First Dot

In college I took a course on the Internet (this was pre-Facebook), and a major part of the course requirements was that I had to maintain an active blog. It was such a drag. Writing for the sake of participation is beyond forced, and I sort of felt dirty knowing that my professor was reading my posts everyday. So my blog was a drag. I gave it up the second the semester ended.

Now I think about participation in a totally different way. I work from home and I live in a very rural area where I know a handful of people. For me, participating is anything I want it to be that day; whether that means getting dressed, arranging to visit friends, completing an assignment, or baking all day. This is not as luxurious as it sounds. It's very easy to feel like I've spent all day rattling around inside my house with nothing to show for it.

I am very good at keeping in touch with the people I care about, and I'm not ashamed to admit that most of that communication happens online. I spent the first 2 weeks I lived in Oklahoma at the Burger King 10 miles down the road because it was the only place that had wireless internet and mine was not yet set up. It only seems natural that so much of my product--the result of my days spent puttering around my little acre of land--appears online. I send pictures and video of my son to family via YouTube and Facebook; I send and receive assignments from clients through various FTP sites; and I spend an embarrassing amount of time looking up recipes and gardening tips...mostly while I'm elbow deep in flour or soil. I've noticed lately how I seem to get "stuck" on other people's blogs, scrolling endlessly backwards through their posts as I learn more than I ever intended to.

So. I guess what I'm trying to say is that in an attempt to not live life in a vacuum, I'm going to blog. I'm not one for scrapbooking or photo albums (did we ever get one printed of our wedding? Um, that's a big no.) but I do love progressions. You could probably call me a line graph kinda girl. Here is my first dot.