I’m feeling very sentimental about blogging after all of your thoughtful and kind comments yesterday.
I started writing online back in 2006. That was the same year that I joined and started participating online for the first time via a message board. If you would have said to me in 2005, that I’d be regularly interacting with people online, via a message board or WORSE! a blog, I’d would have thought you were just trying to annoy me.
All that I knew about blogs at the time was that it was a place where geeks wrote about geeky things. Most blog writers were middle-aged balding dudes, living in their parent’s basements, wearing wife-beater tees. They stayed up all night chatting online about Dungeons and Dragons while eating cheetos and drinking cheap beer.
I’m still certain that type of blogger exists (ha! kidding!), I found that my image of bloggers was way off. In fact, I’ve discovered a group of people that I really identified with and now I can’t imagine NOT interacting with people online. I depend on your support, perspective, and humor.
So back to aught six, I met a local blogger through my message board . Through her blog, I then found a whole world of people interacting online, talking about motherhood and marriage, weight gain and women’s friendships. The very first blogs I read were several of the now defunct Club Mom blogs. Those first blogs that I read were the ones that changed my outlook of blogging and quite literally changed the course of my life. Those blogs were, (since I can’t link to their Club Mom blogs, I’ll link to their personal blogs…) Motherhood Uncensored, All & Sundry, Cheeky Lotus, and So the Fish Said.
Today is Delurking Day, a day where you I encourage you to “delurk” or say “hi,” especially if you don’t normally comment. Yes, it’s a blatant ploy to get comments. I’m okay with that. I know it’s awkward to comment when you really have nothing to say, so I’m asking you to delurk (or just comment as you regularly do!) and tell me, who were your first blog reads?
Delurking Day, hosted by Greeblemonkey and Rude Cactus
Sundry, Swistle, You (not sucking up. much.), MoMommy, Dooce, annnddd Amalah. I blogged for a bit, but was dumb enough to use our real names. Some “friends” discovered the sight and I went private (ala shuterdown). Am thinking about coming back, but still happy on the fence. Love your blog though, even if I’m mostly just a lurker.
I *just* discovered MOMommy! Still a lurker there, can’t believe I’ve just started reading. She’s very talented.
Also, I had no idea who Dooce was for nearly a year of blogging. People would talk about Dooce, but wouldn’t link to her, so I thought that it was a secret code word that I couldn’t crack.
I just started reading some of the blogs of my girlfriends’ from highschool. Off of their blogs I found other blogs that I liked and it all spiraled down from there. And by spiraled down, I mean I started my own blog for my family and friends to keep up with us on. Now I truly enjoy using it as a journal and a way to keep in touch with others.
BTW, I love your blog. You’ve got a great sense of humor and I (almost) always laugh, ‘cept when you’re serious, and that makes for a great blog to me.
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Just Another Day =-.
Thank you, Sarah.
And I know what you mean by “spiraled down!”
Oh boy, first blogs? Probably those in the birth community. Navel-gazing Midwife (who I now live ten minutes from and consider a dear friend), Rixa, and others that wine has slurred from my brain this evening.
Of course, before blogs, I was one of those social misfits playing world of warcraft through all hours of the night (we lived in spain at the time, so with the time difference our peak playing hours were literally midnight to 6am, and then we slept all day/afternoon), eating hot pockets, coca cola, and slipping outside every few hours for a smoke. Can’t say I don’t miss it a little but like any phase in life, it passes and you (hopefully) move on to better, or at least different, things.
You were one of my first mommy bloggers though.
.-= Stassja´s last blog ..Still kickin! =-.
What a small world to live near someone you first read online years ago!
Oooh, first blog reads, Lotus, when she was still on Myspace. Also Sarah from Imaginary Binky when she was on Myspace too. Then Karen at MiscMum and Oh The Joys.
I think you were one of my first reads too.
It’s funny that you mention Myspace because that’s where I first started writing blog posts!
