One whole month of blogging

I took this random little risk and started a blog one whole month ago. A few observations on how it's going...

- I was most worried that not a soul would read it and my inexpert writing would be criticized. Well, in addition to Dad, quite a few of you have visited, commented, emailed - and none lambasting my grammar mistakes or loopy logic. I thank each and every one of you!

- One big reason I wanted to write here was to lay a bit more myself out there for you all to see and share, including (and especially) my family and friends. And in doing so, maybe inspire you to see and share more of yourself with others. So far, OK!

- It's kind of fun to have an outlet for actually thinking, a reason to process some of my thoughts and write them down and think that they are possibly interesting or inspiring. Mothering two little kids and/or teaching chemistry doesn't always lend itself to that, so this writing is fun. Previously, my only outlet for philosophy was my amazing husband John. Now I can debate with him and then some!

- Suddenly having a vested interest in the world of "blogging" is kind of distracting and obnoxious. Yes, I'm more willing to read/comment on someone else's blog than before, but I'd still much rather invest in the interesting people that I see face-to-face every day. So I'm getting the hang of being a fairly selfish blogger I guess, not feeling compelled to obsess with the blog-o-universe just because I have a teeny bit of it.

- Being brave is contagious. My thinking this last month has become, "If I can write a blog that who knows who will read, I can certainly open up about myself a little more to other people I meet, and try other little things that I've been too shy to do."

So I guess I'll stick with the writing experiment for at least a little while. Thanks for reading!