A Birthday Post

Funny, huh? Unlike almost everything else in my life, when I think about how old my blog is, I find myself thinking, “Only two? Can that be?” It seems I’ve been blogging forever. Usually, I’m thinking, “I can’t believe it’s been two whole years.” For instance, I still think of myself as “the new girl” at work, which I’m not. I’ve been in this position for three years, and I’ve seen plenty of people hired since I came on board.

Since it’s my second birthday, the first thing I want to do is to thank those people who were instrumental in getting me to get Telecommuter Talk up and running. First, was my brother Ian, who had stopped blogging when I started mine, but then started up again, and whose blog I still think is better than mine (but he doesn’t post as often as I do, so I’ve got him beat there). Second was my friend Elmo (not his real name, but he insists on remaining anonymous) who always encouraged me to write. The third was Danny, whose blog made me feel no one would ever bother to read mine, but he was still encouraging (a rarity: someone with incredible talent who’s also warm and generous to others, although my place of employment does seem to breed people like that).

Secondly, I want to thank those of you who’ve been with me for a very long time. My sisters Froshty and Linser, of course, were reading me from the very beginning, and Litlove, did you know you were the very first non-real-life friend/family member ever to comment (well, except for a couple of “anonymouses,” and I don’t know who they were)? It looks like Mandarine was, but that’s because he took on the laborious task of retrospectively reading my entire blog, for which I want to thank him (also for giving me the idea for my morning and evening “commutes” to and from work, and most importantly for comparing me to chocolate. The man’s a saint, really). Hobs came along early on, followed not too long after by Dorr. And Bloglily, Charlotte, Courtney, Ms. Make Tea, and Cam have all been with me almost since the beginning as well. You-all were so encouraging from very early on, and you can credit yourselves for keeping this blog going, because your comments have always meant so much to me that obsessively checking to see if you’ve said anything looking forward to hearing from you has sometimes been the only reason for writing the next post.

Of course, now there are many, many more of you, and you all contribute to keeping this blog going. I picture people coming out of the woodwork to say, “No, please don’t stop,” every time I think I ought to stop blogging and put all this writing energy elsewhere. And that is something that two years ago I never, ever would have dreamed picturing. I thought I’d be lucky to keep my family members interested in this blog. Not only do more than five people read me, but I’ve begun to meet some of you and get to know others better, and that is one of the great lessons I’ve learned from blogging: you really do meet wonderful people. It’s probably the best thing about blogging.

I decided for my birthday to go back and read my first week of posts, which begins here. To read that, you’d think I was going to be blogging about telecommuting. Huh! And I thought I was going to be able to do that for a full year. Double huh! I was curious to see if I’d changed much since that first week, but no. I’m just as delusional as ever. I was happy to find this, somewhat different, post from that week, though, especially coming up on the two-year anniversary of Bob’s graduation and thinking about all that’s come since then.

After reading posts from that week, I started browsing through the blog and stopping at random posts (quite obviously, I have nowhere near the patience and stamina Mandarine has), some of which I’d almost completely forgotten writing (does anyone else do that?). Anyway, thought I’d link you to Emily’s ten all-time favorites from the past two years to enjoy if you feel like taking a walk down Emily Lane.

Griping about some people's gall:
The Baby Question

The difficulties of advising readers:
May I Suggest a Book You Just Have to Read?

The symbiotic relationship between writers and their editors:
Editors and Authors

How "What We Said" Began (thanks to Bloglily):
Appalled

An Unusual Evening with Hobs:
Of Hobgoblins and Parking Lots

So you know that inviting me to go clothes shopping with you is somewhat risky:
I Still Loathe Clothes Shopping

A lifelong affliction inherited from my mother (that doesn't afflict me nearly as often now that our lives are more settled):
A Night with the ADHD Insomniac

I was so happy to find so many others out there like me:
An Eye for an Eye

You know how sometimes, some posts are just plain FUN to write? This was one of those:
Not Exactly Minding My Own Business

My guess is that this is everyone else's favorite, since I got so many great responses to it:
#1 Book Slut

And what about you? What are your favorites from your own blog? Tell us. I’d love to know.