I have only been reading you for quite sometime now. But your blog is one of my faves. You write from the heart and there’s a tenderness in your writing that I don’t really see in other bloggers. You’re a beautiful soul Jennifer. I hope you know that.XO
.-= Brenda´s last blog ..Boot Camp Update #1 =-.
I’d like to print out this comment and carry around with me to read on bad days. Thank you, Brenda!
I don’t remember when I started reading blogs but I do remember that yours was one of the first – among dozens of others. I found one and then I got hooked.
Of course it took me probably two years after I started reading before I had the thought that maybe I could potentially write my own blog.. but eventually I made the leap.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to turn back now.
P.S. Thank you for sharing your story with all of us.
.-= ClassyFabSarah´s last blog ..I Just Wanna Eat. =-.
It didn’t take me two years, but it did take about six months before I got the courage to let anyone else read something I’d written. I don’t think I can turn back now, either.
My first blog I started reading was just a friend of mine when she got pregnant with her first kids. I had never even heard of a blog before. lol. Then it was you, pioneer woman, redneck mommy, motherhood uncencsored, and rockstarmommy. In the last 3 years that list has grown a lot!!
Rockstarmommy! I loved her. Really miss her blog, I was so sad when she quit. She was the first person who’s photographs really caught my eye and made me want to take better pictures.
I’m delurking!! I still read your blod all the time but never comment. It’s sad, I know. I feel like I am able to keep up with (you which I love) but you have no idea how things are on this end. Maybe one day I will have a blog you can check too
I’m so glad you commented, Jen! Hope you guys are doing well, I’m terrible about emailing/calling people and asking how THEY are doing! Loved your Christmas card, that girl of yours is a cutie!
My first blogs were knitting blogs. Yarn Harlot, January One and Mason Dixon Knitting.
Then when I was pregnant I started reading mommy blogs and found yours and Problem Girl.
I LOVE Problem Girl. She is a great writer and makes me laugh out loud!
I was involved in message boards originally too – over on iVillage. The first blogs that I ever read were ones that members of my April 2001 moms board created – Melissa’s Suburban Bliss and Jenn’s Mommy Needs Coffee. I didn’t really get the whole ‘blog’ thing at the time though.
The next blogs I started reading were ones associated with podcasts I started listening to after I got my first iPod in January of 2007 – <a href="http://manicmommies.com/"Manic Mommies and Pediascribe/Pediacast. It was soon after that when I moved from writing a mostly private journal on LiveJournal and started my own blog.
.-= Deb – Mom of 3 Girls´s last blog ..One a Penny, Two a Penny, Hot Cross Buns… =-.
How interesting that Melissa/Sub. Bliss and Jenn/Mommy Needs Coffee were a part of your message board!
Hmm I don’t remember which were my first blogs. I just wanted to delurk and say HI! I am a reader
.-= S´s last blog ..Attention! Attention!! =-.
Hi! I’m glad you decided to say hello today!
haha, lurker here!
i got into blogging through the scrapbooking community. and i’ve been keeping my own for almost 4 years. but i’m very hit or miss with it.
love reading your blog- thank you for sharing them with us!
Hi Kat! Glad you said hi!
Just saying hi!
Hi back atcha!
I started reading Blonde Champagne and Jennsylvania — two author blogs. Then I read my husband’s cousin’s blog, Steph’s Cup of Tea.
It took my like a year to catch on that there were thousands of blogs out there, many written by moms. I so wish I had been reading mommy blogs when my first son was a newborn. It would have helped so much.
I found your blog on Whistling Leaf Blower’s blogroll, and I’ve been a fan and reader ever since!
.-= mep´s last blog ..Where you lead . . . I will follow. =-.
Oh me, too! I think I would have enjoyed my son’s babyhood much more had I known that what I was going through was perfectly normal. And that others had dealt with a colicky baby.
