Seven

For Val:

1. I was a blogger long before there were blogs. When I read The Artist's Way - way back in the '80's, instead of writing morning pages, I developed a practice of writing between four and eight paragraphs, accompanied by an illustration (drawing or something I'd clipped out of a magazine or a photograph). I did this practice every day for so many years. I've got closets-full of these "essayettes" as I called them. By the time blogging was born, I was all the way into the groove already.

2. I've had two blogs. The first one, The Gold Poppy, was a very personal account of my life, life history and experiences "good" and "bad." After three years I quit that blog, finally deleting the last of the posts a few months ago. It felt so cleansing when I tapped the "delete this blog" button. Ahhhhh!

3. It's really fun to meet bloggers in "real" life. When the DC blogging scene was in full gear (thanks to k.o.b. of DCBlogs, Washington Cube, and Kathryn ... can't remember her ex-blog's name) I went to a couple of happy hours and met all kinds of nice, interesting people, all of whom really detest typos. Still, on a regular basis, I meet up with various local bloggers for coffee or lunch. It's so easy to meet bloggers because the conversation is already ongoing. You don't have to go through any of the preliminaries because you already know the world through their blog eyes. Very cool! If you've never met a blogger you didn't already know, give it a try.

4. I've formed actual, full-on friendships with a handful of local blog buddies and a couple of New York bloggers. There are other bloggers, very very far flung, with whom I have a heart-connection unlike anything I've formed within other friendships. I love the network of blogging!

5. I looked at my stats just once, on the old blog. It freaked me out so much I never looked again.

6. I struggle with the idea of blog awards. Don't get me wrong - whenever someone bestows me with an award I am so surprised and deeply honored, and I'm happy whenever my blog friends receive awards. But - for me, one of the wonderful things about blogging is that it isn't always a stellar medium for expression. I love watching the contours of my blog friends' posts - sometimes great, sometimes kind of blah (just like the trajectory of this blog). Blogging is a profoundly human form of expression. It reminds me of the way people during the 19th century all played music and sang, whether they were good or not. I love that.

7. I SUCK at memes. Usually when I'm tagged (something that pleases me to no end), I think "OK - I'll do a great job with this meme." But then I fall flat with every attempt to be clever or cool. Theme blogs are very difficult for me, too. Maybe just because I am such a contrarian, who knows?

I do love reading the meme responses of other bloggers, so I gave this one my best shot. Thanks for tagging me, Val!