It's My [Blog] Birthday And I'll Say What I Want To

So here it is, my sixth blogiversary, and it's not the joyous occasion a blog anniversary usually is. At least it doesn't feel like it to me. Because, you see, I have something to get off my chest, and I've realized that I cannot write another half-decent post without first shedding this. It's a long one, and I'm not kidding about that. If you want to stay and read, you might want to empty your bladder and buckle up your seatbelt.

I'm not here today to have a contest, to ask for your eleventeen-thousand comments so you can win a prize and I can have my ego stroked, or to have a generous giveaway. I am here today to buck the trend of the usual sappy blogiversary post about how much I love this blog. I'm just a rebel that way, and I'm tired and cranky and in pain and put off, and I frankly need the catharsis. 

I have written almost every day for six years. It should be obvious: I love the blog and I love my readers. Love them and respect them and need them in that symbiotic way that maybe only another blogger can understand. I have built up strong personal relationships with many, many of my readers. I cherish the real-life and "imaginary" friends I've gained, and all the other fun and interesting things that have happened to me as a result of this venture. 

Oops, now I'm drifting away from my thesis. Aw, fuckit.

In the past week I've gone for long walks, I've had long chats with some of my most important confidants both in person and in emails, I've gone for massages, I've taken time away from the internet. I've spent a good deal of time thinking about this. And I've come to the conclusion that it's just as I thought: Some people are asses, and they're not gonna get any better.

I can be an ass, too, of course. I'm sure I have been many times --inadvertently and, I suppose, purposely.

This medium is a weird one. I'm not sure exactly how long it's going to last. There are the truly noteworthy bloggers who make Big Money through their blogs. There are the ones who try to make big money, and fail, and abandon their blogs in relatively short order. There are business blogs and political blogs and various other types of blogs. There are lots and lots of paid blogs or bloggers who blog only for money or to promote their products or promote themselves in some way.

What the hell am I? The hobby blogger. Hm. What am I doing it for? It's an outlet, it's a way to relate to lots of great people, it's a way to practice writing. But I don't write highbrow stuff, or even great lowbrow stuff, and I really don't think that my writing has improved over the past six years. I reckon I have my very good days, but they are few. It's sort of a journal or a memoir in the making, I suppose, but why? I don't really know. I'm apparently a verrrrry sloooooww worrrrk in progress. I spend a hell of a lot of time on this thing, trying to use it to do good, to run it sensitively and ethically and really a lot like a business. But it's only a hobby.

Over time, I've made a few missteps in this blog. I've used the word "retarded." That bothered a few people, some of whom are good friends and they sensitively and sensibly brought to my attention why it bothered them that I used that term, we talked it out, and we are still good friends. We do things with and for each other, and we support each other, both outside and inside the blog world. 

In contrast to that, at least one person delurked from out of the ether just long enough to tell me that while she had been reading my blog for a long time and loved most everything I wrote and loved seeing my stories about her birthplace, that it was inexcusable that I had used that term. None of my explanations worked for her, things escalated in our correspondence to the point that she made veiled threats to me about possibly using legal action to get me to remove the offending language (to which I said -- I think this is a direct quote -- "Pffffffffft"), and as far as I know, she no longer reads here. 

It is doubly irritating when someone opens a complaint with, "I have been a faithful reader and love everything you have done for the last three years, but this one thing, THIS ONE LITTLE THING, bugs me enough that, although I have never commented to say GOOD JOB or I'M ENJOYING YOU ever before, I AM coming out of the mists to heckle you when you have missed the mark just this ONE TIME."

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, people.

One time I passed along a post that someone sent me that I thought was funny at first, but it hurt the feelings of some of my readers, and I realized in the end that it might not be all that funny to many. But it WAS FUNNY, in an over-the-top kind of way, in its ridiculousness. But some people were hurt, so I took it down. I regret that now. 

