionable, drinking Slice and Zima, the Indian Hills Theatre closure, and the TV schedule (when Quantum Leap was on).

I started the book in 2002, so 1999 was recent history at first. The longer that I worked on the book, the more it became a period piece—which was actually more fun. I had the benefit of hindsight to know what about 1999 would still be funny or interesting over time. (Tom Cruise jokes. Matrix references.) All the Y2K stuff was a really late add. After my first draft, I realized that I had written a book about an IT guy in 1999-2000 that never mentioned the Millennium. Duh.

My next book takes place in 1986. That took a lot more thinking and researching.

4. In your head, are there more details about the characters and their world than there are on the page? Like how you said Beth’s full name is Bethany, but that didn’t make it into the book…or, say, do you know what dorm Lincoln lived in at UNL, or what mall Lincoln and Eve went to where he bought her an Orange Julius? (This is one of those Omaha questions, probably, but I want to know the answer anyway.)

Oh, good question. I guess the answer is a limited yes. I usually don’t think up details until I need them. But sometimes I need information that doesn’t make it into the book. For example, I always had to think about what part of town the characters were in, so that I could internally make sure they stayed oriented and consistent.

I never thought about where Beth and Jennifer lived. (Just realized that.) I definitely don’t have troves of information socked away about each character. Writing is very freestyle for me, just making it up as I go along.

5. Was your college newspaper, the Daily Nebraskan, a drunken viper pit? (More generally, I assume you based Beth and Jennifer’s experiences with working at a college paper and a city paper on your own experiences?)

The Daily Nebraskan was sometimes a drunken viper pit. I didn’t drink in college, which meant I spent a lot of time not fitting in. It was especially hard for me at the college newspaper because I spent almost all my free time there, but I didn’t party with anybody. I was there for the fights and the melodramatics and the coups. But I missed out on all the stress relief, the drunken make-out sessions and the inside jokes.

That said, I have great memories of working on the Daily Nebraskan, and I made a lot of friends there. I had Jennifer make that “drunken viper pit” comment because she seemed like the sort of person who would hold onto a grudge. I often gave Jennifer my most acidic feelings and thoughts.

6. Are you a D&D player? Or did that part require a bit of research? Did you run it by a friend who plays for a reality check?

I never played myself—not that I’m above it!—but I hung out with guys who did. And my husband did. So he was my reality check. (Funny to think about a D&D reality check.)

7. When Lincoln the perpetual college student was discussing whether he might have a problem with school with his sister, it made me think of your recent column about how you have a reading addiction, and that might not be a good thing.

Good observation. It’s different, I think, because the reading addiction is more drug-like. More of a “more-more-more, now-now-now” feeling. Lincoln’s problem with school (if it is a problem) is more about not wanting to commit. Not really wanting to be any one thing. Not really wanting to make a choice. And a lot of it, for him, is just a love of knowledge. (I just sorted Lincoln into Ravenclaw, I think. Though he does have some Hufflepuffly moments…)

There were some lines and ideas in Attachments that I really liked, that resonated with me strongly for one reason or another.

“it was like sitting inside a headache”

This is one of the very first things I wrote, and I almost cut it a few times because I worried that the whole section was too belabored. I’m glad you like it!

“He tried to look like someone she didn’t need to worry about so much.” (Says a lot about Lincoln’s character.)

I’ve never given that line a second thought. (It’s about his mom, right?) It’s sad, isn’t it? One of the surprises/delights for me when I was writing was realizing that I could inhabit a character, Lincoln, who was so different from me. When I was writing him, I would start to feel like him and not like me anymore. It was a very weird/cool feeling.

“Sometimes I pray for a bumper crop of zucchini or a good night’s sleep.”

This one is a line that an editor asked me to cut because she thought it sounded silly. But it seemed like exactly the sort of thing that [that character] would pray for. Also, I like thinking about people who have such an intimate relationship with God that they can talk about everyday things in their prayers.

Eve’s ideas about adding good things to the pile instead of trying to fix what’s wrong, just letting the pile of good things grow; and “figure out what’s right with you.”

I have nothing to add to this—other than I think Eve is right.

“Nobody deserves a baby.” I loved this line because it sort of has to sink in for a second before you realize what Beth was saying. It sounds negative at first, then you realize it’s really not.

YES! A baby is a profound thing! And also a completely mundane thing. People have babies whether they deserve them or not, and even people who deserve them don’t really deserve them, you know?

“like a giggle falling off its chair” – Did you have some of these lines written for years, like you thought of them and saved them up for someday when you needed them?