I think The Pioneer Woman was the first blog I ever read, but shortly after that I found Finding Yourself Despite Yourself and thru her blog roll found you, Motherhood Uncensored and countless others. I don’t agree with every blog I read…and that’s what I love about it. We tend to surround ourselves with people who share similar life views, but in the blogging community I can learn about the lives of homeschooling moms, vegan moms, stay at home moms, photographers, wives with great relationships, wives with hard relationships…anything I want. It makes me a more understanding person. Not to mention the entertainment I get from people like you.
.-= Rachel´s last blog ..What I Am =-.
Exactly! I would never have the opportunity to learn about so many different lifestyles, cultures, religions…I’m definitely more open-minded and curious as a result of reading blogs. The entertainment is pretty great, too.
You were my first blog.
I think I’ve told you that before, no?
That’s why I was SO nervous when I met you at Blogher 2 years ago. You were like…. famous in my eyes. Have a great day Jennifer.
.-= OHmommy´s last blog ..Delurking Day 2010 =-.
You have told me that!
I keep meaning to ask you, did your blog url used to be completely different when you first started commenting/blogging?
I think Swistle was my first read (I believe she was also one of my first commenters other than friends/family I had told about my new site.) You were also within the first… ten, probably, that I stumbled on myself. Interestingly, I am probably the last person in the WORLD to start reading Dooce.
Happy delurking day!
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Keeping Score =-.
Swistle was definitely one of my earlier reads, I found her blog through Beth’s So the Fish Said/Diary of a Playgroup Dropout. And I didn’t even know who Dooce was for the longest time!
I started blogging, halfheartedly back in 2005. I had just learned about blogs and decided to start my own. Up until 2008 the only readers I had were my mom and husband but my writing started to develop over the years. When I discovered the world of mom blogs I was floored and really loved reading and finding new blogs. The very first ones I started following regularly were Girls Gone Child, Dooce, Modobject at Home, and Bad Mommy Moments. Now my Google Reader is full of more blogs than I can read in a day, but I love reading everyone’s stories and it makes me feel like my life is much more normal than I once thought it was.
.-= Melinda´s last blog ..Hypochondriac =-.
I agree, blogs do make life seem more normal!
Also, my Google Reader is so full, it would take a month to read everyone.
Hi – I’ve only been lurking for a bit. I just discovered your blog from Babble and I really enjoy it! I left my first comment yesterday – I guess I’m just ahead of the game! I’m finding it so comforting as a new mom to have a whole world of mommy’s out there who understand – it’s very very easy to feel alone during this whole process! Reading these blogs is like getting free therapy.
I first started reading a couple friends blogs who are no longer blogging. Then it was ZenHabits, Lemon Gloria, then started my own in 2005. I kept it up until last year when I became pregnant and turned 30 – it was called 20-something-oklahoma. Not really fitting anymore. I knew I wanted to come back to it b/c I loved it and just this week started a new blog, Middle Suburbia.
Happy Lurking!!
.-= Canaan´s last blog ..Adoption – next time around =-.
Free therapy! Yes, exactly!
I think it’s great that you’ve started a whole new blog, you’ve been around even longer than me!
I started out reading the blogs of people I already knew, or met in some other way on the internet. Blogs at places like livejournal… gradually I found other people. Mostly through clicking through the blogrolls of blogs I found and liked… now I find new blogs mainly through Google Reader’s recommendations. Like this one
.-= Jenn´s last blog ..Self Portrait Sunday 1/10/10 =-.
I love finding out how people find me, very interesting that it was a Google Reader recommendation!
Hello!! I comment from time to time, so I guess I’m not technically a lurker, but I did want to say hi. I just started reading blogs in the last year or so. You were one of the first along with Rude Cactus and So the Fish Said. Mr. Lady at Whiskey in My Sippy Cup was another early one. Thanks for writing!
LOVE Mr. Lady. She is one helluva writer.
Well, I’ve been reading you for a very long time, Jennifer. Since near the beginning. The very first blog I read was Semi-desperate Housewife. I know her IRL, so that’s how I found her blog. Then from her I read Swistle, when sometimes Sarah & I were her only commentors too.