I know my readers well enough that there will be many inquiring minds out there, so to quell the curiosity, it was this. I don't care what you say -- it IS funny. It is well written, it is over the top, it is ridiculous and inflammatory, and smart, and true in places and not true in places, and it is funny. If there is a version out there (seems like there must be) that is the "Fuck the North" equivalent and I saw it, and if it were well written, I'd think it was funny and I might well post it. But we Damn Yankees are more like the British -- we know how the hell to laugh at our own foibles. 

Here is what I really don't like and I really have no room for in this space, which I pay for and which is MINE: People who do not have a sense of humor. Or maybe I just don't like people who don't have the same sense of humor I do. 

I, for instance, do not think, for even the time difference between a gold and silver medal in short-track speed-skating, that any of that "oh, that kid just fell off a roof straight onto his face" kind of America's-Funniest-Home-Videos humor is funny. I do not think fart jokes are funny. I do not think toilet humor is funny. But thousands of people do. 

Apparently some people think my finger is just NOT ON THE PULSE of what is funny. So be it. But I reiterate: I pay for this space, and it is mine. I do not ask for a thing in return. 

I have a strong sense of gallows humor. I worked in the courtroom for what seems like a hundred years. There (or rather, behind the scenes in the anterooms of the courtroom) you have to laugh or you'll die. Same with the operating room or the pathology lab or the morgue. 

I love over-the-top brainy humor. I love tongue-in-cheek humor. I love ethnic humor and even blonde jokes. I used to be a blonde. It was the self-deprecation that I loved, NOT poking fun at someone ELSE, but poking fun at mySELF. I looooooooooovvvvvvvvvvve self-deprecating humor. I love cultures and people that poke fun at themselves -- the British, the Jewish, the Canadians, even (maybe especially -- one degree of separation, ya know!) the rednecks. I love pro-male/anti-male and pro-female/anti-female humor, as long as it's smart and perceptive of the human condition, and I love humor wherein we poke fun at our own aging or our own sexual inadequacies. I love off-color humor at times, and I love farcical and stupid humor, as long as it's so stupid it's actually smart.

People who are so literal and flat that they can't laugh at themselves or ever laugh at others without thinking it's ALWAYS MEAN? They can go jump off a cliff and get out of my blog. Seriously. 

IN PARTICULAR, it is NOT OK to lurk silently, to be entertained by my musings day after day -- even if the only reason you are lurking is because you think it's train-wreckish -- and not build a relationship with me to say hello once in a while so I at least recognize your name -- and THEN one day, because I make one comment or post one post that strikes a nerve with you, delurk in order to throw a turd in my living room or a rock through my window, and then leave. 

Last Saturday I posted a short post here relating an incident of generation gap misunderstanding with my daughter and her boyfriend that was funny. Yes, it was. FUNNY. My daughter thought it was so funny that when it initially happened, she sent it on to many of her college and law school and high school friends with a note that said, "I love my mom!" 

Vote of confidence if I ever did see one. 

Funny. I'm not just patting myself on the back here. It was funny because of my "stupidity," which is what we were laughing at. It was a misunderstanding that, later when I knew the context, was hilarious. Ridiculous. Sad. And funny. There IS humor in the tragic and the sad. There simply IS. 

And here is what happened, deconstructed to a point that it will probably take all the funny out. But this is probably what the flat-affect humorless literal people (who I wish would go away and STOP READING MY BLOG) would want.

My daughter's boyfriend posted in his Facebook status, "RIP Boner." I had read about the suicide of an actor in Vancouver, but I did not ever watch or know the details of the show that he acted in, so I did not know the name of his character. My daughter's boyfriend is, as I have mentioned many times, a professional hand model. In our everyday parlance, we all slightly provocatively, for its comic effect, refer to Ryan's "hand jobs." So when he posted "RIP Boner," I wrote, "I cannot tell you how bad this sounds," or something of that ilk. 

Here is what I ACTUALLY thought he meant by "RIP Boner":  His younger brother Jack is a bit of a wacky and funny wildcard, and I thought that perhaps Jack and Ryan had had a dog named Boner, and that the dog had passed away. Forgive me, dog lovers, for thinking it funny and making a joke about the possibility that a dog named Boner had passed away. Very insensitive of me, I'm sure. 

