Confessions of a Blog Lurker

So I need to explain why the references to blog lurking and to Janet Shumway (a lady I barely know and the majority of my family don't have a clue who she is) are on my blog.

Valerie and Sparky have been blogging for a while now and encouraging me to blog. Back in April I blogged about the clothesline.... a grand entrance and then .... nothing. July I blogged again.... Then Valerie came to visit and I had to know why she was laughing at the computer!.... She introduced me to Janet Shumway's blog. Janet is married to Aaron Shumway... aka... Shumz from Texas days. Janet's blog was entertaining, enlightening, honest, inviting, dramatic, realistic and just plain wonderful.... I ended up staying up until 3 am reading back archives of her blog.... She has been blogging for a little over two years and has over 400 posts. The post I read at 3 am let me know that she could track who was reading her blogs and could tell that very few people ever comment. She was considering taking her public blog off the public road and going private! After reading almost 300 of her blogs without any permission I began to feel some guilt and knew that I hadn't commented... so I went to bed!

However... sad as it is my stalking doesn't end there. I just couldn't get enough and so the next morning when I woke up I was back on the blog trail and spent most of the morning and much of the next evening/night finishing all her blogs. I felt like I'd made a friend... and yet she isn't anymore aware of me now than she ever was. I just knew all about her. I was making enemies through all this too. Patrick wasn't impressed that I was spending so much time reading some persons blog... Channa wanted nothing to do with this amazing perfect person that I was raving about... I wasn't a very nice hostess to Valerie or the girls... and my own children were completely ignored.... (they say they're used to it from the days of me reading books... they can be so ... honest sometimes!) I had finished every post and felt the need to let her know how incredible she was and that I was completely inspired... but first of all I'm not that outgoing, and secondly didn't want to freak her out that I was some strangoid. So I mulled it over for a day or so what I might say and how.. .

Meanwhile, I began blogging in earnest. I was just going to treat blogging as though it was an online scrap booking journal where anything goes. With each blog that I posted I wanted to post more and I am completely hooked! Now I knew I had to let her know that I appreciated her. I wasn't sure which blog to comment on or what to say... but I had to get it off my mind. So I decided to email her. I found some old photos of Aaron from our Texas days and sent off the email to let her know that I felt entitled to be reading her blog through my association with Aaron and the photos should prove that I did know him or prove that I am a complete freak! I complimented her and invited her to read my simple blog of what was then 6 posts! I fully expected some type of response.

I began checking my email every few hours and refreshing her blog to see if she was posting or not. No I don't have much of a life.... She was very busy I knew because according to her blog she is getting ready to move into a new house and she was counting down the days to her high school reunion that just happened to be here in West Jordan. It became a blogging epidemic... Channa decided to give it a whirl and Sparky updated his blog... However in one of Sparky's updates he mentioned my blog and linked to mine. Becoming a stalker of course I was gathering all sorts of useful information and learned that Janet had checked Sparky's blog, linked to mine and then commented on Sparky's about mine. So I knew that she was aware of me and that she was online... I was waiting with baited breath for an email response now!...... But NOTHING!.... Janet's name became a 5-letter word in our house... she was still blogging and not responding... not commenting when she herself is a self-proclaimed commenting advocate!

I realize that I have a problem... I've spoken to my Bishop about it already... the fact that he is my neighbour and good friends husband is not the point!.... besides... he just laughed and hinted that if I have that much time on my hands he was sure he could find something for me to do ...

All those around me knew of my frustration that Janet was blogging and therefore connected to the internet and could for all intents pop me off an email at least... until after ten days of stalking and almost going so far as to lurk at the site of her high school reunion staging a sort of paparazzi... don't worry I said almost... I didn't do it!... (I was busy that night). but then the blog that put me in my place!.... She blogged about being homeless (hopping from hotel to friends and family) for a month because they're waiting to close on their house and how she had time dated the last few weeks of blogs to automatically post without her having access to a computer!.... oh.... so she wasn't technically online any of those times.... and she isn't ignoring me.... (this wonderful woman who doesn't even know me....) she was in fact proving to me how out of her blogging league I truly am.... that even homeless for a month she was keeping up with her posts.....

How can I ask her to forgive me for the thoughtless remarks (truly made in jest, just ask Valerie)... for the scheming that I never carried out mind you... (toilet papering her parents home while she was in town for her reunion, since it's just up the street from my house, commenting on her every blog with long and confusing comments, posting a poll on my blog of what I should do to get my revenge on her... (oh wait... that one I did do... for a couple days only)

I really don't know what came over me... I'm normally a very quiet and reserved person who would never even contemplate stalkable thoughts toward anyone... but I was possessed... yes that's it... possessed by a blogging spirit.

So... JANET SHUMWAY.... I'm SORRY!!! I will cease and desist... I will refrain from any and all negative blog stalking ways... I do still lurk on her blog though... I just can't resist!.... It's a Wonderful Life is her blog.... just make sure you COMMENT!