I'm a big girl now

Let me set the scene for you: Jex on one side of the couch with his laptop and me on the other side stretched out so my feet are in his lap and only the backside of my laptop is visible to him.

Jex: "Whatcha doin'?"
Me: "Blogging"
Jex: "Oh... I can't wait to read it!"
Me: " Ohh... ummm... I'm blogging on my 'big girl blog'. Sorry."
Jex: "I'd really like to read that someday. I enjoy reading what you write; there's something about it."
Me: "Yea, maybe someday."

I used to blog over on MySpace but I started to feel suffocated. I couldn't express myself like I really wanted to. I have some great people in my life who know who I am and what I'm about but then there are others who don't and I feel they don't really need to which in turn, causes a lot of hurt feelings. There are so many features on MySpace that just inhibited me. End of discussion.

Now my friend Nora, who is a very private person, started talking about blogging and that made me think. (I mean she is so private, it just about takes putting a shotgun to her head to get her to talk. Nora would rather internalize everything and go into sensory overload trying to process it. I don't know how she does it, but if she can "big girl blog", I can do it too.)

So back to the making me think part.

I could join the actual blogging world and leave behind some things. It would almost be like an alter ego, dual personality, whatever you'd like to call it thing. This would be my way of dealing with life's junk. Now, should those people stumble upon my blog, they have no one to blame but themselves and their excessive curiosity!

I'm using my real name, just a little modified obviously. I have my picture posted so denying my identity is near impossible. Then to protect the innocent and save my house and car from getting egged and toilet papered or myself from possible future lawsuits, names have been changed and/or altered.

Some days I want to be able to spit and sputter about that annoying cashier or that one particular student who chews chips with his mouth open and creates an insane amount of noise while being in the QUIET study area. Some days I need to be able to rant about the non-romantic antics of Jex and how sometimes he just doesn't get it or maybe I want to go ga-ga and drool over that H.H. manager. *swoon*

Living in Artic Tundra, Small Town America blogging on that particular social network could create severe tension should those become my topics of interest.

So with that, I'm curious how many people keep their blogs anonymous or do they put it all out there? Are your readers people you know/known or have you started fresh and picked up random readers along the way and let them into your life when you've barely enabled the people in your life in?

I don't know the exact direction I plan on going yet. Maybe I'll keep it the way it is, some exposed, some not. I could just possibly be over analyzing this.

Nora, whom I referred to earlier, knows about my blog, has even left me rockin' comments, and is an actual friend. I'm talking a living and breathing organism. I cannot forget to mention she lives less than a block away so we experience this cold weather hell together. Yay!

But as for the rest of my world, they've been left in the dark.


Do your friends, family, significant other know about your blog? Has it helped or hindered your relationships?