But the truth was stranger than my imaginings, in that an actor, who USED TO PLAY A CHARACTER NAMED BONER, had died. 

Do I NEEEEEEEEED to explain the joke to the literal thinkers? The flat-brained people? The people who want only family-friendly content in blogs? The Republican female lobbyist from Wyoming (WTF?!) who has never, ever read or commented on my blog previously, perhaps? 

SIDEBAR: The internet is a small and very revealing place. Me, I'm a completely open book, I live in a glass house here, and I'm honest and truthful and open, and I'm vulnerable. You might think you can take an anonymous shot at me and crawl back into your self-righteous cave and I might not be able to know who you are. But you are wrong.

When my daughter, through her tears of laughter, explained to me what Ryan was referring to, and what a dumb mistake I had made, we both couldn't stop laughing. We were NOT LAUGHING about someone's suicide. Anyone who thinks we were is an idiot. And when I wrote about it in the blog, I did not in any way say the suicide was funny. Any Janet-come-lately who thinks I was is a fool and can't read my plain words. 

So anyway. I took that post down, and I now regret it. It is cached in Google, but I'm not going to go through the effort to repost it and all that crap. Water under the bridge and all that. You can find it if you care to look for it. 

I will continue to write here, and I will continue to write what I think. If my wit is lost on you or if it misses the mark on any particular day, well, you know what? I don't get paid for this, and it's possible I might write something in a way that is easily misunderstood, or sometimes I might fall flat on my ass. This is my place, and I pay for it. It's my exercise room, my own personal half-pipe, if you will. I might look and smell like hell in my sweatpants, and make a total asspass* in practice today. But maybe tomorrow I'll hit the perfect McTwist 720 and nail the landing. 

Or not. But you know what? You get what you pay for. You don't have to say, "Yay, Norma! You are so wonderful!" all the time,** BUT, especially if you are a complete stranger, you do not have the right to come here and say "Shame on you" for anything, anything, anything I write, unless the "shame on you" is in jest. And you are fully allowed -- encouraged, even -- to take the piss out of me as often as you like. And you are not allowed to judge my morals and my sensibilities. Not.ever. 

Wait, I take that back. We make judgments about people all the time and it is perfectly within your right to judge me and my morals and sensibilities. But if you don't like me or what I stand for, JUST GO THE HELL AWAY. Full stop.

So happy friggin' blogiversary to me. 

The picture I wanted to post to match my mood is the Johnny Cash middle finger one -- you know the one. But instead, I decided to go for the ironic and post Sweet Norma Jean. So I'm giving you the Southerner's equivalent of "Bless your heart."

------------

*when you fall on your ass but going so fast that you pass people on your ass -he pulled the old ''asspass'' on me, and flew right by!  (hilarious Source: http://www.abc-of-snowboarding.com/snowboarddictionary.asp)

** But I live for the comments -- the thoughtful, funny, insightful, and smartass comments that most of my readers leave. I read and relish every single one, though lately I have not been able to answer them all as I have in the past, because there is only so much time in the day. As one of my blog friends recently said, "I've read you long enough to know that you might be snarky at times, but you are never mean-spirited." It is my earnest attempt to be exactly that. I have been extraordinarily fortunate over the years that incidents like this have been extremely few. Perhaps that is why this one bothers me so much. I will not make the rash statement that I will delete every comment of someone who disagrees with me or who gently (constructively) criticizes something I have written. That would be silly and Narcissistic and ... yes, I will use the word as it is defined ... retarded. However, in the future I will have absolutely no compunction at deleting mean or rude comments and banning the commenter. I'm just so over the bullshit.  

NOW, ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Comments

[LoriG]

Happy Blogiversary, Norma, and I cannot tell you how much I hate that you had the need to write this post. Bloody Hell, people, get a clue!

I love you and your posts. Don't change a thing!

