Blithesome Bloggiversary to Me!?!

NOTE: This was written on February 16th and then...? Then I forgot to post it!?! So it begins...

Yuppers, my blog was born a year ago today [that would have been February 16th, last week]... See my first post here. I had read a very sweet Valentine's Day tribute written by Dang Cold for his wife. It was such an adoring, endearing tribute, and I was touched to tears and I had wanted to tell him "You so rock, dewd!" Going through the motions of creating a Login profile so I could post a comment (not understanding the Anonymous option at the time - and not all blogs allow anonymous posting), my blog was inadvertently born. SIDE NOTE: Sadly, Dang's lovely tribute to his wife was later lost, when Blogger wigged out and sacked Dang's entire original blog site and all its previous posts!?! ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: Although Blogger is free-free-free, she can be a bitter bitch at times!

The Blog Birthing Process or "How it all really began": Sometime in mid-December of 2004 - or was it November? - I was in L.A. at my honey-man's ex-wife's home and she and I had sat down together for some chit chat. [Tangent: I'm gunna haftah come up with something better than "the ex-wife" = I just don't like that for that fact that #1 - She has a name, ya know? and #2 - I happen to have a good, healthy relationship with "the Ex." Unusual for most ex-situations, I know, but we're friends and I just can't call her "the ex-wife." Hmmm... how 'bout "the angel boy-O's mommie" - - ? Nope; that's too long, and well, it's a ridiculous way to refer to her, even if she is his mama! Need to come up with something more personal, as in "she's-a-person-whom-I consider-a-personal-friend." I'll have to have her help me come up with a pseudonym. End of Tangent] It was then, during that visit, that she told me about a fellow recovering mormon who went to and graduated from BYU (as did I) and lived in L.A. (as will I), later relocating to Ootah (Utah), who has a hilarious website called dooce.com, "spelled with two Os, unlike deuce." She told me I'd love it and then some, and that I had to look it up. Once I returned to Vegas from L.A., in the midst of a work day, I made a point to search out the dooce site and bookmark it as a future read. Then the holidays kicked into high gear and I plum forgot all about dooce.

Over the Chrimpus break (we're still referring to 2004), while visiting a ton of friends and family in Ootah with my honey-man, I had to see my longtime childhood friend, Anna Dilemna. She was home from Japan, staying with her family in Salt Lake for a few weeks. My honey-man and I were sitting with her in her parents' front room, visiting and enjoying some coffee together, and at one point, I had to ask her why she kept looking out the window from where she sat on the couch. She then told me that for months she had been reading a particular blog she had found online while in Japan, and that she had just figured out during her SLC visit that the owner/writer of this particular blog lived right across the street from her mum... "Oh really?!? What a small world!" We asked her some questions and many answers were given... Specifically, "It's spelled with two Os, unlike deuce" and WAH-LAH! Excitedly, we told "Anna" about how I had just heard about this dooce blogger by my honey-man's ex-wife-who-deserves- a-nice-pseudonym, and that I had been told that I would love this blog and that it's hysterical and blah, blah, blah, etc. etc. etc. And loud and true, we all declared to one another over coffee, sitting across the street from where the Dooce lives, peering out the window together, "Ohhh yes, what a small world it is!"
What was even better than that was the reaction we got later on... On our way up to Bear Lake, Idaho, we stopped in Ogden, UT where I met for the first time the large extended family of the ex-wife-who-deserves- a-nice-pseudonym, and I told her the news of my it's-a-small-world-after-all discovery. And again, we declared together, "Ohhh yes, what a small world it is, indeed!"

Back in Vegas, I rediscovered my dooce bookmark, and so began my dooce obsession of sorts. Initially, I spent hours reading dooce archives - laughing, crying, laughing some more, and laughing to tears. After a couple weeks of that, things began to progress further... At the time, there were post comments and daily picture comments and I began to check in to read those too. And things progressed even further... I began to check out the blogger profiles and the websites of those who posted regular comments on dooce.com, and soon thereafter, I began to watch for the comments of certain "doocelings." Yes, this group of regular commenters on dooce.com even took on the name of "doocelings." NOTE: On a case by case basis, this term is either loved or hated by the said doocelings. Eventually, I posted a comment(s), sometimes reaching a level of unprecidented lunacy. For a brief time, before the Dooce turned off all comments for good (with good reason), I became a fellow dooceling, although not as prominent a dooceling as others... Amanda B., Bucky 4 Eyes, CanadianAmy, ClosetMetro, CircusKelli, Dang Cold, Doc Ern, Greenthumb, Kristine, Ladybug, Mihow, Mrs. Strizzay, RazDreams, Susie, UPPERCASE GOD, Wave of Modulation, etc. etc. etc. The dooceling list could go on and on.

Anywhooo, so before Dooce turned off her comments for good, many fellow doocelings created their own blogs around the same time and "blog rolling" became my next obsession... and many of us, for a year now, have continued to blog and visit one another's blogs still. Soooo, as a mere visitor, I entered the Blogosphere, and quickly, I was drawn in by the growing dooceling community. And inadvertently, I became a blogger. That was a year ago - I know, I mentioned that already - and it's funny to realize I'm still blogging and what it's become for me = an outlet... even if half (no, more like the majority) of what I share is total fluff and utter nonsense. Overall, it's been fun! I wonder for how long I'll keep this up? Nevertheless, Happy Bloggiversary to me!
*UPDATE* The pseudonym for my honey-man's "ex-wife" has been determined = She shall be referred to as "Wendy."