Ha, no I am not so Machiavellian as that. This is another one that an editor asked me to cut. Sometimes the really interesting lines call attention to themselves, and you have to ask yourself whether they’re being distracting. This line survived a major rewrite of that scene. In the end, I kept it because it made sense to me.

One of the only exceptions I can think of is in my next book, Eleanor & Park. One of my very first notes was to have Park say that Eleanor’s body reminded him of a “perfectly made Dairy Queen ice cream cone.” That line survived, but it might be the only thing from my notes that did.

“There’s no air in space.” Perfect ending.

Thank you! I’m so glad you like that ending. A few people really hate it. There’s a very funny Goodreads review of my book that’s like, “WTF does that even mean?!?!”

I know what this line means to me. What does it mean to you?

Too much space in a relationship isn’t breathing room, it’s suffocating.

THIS! YES! That’s exactly what I meant!

I don’t see how you could have meant anything else! Not coming from Lincoln’s mouth, anyway.

I wish I could do this back-and-forth with the author of every book I love. This was fun! Thanks again, Rainbow!

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Would you like to win a copy of the paperback of Attachments for your very own, including a signed bookplate from Rainbow? All you have to do is leave a comment! For fun, tell me one of your favorite book quotes, if you can think of one. If you can’t, that’s okay. I’ll keep the comments open till Friday, March 30th, 2012. I’ll pick a winner using random.org and will notify them via email. If they have not replied within a day or two, I’ll pick another winner.

(If you happen to already own a copy of Attachments and would like a signed bookplate, mention that in the comments too! I’m pretty sure Rainbow would be happy to send you one.)

Comments are now closed. Book winner will be announced shortly!

If you’re in the U.S. and you’ve been to a Target store recently, you might recognize the rainbow in my 7 Days photo. I wish I’d taken a picture of it from another perspective, but I was in a hurry to get Elliora home because it was past her naptime and she was getting very crabby, so I just grabbed this shot very quickly on our way out. It’s a big mobile, for lack of a better word, of strips of colored cardboard in a wave pattern, hanging from the ceiling just inside the entrance.

Coincidentally, I’m doing a book giveaway right now for my friend Rainbow‘s first book Attachments. (See what I did there?) There’s also a review of the book and an interview. Go check it out and leave a comment to win a copy of the book!

If you know me, you know I’m a cake snob. Box mixes are okay, but homemade cakes are my true love. Cake cooked in the microwave, though? I admit, in the past I’ve been seduced by the promise of piping-hot cakey goodness in only a few minutes, or the cuteness of one serving of cake in a coffee mug (and no mixing bowls to wash).

Yet every microwave-cake recipe I had ever tried was a disappointment. My usual response to those recipes now is, Rubbery, unevenly-cooked cake that doesn’t really satisfy any craving? Bleah, no thank you. I’m glad I tried this recipe from Prudent Baby, because I was very pleasantly surprised by how tasty it is. And it’s easy! I’ve made it about five times, tweaking the recipe to suit my tastes, and everyone who has tried it has loved it.

Soften a tablespoon of butter in each mug, 10-15 seconds in the microwave on medium power. You want the butter soft but not melted. (The mug[s] you use can be large or small, it doesn’t really matter. If you use a smallish mug, the finished cake will puff out over the top a little, which is fine.)

Add two tablespoons of sugar and stir till it’s fluffy and creamy.

Pour a little bit of vanilla into each mug. I just eyeballed it, but if you want you could measure out 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla.

This step is optional. If you don’t mind a crumbly cake (or you can’t eat eggs) you can skip it. If you want a chewier, more, uh, cake-like cake then mix in about half an egg per mug. The first time I made these, I happened to have egg yolks in the fridge left over from making an angel food cake, so I just used one yolk per mug. You could also break an egg into a bowl and lightly beat it, then use half of that. Or you could even use a whole egg, if you want. It will just make for a rather dense, eggy cake which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Add two tablespoons of vanilla or plain yogurt (or sour cream, or even sour milk or buttermilk in a pinch) to your mug and stir well.

Mix in 1/4 cup of flour, 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a pinch of salt.

Now for the best part: the streusel topping! In another bowl, for each mug mix together 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Cut 1 tablespoon of cold butter into small bits and add that to the bowl, then use your fingers to rub and smoosh the butter into the flour mixture till it’s well combined. Sprinkle that over the top of the cake batter in the mug.