[Marina McIntire]

Well, for crying out loud! I didn't really appreciate (i.e., understand) the joke last week. That's fine. The post about the south is one of my all-time faves. Truth. I just love it!
As for the other idiots, well, you've said what you need to say. They're idiots. And for sure, people are weird.
Hang in there!
mm in Eugene, OR

[Melissa in El Cajon]

Happy Blogiversary, Norma. I went to bed, but couldn't sleep so I got up and wandered by some of my favorite blogs. Even angry you made me chuckle! F**k 'em if they can't take a joke!

[susan]

Happy fucking blogiversary, Norma. In the immortal words of some long-forgotten court reporter who hit the wrong key while transcribing a hearing: "Let's keep going, whore."

[carrie]

What rock was I hiding under to have missed that post about the south? Brava, Norma, and happy blogiversary. Some folks won't ever get a clue.

[BioBetty]

I didn't know it was possible but, I think I love you even more now*

*By "Love" I mean worship all the woman-of-a-certain-age-snarkiness-that-I-wish-I-said-first that is NORMA!

[F Brettell]

Are asses the same as arses? Your blog is very funny and very humane. Some people are just arses, and nothing will change that. Some people are badly brought up and badly-educated, and maybe, if valiant souls keep talking/writing, something will get through to them one day. Happy blogiversary.

[Oopsadaisy]

I'm a lurker who loves reading your blog. It always makes me chuckle. I thought I'd come out of my hiding place today to wish you a happy blogiversary.

[Kirsten]

Hi, I'm another long-time lurker(as in years). Your blog is one of the first blogs I read everyday. My mum is American who has lived in the UK for 37 years. You remind me alot of her, but you swear alot more! She reads your blog too. I wondered where last Saturday's blog went to. I thought it was funny. Happy Blogiversary.

[Kate Babbitt]

I'm another lurker who reads your blog first thing in the morning. First. Thing. In. The. Morning. Before the news, before the weather. Reading what you have to say validates me. And you make me laugh. I'm a cooped-up freelance editor, and laughing is sooo important to me! I'm sorry you've had these unpleasant experiences with some humorless sticks who think they are the thought police and who think that free speech is a mere paradiddle, but think of all the rest of us! We are your readers! We love your voice. And we think your blog is great. Keep it up, girlfriend! (X-Ref to the Boner post.)

[Marika]

There's always stupid people who think that they can decide what other people should write/think/say/whatever, but they are just that, STUPID. Why do they think that they have to agree with every word and then think they have the right to be mean?
Some people can get offended by anything... (I actually read in the paper today about someone making a snow "Venus de milo", and a neighbour got offended by its nudity. WTF?)

[Kelli]

Ok, I admit it - I've read your blog for the last two years and enjoyed it every time I've gotten to share your thoughts. I understand that some people may have been upset by the post - I wasn't. As people we are delightfully, completely human; we make missteps, we have personal victories and not so personal defeats and we are not perfect. I think the person who was upset has a right to their perspective but it's really time to get over it already. If they don't like your perspective and insights, then stop reading the f@*king blog.
I think your blog is fabulous and I know I'm not alone in that perspective.

[Jessica]

Just the fact that you get out there and sayitforgodsakealready puts you in my list of favorite all-time bloggers. Don't change for the vocal minority. (From a reformed lurker who has made it her 2010 mission to encourage all her daily reads.)

[Jennifer]

Ugh! I'm so sorry you had a crazy person (and there are many readers who are!). Good for you for telling 'em off. It is a pain in the ass that bloggers even have to deal with crazies out there. BTW - I laughed my head off with the RIP Boner post.

Happy Blogiversary! Keep being who you are. That's why we love you.

[Mikell]

Hi Norma, Delurking here to wish you a happy blogiversary. I start my day with you and Margene and think you both are the best. Don't let the turkeys get you down. Hopefully, they will take your advice and GO AWAY.

