When I lived on the mainland, regardless of where I lived, I had people that knew me through school, people that knew me through work, people that knew me from the gym, people that knew me from the neighborhood, people that knew from...etc, etc. Each one in it's own tidy little box. And each of these little groups of people knew the parts of my life that related their specific box. Sure, occasionally there could be a little crossover action, but that was rare, and either very brief and/or very carefully "managed".
But living here it is all one big messy mash-up of people. The woman living next door is your boss, her daughter is the girl serving you lunch who is the babysitter, who happens to be dating the boy bagging your groceries, who is also your employee at his night job, and the guy sitting on the bar stool next to you is your city councilman and repaired your vehicle last week. (That last part is not a joke.)
And when I moved here I found this difficult to get used to - I liked my little boxes and they were hard to give up. What I've found myself doing instead, is almost jealously guarding small pieces of myself from the oh so very public life in this town. I can't keep the folks at work from knowing everything that the folks at the gym know, but I can keep everyone from knowing absolutely everything about me! (If that made any sense at all.) In other words, I can't control the flow of information, but I can control how much is put out there and made available.
So oddly enough, this blog is one of those things I tend to keep to myself. While, to the best of my knowledge (and according to my site stats) this blog is being read by people all over the United States and Canada, there's only 3-4 family/friends that are aware of this blog. (And of those I think only 2 of you are really reading this regularly - and you know who you are!)
Given that, I don't know why I hesitated for so long to use my own photo on the profile, hiding behind a Yahoo avatar and occasional images in the posts with my face turned. I'm certainly nobody famous, and not likely to attract the interest of a scary stalker! And I'm not foolish enough to think that no one ever looks at the blog profile and it's photo (Dude, the site stats don't lie - I saw you lookin' at me!) But somewhere between the wide open spaces of the blogosphere and the friendliness of the Ravelry community, it ceased to matter.
So last night, I took a deep breath and uploaded a decent, fairly accurate picture of me, to both this profile and the one on Ravelry.
Hello! Here I am! Let the stalking begin!
(But please bring wine, chocolate and yarn made from natural fibers - okay?)
But in giving up some of my privacy, I've also decided to take some back. So as of this morning, this was the entrance to my bathroom:
Nice, eh? There was nothing there when I moved into my apartment you-don't-want-to-know-how-many years ago. The curtain is only for the benefit of the occasional guest, and to give the cat something to climb. ('Cause, lord knows, she needs more entertainment - right?)
And this afternoon, this is the entrance to my bathroom:
"The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort...."
-Andy Rooney
1 comment:
Cute picture.. and there's a LOT to be said for a door between you and a curious cat!!
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