Having finally dipped my toe into blogspace, I admit to feeling a bit odd, even anxious, about what I’ll use this space for, who my audience will be, whether the whole concept is too narcissistic for words, etc. Yesterday, a life-in-Paris blog that I’ve been lurking at for over a year put up a password block to the site. Today it’s down but the blogger muses about why she should keep her site open to people she doesn’t know, given that this could cause problems in her career and also given that so much about what she writes is personal. Since I read her quite regularly–I’m a bit of a Parisophile and I’m also interested in her experience studying literature in the French academic system plus blogs eventually exert a certain pull of curiosity about exactly those personal details she’s hesitating over–yet never have de-lurked even to say hello, I do wonder what my own expectations might be for my own blog. Why not just stick to a personal journal?
Possible answers to mull over as I keep writing — the accountability I mentioned yesterday; the potential richness of the genre/format, even for a neophyte user — the possibility of being able to organize my thoughts in a medium which seems so flexible, being able to mix photos with a written record of daily events; the chance to keep a record, as I see on so many knitting blogs, of the many projects I keep in a year, and, of course, a chance to keep in touch with family. Except that right now, no one else knows I’m writing this, except the one daughter I mentioned it to in an e-mail (a daughter who had a nasty episode with her own blog re venting and career!)
Anyway, while I’m dipping my toes, I have to do so quickly as I have my nieces and nephew clamoring now to head down to the beach. One of the six-year old twins stood at the back door yesterday evening calling me — I got there to see her soaking wet, with duck weed clinging to her clothes and, thankfully, mostly-dry pigtails. She’d fallen in our fishpond!! Of course, having raised four, I know to be careful about small children and water but given that her older brother was in the yard with her, that she was a supposedly sensible six, and that the pond is surrounded by a wall of plants, etc. etc. I hadn’t even thought of that danger (altho’ I’d warned them off the poisonous daphne berries!). So today I’ll be sticking much closer. They’ll need a good coat of sunscreen on to play at the beach today, so I’d better go. Meanwhile, I’ll be thinking about just what I want to say her and who I might be saying it to.
well now that you’ve outed yourself I get to comment right? looks good so far. I can’t believe one of the girls fell in the pond!! i wouldn’t have thought it was possible. you must have been pretty surprised to see her at the door like that 🙂
i know! i wouldn’t have thought that could happen at 6! dad was especially shaken by the possibilities when I told him and we’re erring on the side of caution now.
And thanks for being my first commenter — I’m having fun, playing around and learning something new. It’s all good.
I can’t believe she fell in the fish pond either…and she is quite embarassed about it…I didn’t hear about it from her of course…her sister finked…:)
Nothing like a little splash in the pond to wake you up…and speaking of waking up thanks for ratting me out to my son as the sleeping babysitter…love your baby sis
let that girl know that we all have embarrassing stories our family loves to remember about us — e.g. the sleeping babysitter — she’s just lucky she got hers young enough that she’s got age to excuse her. Her sister may not be so lucky. . .
and tell her I’ll also remember her great smile and the way she and her sister cleaned their room AND I’ll remember that she read to me from her fairy book.