[Gretch]

I knew something was up. Norma doesn't go a couple days without some kind of meaty post. Sorry you have to put up with other people's pain redirected at you. We who read you every day, who know about red scarves, hand jobs, Mr. J is a dog, rose petal jam, raised beds and the like - and love the entire packages - thorns and all- exist all over the blogosphere. I wish the long-timers who know all that stuff and whisk it away and are mean, would just breathe, take in Norma in her entirety, grant a little grace and either go away, or just fuggedaboudit. Really. Much love.

[Carolyn]

Happy Blogiversary! I love reading your blog. I totally "get" your humor. You make me start my day with a laugh (and that is pretty amazing since I have to get two teenage daughters out the door to school everyday....Talk about humorless....) It never ceases to amaze me that people who don't like/appreciate/agree with something written in a blog feel the need to comment negatively. I have a better solution: unbookmark it and stop reading...Problem Solved!!

All the best to you!!

[Jane]

When I grow up I want to be like you, Norma. Thank you. Happy Blogiversary!

[Barbara]

Another de-lurker here. I subscribe to your blog. I like your blog. I enjoy reading about your gardening and knitting and share your sense of humor. I don't understand why some people feel that you (or anyone else) owes them any courtesy at all when they have essentially invited themselves into YOUR space. If you don't like what you read, you can click the button and make it go away. And please, don't come back. I wanted to add my voice to the support this time. I hope you'll continue to post.

[Brenda]

Now I feel bad that I'm an infrequent commenter, although I read your blog daily. It amazes me that people use the anonymity of the internet to spew their hateful thoughts. I figure, if I won't say it to your face, I shouldn't say it in a comment. But maybe they're hateful people that would say it to your face.

I hope you keep sharing with us!

[Nancy H.]

You're fantastic, Norma, and it takes guts to write like you do. Thanks for keeping it up! I hope you're still enjoying the CanLit reading. I've been looking forward to your take on Beautiful Losers since I saw it in your book pile. Heh.

[AnnaMarie]

Our friendship came directly from me reading your blog. If the blog had not existed I don't know if we would have met. That would be tragic.

Happy Blogiversary!

[aldona]

Shame on you, Norma, for writing a funny or touching or educational or Red Scarf boosting post every day and expecting random strangers *not* chew you out in your own "home." Happy Blog-I-versary!

[carol]

Congrats on a significant milestone. I love your blog, love your writing style,love your style. I don't comment often, mostly because I am afraid, yes, afraid, of others critiquing my writing (how self centered is that?) Keep up the good work, fight the good fight,craft the good knitwear, and for pete's sake, grow the good garden.

[Carole]

Happy Blog Anniversary, Norma. 6 years, holy crap, that's quite an accomplishment. I'm glad you have been here that long, though. Yours was one of the first blogs I ever read and I still remember the day we met at NHS&W. I was so tongue tied and star struck back then. Now that I know you better, well, now I just love you in a whole better way.
Anyway, I missed the post last Saturday because I was away at SPA so I don't know what the problem was but why can't people just shut their fucking mouths anyway?
And the other post about how we in the North (and especially me in Massachusetts!) are the bomb? Well that is one fabulous piece.
Kudos to you, Norma. Don't you dare ever change.

[LaurieM]

I'm wondering if the humour gap you're describing has to do with IQ.

I'm sorry I didn't comment on the RIP post last Saturday, because I got what was funny to you, but I am likewise too busy these days.

Happy Blogiversary Norma. This one feels sort of bittersweet. Like turning sixty...

[Judy]

Happy blogversary Norma. Hope I've commented enough for you to recognize my name. I feel like Carrie, under a rock, without a clue to all the blog drama. What a big heart you have to care so much about your readers, even the ones who are arses. Keep up the good work and I say blocking them is a great idea!

[Leanne]

Happy Blogiversary, Norma. I've never understood why people choose to get offended by other people's opinions. There are millions of blogs out there for people to choose from. Nobody is forcing anyone to read any particular blog. Occasionally I come across blogs that I read for a while, and then realize that I just don't get that person's perspective. So I unsubscribe. Easy peasy. And there are others that I like most of the time, but there's the odd post that I don't. If it starts to happen regularly, I choose whether or not to keep reading. That's my choice , not the blogger's.