The rest is pretty much history.
.-= Mommy Daisy´s last blog ..Today’s the Day! =-.
I found Semi-desperate housewife through Swistle, I think…and you through either SDHW or Swistle…can’t remember!
Daring Young Mom and Notes From The Trenches. I used to obsessively stalk their blogs!
.-= Karly´s last blog ..Cheesecake Cookies =-.
I remember obsessively stalking Motherhood Uncensored. I’d hit refresh on days she didn’t post over and over. It was pretty pitiful.
Hi! I started reading Mommy blogs upon finding out I was pregnant last July. I faithfully read yours and a few others daily…like I get super excited when I see new blog posts to read…is that sad? The others I read are: http://www.untanglingknots.com, http://www.motherhood.untanglingknots.com, http://www.jennepper.com, and http://www.hisboyscanswim.com. I’m usually a lurker but thought I’d delurk today…because you said so. =)
No, it’s not sad! I was just replying to another comment saying that I used to hit refresh on one of my favorite blogs when she didn’t post everyday…
And thanks for delurking just because I said so!
I think you and Swistle were some of my first blog reads.
I know that I found your blog via Swistle’s. And I totally lurk on yours, but read EVERY SINGLE POST. Yes, I do.
I’ve been reading you for a while now, and love your honesty, sense of humor, and spirit. My blog started after I had been active on my Babycenter birth board and a few of the other May ’06 moms had started blogs. I can’t remember if I started reading yours before or after I started blogging, but either way, you have definitely inspired me! I only wish I could be as funny as you!
.-= Beth´s last blog ..Sous Chef =-.
I’m glad you mentioned Babycenter…I’d forgotten that I used to read a blog on there, but I didn’t “get” it. I wonder who that blogger was…
Delurking!
.-= Shannon´s last blog ..How 2010 is going to be… =-.
Holla!
I read, sometimes comment, but always enjoy what you have going on over here.
When I started blogging, I was active in a cool, little community called cre8Buzz. I’m still friends with many of the bloggers I met there more than 2 years ago, and was fortunate to meet most of them at BlogHer last July.
Happy De-Day.
.-= Tara R.´s last blog ..Come inside, come inside! =-.
Cre8buzz really had a strong community. Too bad that it didn’t survive.
Crazily enough I started my blog before I started reading blogs! In 2004, one of my good college friends was pregnant and she had a pregnancy website she updated once a week. At the same time, I read Julie and Julia when it came out. I decided I would start one of them there blogs when I got pregnant two weeks later.
At my big ultrasound (yes at 5 months) I found out I was having twins then got put on bedrest three weeks later. After surfing the entire internet, I found blogs to keep me going each day. The first blogs I read were Zucchini and Chocolate, 101 Cookbooks, and Amalah.
I remain an anomaly in the blogging world as I have no desire to market myself, brand myself, or make money from my blog. I don’t read tons of blogs, I just read the ones where I think I could be friends with that person. As a result, I’ve made a lot of great friends over the 4.5 years I’ve been blogging. I’ve met at least 10 of my internet friends and everyone is more awesome in person, which makes me want to stay in my little place, making real connections with people.
A blog I would recommend to people is My Whole Expanse I Cannot See. The author was featured in an episode of the TV version of This American Life. He is a paraplegic and the episode is about his fight for independence with his mother. The only things he can move are his eyes and two fingers, and he is trached to be able to breathe so he can not talk. Yet he lives a normal life, going out drinking, having his writing read at open mics, getting tattoos, dating. I was blown away by this episode and it won a well-deserved Emmy (and he got to attend the Emmies). It is truly inspiring on those days where motherhood wears me down.
.-= LauraC´s last blog ..Documenting things other than the kids =-.
You may call yourself an anomaly, but I think that it’s fabulous. Seriously. Bloggers (including myself) take this blogging stuff WAAAAY too seriously.
