Monday, September 1, 2008

Free Again!

Phew! I couldn't figure out what was stifling me, closing me off from being able to write. And then it came to me.
About a week ago, I had the oh-so-brilliant idea to upload my blog posts into Facebook. Bad idea. Very, very bad idea.
I'm not a complete idiot. I know anyone can find my blog if they want. I know anyone can read what I write here. But it's still a choice for people to do so. Allowing it to come up like that...I don't know. It was changing everything for me.
Like any self-respecting blogger, I want people to read my blog. At the same time, I want people to want to read it. I don't want them to just read it because it happens to be right in front of them.
I don't know. I don't know if any of this is making sense, but it makes sense to me anyway.
It's not that I'm scared to be me. I don't think. I just didn't like feeling as vulnerable as that one little action was making me feel.
So now I'm back to feeling like this space is mine again.
We had a nice 3-day. We spent most of it at home, listening to music, watching Lost, cleaning (oh yeah, that...) and generally relaxing.
Yesterday, we were out and about. My parents and I took the girls to see Mamma Mia again; this time, the sing-along version. Riley loved it. Sylvia, on the other hand, was embarrassed because we were singing at a sing-along. Yeah, whatever, you tween!
Afterward, we headed to Bubba Gump Shrimp in Santa Monica. My parents had shown them Forrest Gump when they were on vacation, so the girls were anxious to try it. Sylvia kicked some serious butt on the waitress' trivia quiz. Not only has she inherited my love of useless entertainment trivia, I think she's actually taken my memory since I have none anymore.
They've also started a new saying. You know how people say, "seriously" or "actually?" Well, they've started using "literally." I'm trying to teach them the proper meaning, but of course, Miss Sylvia is having none of that. I'm just exasperating her.
So we'll see how this week goes.
I've got another school incident in the works, but I'll wait to blog about that until after tomorrow night at our 6th grade parents meeting.
To all of you just starting your school year...well, I wish you all the best!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you figured it out!!

Because as much as we love your pictures, we missed your words!!

Laski said...

I literally have a ton of things to say. Not correct . . .

But, sounds cool, doesn't it?

A TON. WOW. That is a lot.

What I do have to say, we don't have a Bubba Gump Shrimp, or a Target, or a Starbucks. And, I ACTUALLY must SERIOUSLY stop whining . . .

Shiona said...

Ooh I always wanted to go to that Bubba Gump Shrimp Place. I love shrimmp. Everytime we wet to the beach I wanted to go. I'm glad you figured out the cause of your writing issue. I can totally understand ou wanting people to want to read your blog. Glad you guys had a great three day weekend.

Loth said...

Goody! Words, words and more words. Bizarrely, sometimes I can only blog if I pretend NO-ONE is going to read it. I'm shy in a not-very-shy-at-all way!

Jen said...

April, I couldn't agree more about the facebook thing. I don't even LIST my blog there, but that's because so many of my students have "caught" me on facebook and I want to keep my blogging and teaching separate. It's not that I write anything that I'd be ashamed of in any way, but you know, it's nice to have some space that's sacrosanct.

I hope all goes well at the open house tonight. Stand your ground! ;-)

Huge hugs.

Suzie said...

I wanna try Bubba's but i dont eat shrimp will that work?

Anonymous said...

It makes perfect sense! I'm so glad that you have found your way back.....I missed reading your insights!

FreedomFirst said...

Lol about Sylvia stealing your memory! I think Andy has stolen mine.

Anonymous said...

Love me some Bubba Gump! You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find good seafood here in NYC.

My friends little boy is hooked on the word "actually."
Me: How are you today?
Little boy: Actually, I'm good!

I'm glad you found your writing mojo again!

Anonymous said...

Ooops! I meant "friend's".

Unknown said...

I feel the same way about Facebook. I used to get a ton of hits from listing and syndicating my posts there and then had the same realization as you just had.

Now, my Facebook is totally generic. No mention of Huckdoll or my blog..nothing. Tons of fellow bloggers still manage to find me there though...it's a little odd, but I'm okay with that :)

Your blog changed since the last time I was here! I like!

Anonymous said...

Had my first Bubba Gump on Maui---can you believe that? I go to Hawaii and eat Bubba Gump BUT, I also had the opportunity to see a whale do a FULL BREECH while eating at old Bubba's!

I adamantly REFUSE to do Facebook and all that other stuff. I am as exposed as I choose to be and frankly, if anyone wants to know about me, you can actually Google me and there is plenty on there about me!

I got into blogging kind of as a therapeutic thing....I like to know that people are reading and find me a tad interesting...but what I really like is to just write, period. I suspect I will never have a real following because I am not a 'themed' blogger, but I really don't care about that....I just want to write...about anything that comes to mind.

Glad you're here!

Mozi Esme said...

No! I love the word "literally." Don't let them mess it up for me!

OHmommy said...

I totally know what you are trying to say about blogging. Many of my closest friends still do not know. I do want them to read. I just have a hard time letting people know because I dont want them to feel obligated.

BusyDad said...

I am a closet Abba fan. And yes, I saw the singalong version, and I liked it. I won't live that one down now will I? Your Facebook conundrum is the same way I feel about Stumbleupon. I get TONS of visits from there, but I often wonder how many of those people actually become regulars. Maybe 2 total in a year? and the pics of the horsies were nice. As you know, I'm a big fan of the "put up a pic and say something semi-witty to enhance it" post.