But you're one of my perennial favourites. I can't see myself ever choosing not to read your blog.

That said , I'm pissed that there's no blogiversary giveaway :-)

[Nora]

Oh, forfucksake. I was flat on my ass sick last Saturday so only saw the title of your Boner post in passing, yet I inferred immediately what must have happened. But then, my mind rarely crawls out of the gutter. Seriously, The Norma, I know you're pissed and frustrated, but just forget these whackos. We love you.

xo

[Ally]

Firstly, I can't believe there is such a thing as a "blogiversary", but since there is...

Secondly, Happy Blogiversary!

Thirdly, the only thing about your blog that has ever "upset" (I use that word loosely because it's hard to be upset by perfect strangers) me is some of your commenters.

And fourthly, I hereby grant you permission to make deaf jokes. Of course, you don't need it, because it's YOUR blog! ;-)

[viki]

I wish these things didn't happen to good blogs. But it seems they always do eventually. If I don't like a blog I stop reading. Why don't others do this too? I won't stop reading yours. I love that it is waiting for me almost every morning. We need to understand that we are guests in your "home" and if we don't like something we can leave. Chin up! Happy blogiversary from a funny Canadian fan.

[Donna]

Happy Blogiversary, Norma. And, Hello. I'm not sure I've commented before. I'm sorry for that. In real life, I'm trying to be the person who opens her mouth to say this was good more than I do to say this was bad.

In virtual life, I rarely say anything to anybody. It's such a strange dynamic.

[Lisa H.]

Happy Blogisversary to you Norma!! I'd say somebody needs a hug, but I know that you don't like people, so just let me give you a high five! I thought your post was really funny because I didn't know that Boner was a character on that show, either. I read your blog daily and love variety of topics. How would I have ever learned that there is something called rose petal jam or ginger vodka if I hadn't started reading your blog? Have a great 6th!!

[Connie G.]

Happy Blogiversary, Norma. And I have to tell you that you are the first blog that I read in the morning and I enjoy reading it so very much. Thanks for being who you are and telling it like it is.
Those who come out of the ether-net to criticize ought to stay in their own narrow world and read only what in their narrow little minds are "proper" blogs.
Please keep this up as you have in the past.

[Deborah Bartlett]

Ooh I want to say so much, Norma, but will try to keep it brief. Firstly happy Blogiversary indeed and thank you for the daily happiness and humour you bring into my life. My life at the moment is crap (think I told you about this on Ravelry) and my main contact with people is attempting to deal with do-gooding fuckwits who leave me feeling so angry and pretty hopeless. Then I read your blog and remember that people with intelligence and amazing good humour still exist. Thank you also for all the knitting, gardening and, of course, terrier stuff. The piece about the South wasn't funny - it was hilarious!
If a few brain-dead, humourless bitches have upset you then FUCK THEM ( and that sentiment comes all the way from merrie England).

I consider you to be a friend, if only a cyber one, for the daily albeit usually one-sided contact I have with you. Please continue, in your own inimitable style, to bring so much pleasure to so many people.

[Karen]

Happy Blogiversary Norma. Six years is amazing. I've enjoyed every minute of it.

[Mary]

Those of us with a twisted, whack, and bizarre sense of humor salute you on your blogiversary! To those who don't appreciate humor - I say, bite me. Better yet, bite your tongue and either stop reading or keep your comments to yourself.

Your blog provides a great service to those of us who need a bit of humor in our lives...esp. the "Norma" variety. On the other hand, if it weren't for your Red Scarf post, I never would have known about or contributed to the cause. So thanks for the humor and the reminder to serve.