Thanks for the recommendation! That blog sounds fascinating. I love just about anything featured on This American Life. I never get to watch the show, only have access to podcasts.
you were one of the first blogs I ever read. Luv you still.
Shameless plug (sorry): come delurk on my post today and i’ll donate $1 to the Haiti relief efforts in the playgroupies name.
.-= designHer Momma´s last blog ..Delurking Day for Disaster Relief =-.
coming over right now…
(And wow, now I feel like I should do the same thing!)
YOU! I began blogging with Blogger two years ago but only posted now and then. Since I have reemerged with a new site and time to fit writing in here and there, I’ve come across so many that I enjoy. I love all of the other blogs mentioned in “Comments” (and some new ones I need to check out!) but you remain my fave. I love your honesty and heart.
.-= Natalie´s last blog ..Good times… =-.
I was so worried when I emailed you after seeing you in the paper that you’d think I was a lunatic stalker. Glad we connected!
Delurking!
.-= donna´s last blog ..UGH =-.
Hello!
i still kinda giggle when thinking about how i first found your blog … under blogger’s SLP link … thinking oh-yay! i found another slp! and then find out that you were a much bigger blogger than i thought …
but i enjoy your writing and stories … so i stick around …
thanks for sharing!
.-= jen´s last blog ..nesting … and a giveaway. =-.
I love that there’s another SLP out there reading. Every time someone asks me an SLP question, I think, “hmm, I should as Jen what she thinks.”
I am a new reader on your blog, just found you about a week ago through my Google reader.
To be honest, I don’t usually leave comments on the busier blogs because I assume that they will go unnoticed, if that makes any sense. But I am here, and I am reading
I know how you feel about not leaving comments at busier blogs. I don’t either! But from my point of view, I know that it’s silly because I do read every comment, though I don’t usually reply to each one.
Am delurking
Have been reading blogs (aside from some IRL friends on LiveJournal) for a couple of years now when I found Amalah’s and Miss Zoot’s blogs. Just made the jump into blogging with a good friend of mine about six months ago and now my reader has hundreds!
It’s amazing how out of control your Reader can get!
Amalah is one of my all time favorites. I’ve only commented there one time that I can remember, but read every single post.
I have been reading your blog for awhile, and really do enjoy it. I got into blogging world 2 1/2 years ago when we brought our son home from China. Like you, I had seen other mommies who were adopting, with blogs. I thought it was a great way to communicate with family in friends – especially while my husband was in China with our son. And it has continued into blogging our families growth. I like having a record of all the fun stuff we do as a family. And it makes it easier than sending a million emails to friends and family to keep them up to date.
I do enjoy your blog, and what attracted it to me at first was the title.
My blog title is such a blessing and a curse! I love it and am annoyed by it at the same time. Probably won’t ever change it, though.
First reads – The Queen of Shake-Shake, Velveteen Mind, and YOU.
I still love your blog (and I’m sorry I’m such a lurker).
.-= amy2boys´s last blog ..I Just Whisper Your Name =-.
I’m a lurker, too. A terrible, no good, lousy lurker.
Am trying to be better in 2010. So far it’s not going well.
I started out reading Catherine Newman on BabyCenter and just about lost it when she left there. Later, I found her again and was so thrilled about it. Then I started reading the blogs of her commenters and decided to start my own little blog.
I still lurk a lot, but mostly I think it is because I am lazy.
.-= Misty´s last blog ..Oops =-.
I feel like I missed out on Catherine Newman’s blog, so many people adore her!
I’m a quasi-lurker…I sometimes comment here. I’m too lazy for consistent commenting.
The first blogs I read were a couple of friends who had them. But yours was one of the first ones of a total stranger…and, I found it from Blogroll surfing.
Happy De-Lurking Day!
.-= Slacker Mama´s last blog ..harder than herding cats =-.
I’m a lurker everywhere I go, too. We should start a club.
