Oh yes. This isn’t my first rodeo. Back in the mid 2000’s, my sistah friend Stephanie made me get an email address (I resisted, she insisted), and we both started clever blogs. Back then, it was how you saw what your friends were thinking about and any creative goo that was falling out of their heads. Think Facebook, only without the nasty, voyeuristic narcissism. Anywho, we did some pretty fun stuff there, and even wrote a few posts that prompted serious contemplation. We bookmarked our favorite blogs (no feeds back then sister), which consisted solely of people we personally knew, and as time and life ran on, it outpaced our interest in typing out our personal musings.
Which brings me to this morning.
Katie, the aforementioned oldest child, whipped up this blog in the span of a few hours last night. She even went back to my old blog (it’s still there!!) and started moving old posts over here! I don’t remember agreeing to ANYTHING. Our conversation went something like this:
Katie (use a higher pitched, pushy teenage girl voice) - “Mom, you really should write a blog. I’m sure you’d have fun with it.”
She begins pulling up some blog template site on her computer, (did you know they had those? I didn’t.) creating the very blog you’re looking at.
Me (use a sophisticated, kind womanly voice) – “Gee honey, I don’t know, I already have a lot to do. Sounds like another commitment to me.
K – “Oh no! It’ll be just for fun! You can write once a week – it’ll take like 30 minutes tops. You don’t have 30 minutes to do something you enjoy?”
Me – “Well, I do like writing, but I’m already doing stuff I enjoy. I wasn’t really shopping around for a new hobby.”
She then begins asking me questions about myself…”What’s your favorite food? What’s your favorite color? How many children do you have?”
Trying to be an accommodating mother, I good-naturedly began my answers:
“Well I do love steak and pasta and seafood, but you know a good salad with croutons and cheese is a wonderful meal. Actually, steak or pasta or seafood ON a salad is even better. Of course I don’t guess you meant what I like for dessert right? I could give you some answers that go that direction too…are you getting all this?”
She typed stuff out, picked out colors, forced me to give ideas for a blog name/subtitle, made me decide which sidebars and menus and barrettes and jewelry to put on the thing. I patiently tried to please her every wish. And before I knew it, she was trying to announce at supper that I was an authoress. Of course, I smiled ingratiatingly at her and said, “Please pass the croutons”.
She continued to tell me how she could help me get more viewers or trackers or readers or whatever. I say again, I don’t remember agreeing to ANY of this. But that’s okay, I thought. I’ll just let her have fun setting this up and humor her tonight. I reminded myself that this was a way I could help my daughter stir up her creative juices. I hoped she had thoroughly enjoyed this little design session.
And then I woke up this morning an hour before my alarm, (our youngest, Polly, consistently screeches cheerfully at 6:30 every am) and guess why I couldn’t roll over and enjoy that last blissful snoozy hour? I was thinking about my first new blog post.
Pushy girl.