[Elly]

Happy Blogiversary Norma. I don't know why blogging seems to attract such mean-spirited comments on occasion. I'm sorry to hear you've had a run of those and hope it doesn't mean radio silence. I read every post and if I don't get it, I just move on, & read you the next day. Just can't see the need to throw brickbats at you or any other blogger I happen to be out of sync with on a particular day. I read you for your humor, your worldview, your knitting stories, Mr J stories and all the lovely tidbits that show up in your blog. Please know that you are appreciated, even on the rare occasions I may not get it (my problem surely!)

[Jodi]

Oh, Norma, I'm so fucking glad you are here.

I'm with Ally: I've never been upset with anything you've written but I have once in a while been shocked at the tone of a comment. Don't ever edit yourself to appease those arseholes.

[Kimberton]

Bravo! As always, you ROCK!

[Mary]

I comment very rarely, but your blog is a daily part of my "waking up and getting ready to deal with the students" routine. I LOVE your blog. Plain and simple. Not once have I been offended. I cannot count the times I have learned something interesting, laughed out loud because of your wicked sense of humor, been led to another interesting blog, or felt a simple sense of kinship with you and your regular commenters. And yes, I have been moved to tears a few times, as well.
I had the same initial reaction to the Boner post as you, and laughed at myself when I realized my error. Misinterpretation is the stuff of comedy.
"Fuck the South" IS funny. Period.
You're awesome. Period.
In the words of one of my favorite Canadians, "Long may you run."

[Bonney]

I think you said it all and you said it well. Your fans don't need and explanation of anything. We get you! To hell with the rest of them. Happy blogiversary!

[Mary Fran]

I keep forgetting that some idiots are handcuffed to their computers and forced to read things they may not like. I love your sense of humor. I'm on of those "nice Midwestern girls" and people are always a little taken aback and pleasantly surprised by my inner-snark. Keep 'em coming. Oh, and on Facebook - my kids Godmother had already posted RIP Boner - so when I saw it here and your take on it. Tears. Of Laughter. Remind Ryan to remain "Master of his Domain".

[Naomi]

Happy blogiversary, Norma. I'm glad you're still writing here.

[Sheila]

After a couple of years of reading, I'm delurking to say your blog is the only one I read that makes me laugh when intended. I get you! One giggle or snort from here first thing on those mornings and I'm good to go. I truly marvel at your intelligence. (Most recently, the dog show post was brilliant!)

So, Happy Blogiversary!! And I'm sorry you've had to make a post like this AGAIN!

P.S. The knitting & gardening are a bonus.

[Carol]

Really? That's what someone extrapolated from that post? Yikes. I really really wish you could watch Green Wing. It's just what you need right now. Happy Blogiversary and thank you for all the laughs (I'm pretty sure I'm getting ALL of them). BTW - When the Republicans came to Philly for their convention, the gay bars were FILLED with closeted aides scared to be found out. I could never puzzle that out except that the party attracts a ton of public/private personas. Weird. And that other post? (which I thought was hilarious) Can't believe I missed that one but thanks for the link.

[Carla]

Love you and all you do - just saying-

[Seanna Lea]

Wow. I had never seen the fts site, but you are right. It is definitely the type of humor I appreciate.

I remember posting something when I first started that was admittedly not the kindest thing I could have done to my cat. I posted about it. Someone commented about it in a way that was just incredibly rude. I don't think it ever occurred to me to remove the post, but I did turn off the comments. I just didn't want to hear that kind of vitriol. I can understand how a comment from a stranger, someone who has a relationship with your writing, but not with you, can be stupidly upsetting. It's like they don't care to be nice or even neutral with you, and just wait for the misstep and live for meanness. The good part of me thinks that is not how they really mean it to be, but I don't listen to that part very often.

[Jess]

Happy Blogiversary Norma.

I read this blog every day and look forward to it. Thanks for continuing on and not letting the few rotten apples spoil the fun for the rest of us.

Echoing what those have said above, I wouldn't have known about the Red Scarf Project (and contributed) if it weren't for you!

[Stacey]

I love you. Please, please, please, may I stroke your ego? :D Please?!?! Love the Marilyn. After moving into the deep wilds of Texas... I love how they all say fuck you with a smile. :D