Tricia's going to attempt to blog . . .

So I've been wondering what I could say on a blog that would be of interest to any one but me . . . seems like a 'Dear Diary' type thing but public. As I'm not a "writer" it's certainly not to exercise my art- so maybe it's just to exercise my ego. The web social media thing is still a weird voyeuristic experience for me- getting peeks into the lives of others, sometimes with a little interaction with a comment here and there, or joining into a flurry of comments with others, or not sometimes not participating at all- just observing. I shouldn't question the "why" as it's probably the same primal human instinct that compels us to rubberneck on the highway when someone has been pulled over by the CHP or why we take the time to vote for our favorite couples on Dancing with the Stars or why we watch any reality TV at all. Have Americans evolved into a culture of rubberneckers? We spend our lives craning our necks to get a peek into the lives of others? I don't change my Facebook status very often, or post a lot of pictures and videos on the web, and I don't spend a ton of time looking at those posted by others. But I do like Facebook as it provides the ability to occasionally see pics from life events and vacations, or keep track of who's kids are doing what, as well as even what people are planning to cook for dinner. It helps me feel connected in a world that's growing very small and yet very desensitized and impersonal.

I do follow a few bloggers- if you can call "following" checking in once a month or so. The top 5 topics that interest me:

1. Friends that have blogs (Lisa T- paper cup poet, Tiffany C- sharp mother tongue, Wayne- poet and chemist, and Shannon- strong mama)
   
2. parenting/ motherhood
3. weight loss
4. cooking and baking (ah and there's the rub on #3)
5. crafty-creativeness (that I can envy but don't have time for)

And my dirty secret- an Honorable Mention goes to boring business topics that I love, but few others that I know would care about- like business architecture, process improvement, data analysis and visualization.

So back to the original question- why would I want to hang out my thoughts on the laundry line . . . what do I want to get out of my experience as a blogger?

1. I'd like to memorialize some of the great things that happen and some of our triumphs and moments of creative genius- so I have something to make me smile when the times are tough. I can also hope that someday my kids will read them and it will help them smile too. Maybe they won't do it until they have kids of their own- but that would be ok too.
2. I feel compelled to create some sort of record- maybe just for my own ego- but what if I were hit by a bus (or in the suburbs more likely a bicycle or wayward car) I want my kids to have some insight as to the person that I was. Not just the mom that told them 'no' and ruined their good times.
3. I want a place that I feel free to create lists but not waste paper and post-its (I'm a Taurus born in the year of the Ram and an ISTJ- which maybe is all related or maybe it means nothing. I'm clearly a planner and a list creator any my purse is forever full of scraps of paper reminders.)
   
4. I want a place to record the steps of any creative genius in progress in our household . . . so others who have limited time and terrible work-life balance know that it is possible to squeak out a good project periodically.
5. I want a place to feel free to record some of the bad and challenging things too. And maybe occassionally a friend will comment to share their own challenges . . .