Stick your mug into the microwave and cook on high for 1 minute, and in additional 10-second increments as needed. In my microwave, one mug of cake is done in 1 minute 20 seconds, and two mugs of cake take about 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Ta-daa! Coffee cake in a mug, in less than ten minutes. Just be sure to let it cool a bit before you eat it. Serve with pickled eggs and pretzels for an excellent late-night supper.

Microwaved Coffee Cake in a Mug
serves 1

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• optional: 1 egg, lightly beaten (or 1 egg yolk or 1 egg white)
• 2 Tbsp vanilla or plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Streusel Topping:

• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp butter

1. In a large or small mug, soften (not melt) butter in microwave for 10-15 seconds on medium.
2. Add sugar and mix till creamy and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla.
4. Stir in the yogurt.
5. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.
6. Make the streusel topping: mix flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add cut-up butter and rub into flour mixture till well-combined.
7. Sprinkle topping over batter in mug.
8. Cook in microwave on high power for one minute, plus additional 10-second increments as necessary. When the cake looks mostly dry, it’s done. Let it sit for a minute to finish cooking.

Annalie drew these teeny portraits of our family on something, and I knew immediately I would use them for return-address labels on our Christmas cards. She draws stuff like this all the time that surprises and delights me. It’s fairly awesome.

You know what else is fairly awesome? You guys are. Thank you for sticking with me and continuing to read through the past year of baby-induced blog neglect; supporting me and saying kind things when I am frustrated or troubled; cheering me up with your funny stories when I need to laugh; and just generally being some of the nicest people on the internets. I wish each and every one of you a happy, healthy new year full of good things. May 2012 be the year you learn to tango, go on your dream vacation, see your kids succeed wildly, eat more vegetables, own your beauty, read life-changing books, find a new favorite drink, or whatever it is you think about when you wish upon a star.

View large.

p.s. New-old banner, by Brenda as always.

The main reason I blog is because Brenda told me to.

:: The End ::

Just kidding. But this post almost could be that short. The main reason I finally started a blog, three years after abandoning the personal website I’d lovingly hand-coded from 1997 to 2004, was because Brenda kept telling me I should do it. She told me that I’m such a writer, and I take good photos, and I should just do it because I would be good at it and have a blast.

I already read and regularly commented on a few blogs, and had been part of the 7 Days community on Flickr for a while, so I knew that it would probably be fun, but I still hesitated, worried that non-internetty friends and relatives wouldn’t understand why I wanted to dedicate a website to talking about my life, that they would see it as a weird, navel-gazing kind of thing to do. I hemmed and hawed for months before I finally took the plunge (assisted by Heather and Jessica‘s excellent tutorials about how to ditch my blogging training wheels) with three posts about making my friends Erin and Rocco’s wedding cakes.

Once I’d started, I wondered why I’d been dragging my feet. Brenda was right; blogging was super fun, and useful! I could post photos and write about what we were up to for my and Troy’s parents, and all the friends and family we lived far away from thanks to the Navy. I could record moments and crafts and recipes I wanted to remember for future reference. I could ask questions and my readers would respond with advice, funny stories, recommendations.

But the best part of being a blogger is how many good friends I’ve made because of my blog. Comments led to emails, to hilarious late-night IM sessions, to in-person meet-ups, to exchanging Christmas cards and care packages, to stopping on road trips for a quick meal of Chinese with old friends I was meeting for the first time. Because of blogging, I have a friend like a sister who will help me unpack my house when I move and come stay with me for three weeks when I’m about to have a baby; and there is a woman in Australia whom I count as one of my best friends, on any continent. Because I blog, I have friends all over the world whom I otherwise never would have met or even known existed.

For a long time, it was seen as slightly shady and downright weird to admit that you had met a friend or significant other online. But as Brenda says (she says lots of good things, which is probably why she’s such a good blogger herself), the internet is better than homeroom. It actually makes more sense to meet friends online in communities you’re both into (blogs, Flickr, Star Trek forums, whatever) than to befriend people who just happen to be sitting next to you in your 3rd-period history class. The internet acts as a filter and leads you to the people who share common traits and values and interests with you. I’ve always had to laugh when I read news articles about the concern that people spending so much time online will lead to them not knowing how to interact with the real world. For me, the internet—including my blog—has been an amazing portal to the real world and some wonderful people.

I’m taking part in a blogging group called Reverb Broads that will be suggesting daily blogging prompts this December. I won’t do it every day, but I’ll be using them occasionally throughout the month as they tickle my fancy. If you want to join in, feel free! Go here or here to learn more.