Tuesday, April 01, 2014

I've been considering hanging it up

For a while I've been thinking that this blog has passed its sell-by date.  First, I'm more repressed.  Iris and Lola are old enough not to want to be written about, and therefore I no longer can report on their wacky ways freely.  I maneuver about this by often telling a story but not specifying which child it is about, but frankly I'm passing up on the best material out of not wanting to alienate them.  As one of them put it, "When I was little, I thought it was great that you were a blogger..."  Significant pause.

Secondly, you readers are more repressed (or not reading, sigh).  There used to be a lively give-and-take in the comments, with regular personalities become celebrities of this blog.  Now I rarely see a comment.  The stats show that people are still reading -- they just don't seem to have anything to say.  It makes me feel like this is a ghost town of a blog.

But then every now and then something happens that makes me feel appreciated and like this is worthwhile.  I have been occasionally recognized in public ("Hey!  Are you the Drunken Housewife?"), and yesterday a mom of one of Lola's friends invited me out for coffee.  Over our caffeinated drinks, she confided that a friend of hers had called her to discuss something she'd read on my blog.  My mom acquaintance didn't know about the blog, and her friend said, "Everyone knows the Drunken Housewife!"  My acquaintance looked up the blog and then realized, "I think I know this person!"  As I sipped my low-fat latte, she said, "I liked you before, but now I like you more.  I had no idea."

This kind of moment keeps me blogging in the half-assed way that you must have become accustomed to.  Is half an ass better than none?