2 Years

Ye Olde Batt has now been in existence for 2 whole years.  Just a baby when you think about how many blogs are out there and how many blogs posts you can read if you wanted to.... actually that's dumb.... you would be like Rip Van Winkle if you tried to read every blog post out there except you wouldn't be asleep (well maybe you would be depending on some blogs I've seen)!

So why do I blog? Well, it started out very simply. I had a friend who was posting family pictures on hers so that all of her far-away-family could keep track of her close-by-family. It was kind of cool. I thought, well shit, if she can do it then it mustn't be really hard or scary. I looked into what was involved with Teapot looking over my shoulder. Ok!!! So when I realized it would require discipline, I wasn't sure I wanted to set up a blog, but during university I kept a journal for three long years. I was very good about it and pretty much wrote every day. I've always enjoyed writing and have fooled around with the idea of getting some of my stuff published, I've even gone so far as to send off a few of my better pieces in the effort. I've had one poem published in a collection of Canadian poetry and I've had some interest in a children's story. But for all intents and purposes I'm really only fooling around with it. I'm not a serious writer. I don't have the ability to sit for hours at this gadget and think creatively about the English language. It makes my eyes cross over if I try to work at it for more than an hour or two.  But a blog seemed to be ideal for my writing interests.

Some days I have felt funny. Some days I have felt daunted by the vast whiteness before me. Some days I've been reflective. Some days I've been weird. But through it all I've learned... and quite honestly that's the best of what I've gotten from this blog. I can now navigate my way through the internet and do things on here that I would never have thought possible when I first started. More and more I am willing to put my a-- on the line and make comments that might tick people off. (Like yesterday!) I really try not to be offensive, but I do try to state my beliefs (and they are mine, rightly or wrongly) with aplomb. It's not always easy because I keep thinking that I might be influencing someone else and that's a huge responsibility. But as time goes by I do feel a little easier about it... though I really don't want to offend anyone. Really! Really!

It also has been a pleasure though to meet some of my followers. As I get to know people I realize that the internet is just another way to reach out to the world around me. Because I am studying for 6 years my Master Spinner program and it takes so much time, because I live in a rural environment, sometimes I feel closed off from those with whom I usually have contact. But it has brought me closer to family who live far away (and don't register as followers but are faithful all the same), it has given me opportunities to meet online some people who have become followers, it has given me a way to share laughs with people who know my family and see me all the time. It has been a way to let you know me too.

Sometimes I will say things here that I am too shy to say in person. Sometimes I get foolish when I would never do stuff like that in person just because conversation doesn't allow you to be crazy (without people thinking you belong in a straight jacket) but in writing, it doesn't have the same affect.  I like to make people laugh, but in a crowd I will stay silent and just be the watcher in the corner. Sometimes writing here gets me out of my own mind. (remember that?)

In all the time Ye Olde Batt has been online, I've written over 450 posts. That's a lot. But what's really cool is that I can see the progression of my family, progression of my work, progression of who I am becoming.... and progression sometimes can be a ghostly thing. You think its happening, but you're not really sure. It takes ten or fifteen years before you can see the changes that have come in your life because it is so slow. You know you have changed but then when you think back over the years you're not really sure when the changes happened. But by keeping a blog, there is a record... and it is without a doubt very cool to look back and read some of my old posts.  I didn't know I could be so funny. I didn't know I could be so smart... I didn't know I couldn't spell... I didn't know I was so stupid.

I've enjoyed it, am enjoying it, and hope to continue to enjoy it. I hope you will join me in my/our journey...

I really didn't mean for this post to be so serious. I really wanted to say some funny things that would make you all smile. Everyone likes to smile. But hang in there maybe tomorrow I will write about Sammy Tilley's goat.... or the dust bunnies..... or the cow pies that hit my mother's lemon meringue pie... or the time I told my mother  that I wanted to get in bed a snuggle with her and God (I was five years old)... or the time Daughter #2 got fillings (in your teeth) and feelings mixed up.... maybe I'll show some great pictures of things I'm making... who knows what will happen next... But I hope you'll come back and join me on this ride.... it's a great ride... you know... you're on it too. It's called life!