Ooooh my first blog? I’m embarrassed to say it was a world of wacraft based blog *blushes*. Yes, I was a gamer! Then I found http://temerity-jane.com and joined NaBloPoMo 2007 without realising what it was! I think I found you on there, along with Veronica from Sleepless Nights and many others. You two are probably the only two I still read religiously, even though I don’t comment as often as I should!
xx
Here’s to Delurker’s Day! hehe
.-= Marylin´s last blog ..No, seriously… SERIOUSLY??? =-.
Don’t be embarrassed, I love that a gamer blog was your first!
I love your blog. I read it daily (or however often you update)
Thank you, Jordan.
Hi! Amalah I think. At least that was close to the first. But I’m old and can’t remember stuff!
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..Meaty Love Stuffed Buns =-.
I’ve been reading her for a long time, too. Her blog is one of my all time favorites!
I read your blog all the time. Every time. One of the few that I go out of my way to not miss.
I just prefer to call you rather than comment. I’m lucky that way… except when you have a bee in your bonnet and then I’m not even a little bit lucky.
.-= Megan {Velveteen Mind}´s last blog ..Looking Forward with Deliberation: Social Media Strategy =-.
I never have bees in my bonnet. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I started an online journal, as they were called back then, back in 1999. It was a very different atmosphere back then. So most of who I used to read at that time are no longer around. Jen at jayesel.net is the only one I can think of.
.-= C @ Kid Things´s last blog ..Giving Credit Where Credit is Due =-.
Online Journal, that sounds so much better that “BLOG”. Blahg. BLAHG. I don’t care for that word. I vote that we start calling the online journals again.
Some of my firsts included Catherine Newman (Ben and Birdy), Greek Tragedy (Stephanie Klein), Dooce, All and Sundry, Amalah — the very top of my favorites today. Yours is also one of my very favorites — really, I’m not just saying that
.
Laura
Ahh, come on…you’re just saying that.
I’m really missing out on Catherine Newman, I think I’m one of the only people who didn’t cut my blogging teeth on her!
I read blogs for about 4 years before I finally started my own. I discovered the world of blogging during my years of infertility/pregnancy loss–very helpful to read others’ stories, since nobody I knew in “real life” was going through anything similar.
I always tend to be a lurker, but need to change that!
Blogs I discovered early on & still read: mimi smartypants, a little pregnant, Here Be Hippogriffs, Flotsam.
Here to be Hippogriffs, she is such a talented writer!
I’m not a lurker so hi!!
.-= AndreAnna´s last blog ..Show me yours =-.
Hi! And I love that you’re donating $1 for each comment you receive…I just left my own comment on your site and tweeted about it!
I started reading blogs after we moved from CA to TX and I was severely missing friends and family. I had started mine to keep them apprised of our goings-on, but it’s changed into something for me to be kinda creative with.
I remember reading you, Heather and Oh the Joys at the beginning. Your blog name is genius.
.-= all things BD´s last blog ..13/365 Wordless Wednesday: Friends =-.
I don’t know what I would have done without blogging during all my moves. I’d be really lonely and unhappy, for sure.
I know I don’t comment enough (STUPID WORK) but I hope you know that I still read and love you. xoxo
.-= Angella´s last blog ..Competely Unbalanced =-.
Same here, I’m horrible about leaving comments. So jealous of your trip to Portland, looked like a fabulous time!
Does it count as lurking if I just discovered you yesterday? I’m interested enough that I plan to keep coming back, but I don’t typically comment much.
I found “mommy blogs” by looking for an answer to a grammar question (a couple of years ago, I think?) and finding it at Bub and Pie. (She’s also an English professor.) From there I found Amalah, and now also keep up with All & Sundry, Dooce, and the Blogess.
Thank you for sharing your stories!
Whether it was yesterday or three years ago, always glad to know who’s out there!
I haven’t read Bub and Pie in a long time! Not sure why, will have to check in on her!