Oh, to be Pioneer Woman…

I had a post mostly ready yesterday then found myself too stretched for time. (Yeah, yeah, so I used my blogging time to post photos of my little dude on Facebook for friends and family.) Maybe I’ll blame it on Kyddryn’s lovely chicken! (Because, you know, I couldn’t have used her wireless internet to post last night or anything and did I really need that nap I took?)

On to today’s muse – to inimitable The Pioneer Woman. I fully admit that I have only read a very modest portion of her lovely site yet find myself in awe, jealous and ultimately inspired. (Over TEN THOUSAND comments on one post?!? One-zero-comma-zero-zero-zero?!? I know she was giving away a $500 gift card but DANG!) Her photography alone has a special sort of magic that most can only covet. Her storytelling and language is so free and honest and accessible. You literally forget that you’re reading words printed on a cold, unforgiving computer screen. Please, please, if you have not, check her out. (Though I’m almost sure you have, seeing as I’m a bit late in jumping on the bandwagon. Or maybe hers is a chuck wagon, eh?)

I might just have found a new girl-crush…

Insatiable

As of late, I've been experiencing an unsatiable lust for blogging - from reading and writing to commenting and even discussing with blogger friends. Want proof? It's not even 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, when I usually linger in bed until at least 8:00 or 9:00!

I've recently read posts that not only drew commentary from me, but have stayed with me, haunting me with fears, reminding me of pains I'd forgotten, informed me of trials I've yet to experience. Some women's writing has stuck me as so bold and audacious that I could only wish to express myself as they do - stark and clear and no room for weenies OR misinterpretation.

And, inevitably, I begin to feel a bit of blog envy when I see sites with comments consistently in the double or triple digits. I wish them well, wonder how they did it, realize there's a VERY good reason why their sites have made it to the top of the barrel.

For so long (the years are getting hard to count exactly, but more than a decade's worth have expired) I have wanted to earn my "bread and butter" as a writer. For all that time I've managed to forestall my own success by doing one simple thing: NOT writing. My husband has chided me gently (and sometimes stringently), my parents have nudged and supported me, and my dear, dear friends have always encouraged me.

So here I am, feeling great that I've written more posts in the past six days than in the past six weeks, wondering who my audience is (partly because I've forgotten the password to check my statistics), and hoping that I can find the magical key to keep myself relevant in this ever expanding and contracting blogiverse.

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P.S. Thank the Heavens for Autosave - I thought at one point when I was adding the links that I'd locked the browser up and was going to lose this post. I recalled that Autosave was one the job, took a deep breath, and patiently waited to see whether the page I was trying to load was just taking longer than the expected 2.5 seconds. (So impatient am I before sunrise.) It took just under thirty mind-exploding seconds and finally "DONE" appeared. Phew!