Friday, January 8, 2010

Delurk.

"You know that post you wrote a few days ago about being a bad friend?"
"You mean the one I wrote this morning before you went to work?"
"Yeah, that one. Was any of that about me?"
"Um, no. But have I been a terrible friend to you, husband?"
"No, but I kind of thought it was funny that I thought some of that could apply to me."
"Yeah, That is funny. And kind of sad."
"I didn't mean it to be sad. I meant it to be funny."
"Well, it is true that I didn't go to any showers that you threw this year."
"No, you didn't. I do resent that."

:::





This week is International Delurking Week, according to Mel. When I first set up my blog and the tracker system, I used to check it religiously to see if my mother who was reading my blog. I sort of figured out that since my mother can't really figure out how to sign onto her own email account, and couldn't have followed a FB link I had posted for a week if she wanted to, I really have no need to read the stats anymore. Every once in a while, though, I look at that map of all the dots from around the world, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy and happy. Or I follow links of blogs I have never read before to add to my reader. I also get a great joy in looking at the search words that has brought someone to my blog. I think "Finger. Hand blender." made me feel less ridiculous in life, and "wacky doodle eagle fucker" disturbed me a bit (did all those words appear on my blog at the same time?). But in general, if you do not comment, I really do not know who you are. I would like to get to know you, though. I do become curious, what type of people read me? So, this week is a week to come out of the closet. Since I have written about my weird quirks, I am giving this brief prompt to write about yours. And comment, whether or not you comment regularly.

Many many years ago, after hearing about these friends of my ex-boyfriend for, literally, years, we were invited to dinner at their old, stately estate on the Main Line of Philadelphia. This is a gay couple, one of which is an actual rocket scientist and the other a professor of religious studies focusing on Catholicism. I had ideas, you know, of what they were like. They were devote Catholics who attended mass every Sunday, one sang in the choir and the other played the organ. They had been together for decades. I had an image of the sort of house they kept, what their interests were, and what their general house would be like. It was beautiful. Breathtakingly restored. Elegant. Regal. Exactly as I had imagined. When given the extensive tour of their home, I was led into the their bedroom suite, which was larger than my entire apartment. And what I found on their bedroom couch, covering their entire king-size bed, and on every horizontal surface of the room were hundreds of stuffed alligators. I mean, just all manner of alligator--stuffed animals from the carnival win to the lush velvet-y well-crafted toy. I asked them the obvious question, "So, you are into alligators?"
"Yeah, you know, it's our thing."

And well, you know my thing? So, lurker, tell me: what is your thing?

18 comments:

  1. Hello from beautiful and rainy tonight British Columbia. Hmm. My thing. Lately knitting. For many years Old English Sheepdogs (we had one named Duncan who died just shy of 12 and now have another named Albert). Always reading. xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. books, lots and lots of books.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I actually have a couple....fairies, butterflies...and for some reason I have almost every book James Patterson has written, and only have read about half.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my thing is definately fabric,I love my colour co ordinated little (OK not so little) neatly folded stacks of fabric.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is going to sound weird but my thing is satisfying textures. I like something I can scratch my thumb on. I know. Some things are best kept to myself.

    Ooh. Also, putting things next to each other so they look nice - hence the cheese shop!

    x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cheeseburgers. Definitely cheeseburgers.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been spending obscene amounts of time in my bedroom. I like being surrounded by my unfinished projects. Little felted creatures and barely begun canvases.
    I also have a thing for octopi. I'm looking at a little octo-boy I made and an orande stuffed octopus I got in Gulf Shores when Zoe died.
    I used to have a small tank with a live one. I'd like another, but they aren't cheap and don't live very long.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Angie,i will de lurk myself although i dont know if i relate to that label,ha ha! I like your writing;admire your artistic flair. Hi my name is Lisa.

    ReplyDelete
  9. OH Angie! I love your writing! I have a thing about being all alone and reading, seeing or hearing something that just brings me to gales of laughter- out loud and by myself. And I have this thing about anthropomorphizing -everything. And there you have it.
    peace,
    slee

    ReplyDelete
  10. If I could make a living watching dvds 24/7, I would do it. We own way too many, and Hulu.com is my new addiction...

    Here's to delurking!
    Miracles,
    k-

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am in Australia, I live in a beachside suburb of Melbourne called Frankston. My thing is Dogs, we have a new Irish Terrier puppy and another 7 year old Tenterfield Terrier, we walk a fair bit. I wish I could take them into the shops with me instead of tying them up out the front. Why not? Other people take their children and they cause all sorts of mayhem. My son lived in Canada for a year and he tells me that people there even take their dogs to the Doctors surgery.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I don't think I have a thing. Or have found my thing yet. Unless obsessing over random things is a thing.
    ~Tara

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Angie. I've been reading your blog for a long time - since not too long after I lost my son in October 2008 to an occult cord prolapse. I suck at commenting, but it's always the first one that is the hardest, so here I go.

    My thing. Hmm, I have quite a few. I love to do crafty things and am infamous for starting projects and never finishing them. I also have an OCD like habit of counting the number of letters in a sentence or word and have to make them evenly divisible. I will count spaces and punctuation and change from 2 to 3 to 7 if I have to, but it drives me nuts if I can't count it out and make it even. How's that for nuts? ;)

    Now that I've popped my commenting cherry here, I'll try not to be just an anonymous IP address on your stats.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Angie. I have been reading your blog for a few months now, I think. Something like that. Can't remember how I found you. I live on Siesta Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida, married, have three kids.
    I love your writing. My thing? Funny, but I don't know..

    ReplyDelete
  16. HA! I haven't looked at my blog map for ages either!

    And I don't have a thing - i think those things are dangerous - one can quickly become overrun with alligators or gnomes or frogs or something. We just try to get one or two things each time we travel (So we have lots of panama stuff like baskets and yellow frogs and lots of asian art) And each room is sorta dedicated to each country or culture.

    ReplyDelete

What do you think?