I’ve decided to accept a blog challenge to post every day for the entire month of November. Considering that I’ve been averaging a post a week the past few months, that’s going to be a lot of posting! I am excited about it though, because I’ve been a bit miffed at myself for letting things slip blogwise. I used to have a pretty big reader base, a reader base who left gratifying little comments even on really stupid entries where I knew they were just humoring me because I clearly needed the attention. Now the awesome handful of dedicated Lou Fan’s (Hi Mom!) make me work for my feedback. I accept that. No where in the blogging world are comments expected- but I want to request that during the month of November, while I will be doing my best to regale you with crazy stories and scrappy goodness, you support me by dropping an extra comment or two. For some of you, that will mean de-lurking. For others, it’ll mean three comments a month instead of one, and for a select few, well, you’ll have to start leaving multiple comments on each post - ha- no, just kidding there.

I have been learning about my lurkers lately. When you think about it, the fact that I have people who drop on by, read and leave, it is a little strange. The other day one of my friends informed me that there were people on base who I don’t know who read my blog. They thought I might be a little weirded out by that, but not really. I am what I am, and my ability to put it all out there is just part of who I am. While it can create a sense of vulnerability, it also empowers. I may bitch about subjects that leave others a little ticked off, but at least I’m being honest. I am pretty open with the fact that I’m a less than stellar mother. I never say I don’t try, just that no one is going to give me any Mommy of the Year awards any time soon. I think the fact that I’m willing to say, “Here I am. I am imperfect. I am real.” is why people like me.

I’ve run into a few blogs lately that are all sweetness and sugar. I tend to be suspicious of the people I meet who seem uber together and just thrilled with life at all times. The mothers who you really think never raise their voices and always remember to serve a vegetable with dinner sometimes creep me out. I want to know that Cheerios ground into the carpet and a weedy garden are normal. I want to know that everyone else is growing and learning and progressing, just as I am. So what I’m saying is that by putting only what’s great about me out there on my blog, I’m really not doing anyone any favors. Not my reader, and not myself. I firmly believe that literature ought to humanize. A blog is one of the more modern forms of literature, and if doesn’t broaden your perspective on humanity, if it doesn’t make you delve deeper into your frame of consciousness and create new exceptions for how you define your world- then why bother? I’m not saying that a writer needs to be philosophizing about the dark mysteries of the world to find deeper meaning in our puny little lives. I’m saying that a person should be looking at the everyday and finding the divine. I’m saying that there is purpose in the little things. I think that my purpose in writing is to find that ordinary is obsolete. There is humor and depth in mediocrity and in the mundane, it just needs to be acknowledged, and that is what I do here.

So, now that I’ve let my mind wander, and taken you along for the ride, let me say thanks for being here and sharing this with me. November is going to be wild. If you have any requests, just ask in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.