How did we get here?

This post is dedicated to Average Jane who is anything BUT Average.

This is not a milestone post. I am only nearing 250 posts total and I think I still have a total of like 3 regular readers. My husband has questioned me often on this peculiar hobby of mine asking “when will you make any money?” I just laugh and tell him that he totally missed the point. Because he DID miss the point. If I didn’t think blogging was important to me before Arun was born, I certainly am aware of it now. These first 2 months of 2006 were very hard - some Really Crummy things happened and one Truly Horrific thing happened (although not directly to us). Blogging has been a great release - particularly on those days when it seems Arun -or even ME, for that matter - will never stop crying. Anyway, I have been thinking about how all of this began.......

The very first blog I got hooked on was Throwing Things - it’s a great mish mash of Pop culture, TV, sports, music, celebrity gossip. It’s not your normal blog and nearly every day they provide some sort of link worth following. I have been reading it for nearly 3 years now. If you are an Amazing Race fan, they have some of the best commentors out there the next day when the episodes are recapped. Actually, they have some of the greatest core of commentors around - it's one of the few blogs where I take the time to read all of the comments. Coincidently, one of the contributors’ wife is authoress Jennifer Weiner’s husband, which is how I found HER.

Then, sometime during 2004, I started to get interested in the infertility blogs. After all, I was told for years I would have issues having a kid, so I wanted to “get ready” for when X and I were going to start trying in December 2005. Yes, YES, I know now there is no way to “get ready” and furthermore, I feel pretty fucking stupid because I ended up having no issues. Anyway, this is where my blog obsession really started to ramp up. The icing on the cake was when Average Jane started her blog in February 2004. It was so much fun reading her blog, that I had to wonder how much fun it would be write one myself. The original intent of Rancid Raves was to do a copycat version of Throwing Things - I would just put various links regarding things I thought were interesting and leave it at that. Hence the name - Rancid Raves. It’s a play on the term “rants and raves” but implies (correctly) that I am always and forever behind on everything cool. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would become an Identity blogger and actually WRITE about what was going on in my teeny, tiny life. However, I was traveling at the time I started the blog and didn’t have time to surf the ‘Net for cool stuff. I felt I had to post something so that the crickets chirping wouldn’t overwhelm any casual clickers wandering to my blog.

So, that's how I got here. It still amazes me that I am blogging - I wondered if I would stop once Arun was born - either for the lack of time or interesting posting material. Still not sure about the "interesting" part of the posting material, but I do give blogging priority over many other things these days - say, TV for instance. I am also amazed that I DID end up being a Mommy Blogger after all and that really, I don't mind it. After last year's BlogHer, I posted about my thoughts on being a Mommy Blogger, I guess there is no looking back, now. I almost feel sorry for Arun, but on the other hand, I am providing sustenance and shelter for the little ingrate. He can suck it up and take it like a man.

Regarding my yesterday's pondering of self-censorship, I decided to leave things as they are. I probably won’t do another blog. At one point, I did have another blog where I was allowing myself to be “naked”, but it was too much work to maintain two blogs, so I let the other one die. Although, I may not censor myself, I will reconsider some of the monikers I have appointed people - for example, I think calling my maternal grandmother Evil Leavenworth Grandma took it a bit too far, particularly if people don’t realize the sarcasm involved. She is not truly evil, just EXTREMELY thoughtless to the point that you scratch your head in disbelief and wonder whether she realizes what she is doing (Note: the jury is still out on that one).

So, there it is - The Story of Me.