Happy Blog Birthday

Break out the bubbly - Lori MacBlogger turns two years old today!

To celebrate, I thought I would swallow my vanity for a minute, and lead you to a horribly embarrassing picture of me at ten years old, smack in the middle of my "awkward phase", posted by City Wendy as part of her new "Ugly Phase" blogging series. Yes, I sent her this picture. Why, I don't know. I was probably drunk.

[Aside: I discovered City Wendy maybe six months ago, and she is one of my blogging inspirations, one, because she is a fabulous writer, and two, because she is also doing the long-distance thing with a guy in New York. (Hello? Where were all these guys when I lived there?)]

Anyway, her post has kicked a lot of traffic my way today, and I can tell from Sitemeter that a number of those people have almost immediately then clicked on my Photo Album, to the right, as if to see whether I still look like that, or to make sure that I don't. (I don't. And if I did, you can bet that ice cream sandwiches would be the least of my problems.)

I would say that if Blogging, year one, was all about connecting with my family and friends back east, then year two has definitely been about connecting with new people, fellow bloggers. This year I have been so fortunate as to have gained readers outside of my immediate circle, and not only are people reading, but they have brought me into their lives, as well. Every morning when I get into work, I have a list of bloggers I need to check up on; when I get home from work, I cover the bases again. Some bloggers argue that you aren't supposed to blog with other readers in mind - it's about the writing; others claim that narcissism is the only reason to blog in the first place. I think I have covered both bases, and all I can say right now is that blogging is fun, it feels right.

For year three, I have two goals. One is to meet many of the bloggers who comment here in person. I am already attached emotionally, have made them my friends on MySpace - I think it's time to make this deal official. The second is to actually improve my writing. Learn how to tell a story, recite a narrative, get my thoughts across without tripping over semantics and pedantics. One will be easy; two, I'm not sure how I am going to make happen.

Let's just hope it's not as awkward as I look in that photo.