Intro

I am really fascinated by blogs, especially how men and women seem to post very different content. I just started reading the blogs of some people in my neighborhood, and frankly, I feel like an Internet stalker. It is completely bizarre to me that I exchange small talk with people after reading their personal thoughts. I often have to stop myself from asking them about something I read on their blog, especially since I ask a lot of questions in awkward social situations so I have to talk less. Public self disclosure is not really my thing, but I thought it would be less weird to read other people's blogs if I had one myself.

For the record, though, written diaries and journals are much cooler. I don't know what is going to happen to archival research. Hopefully contemporary writers are saving their e-mails and occasionally printing them out and sewing them into facsimiles.

My husband, Brian, travels a lot now. Everyone always asks me if I get nervous staying in the neighborhood alone, but I honestly don't. Our street is fairly quiet and our next door neighbors are amazing. Of course, it helps that there are tons of friends just blocks away that I know I can call if something happened. I always wondered what it would take to make me not want to spend the night alone, and last night I found out. Apparently, it is the swat team. Around five, a couple of swat team vans sped down our street. I checked out the news and a guy (off his meds) was shooting from his house a street down from us. The cops advised everyone to stay inside, preferably in the basement. About two seconds after I read that, I called my mom and escaped to the burbs. As I was driving away, I felt an enormous amount of relief escaping the city. I never felt personally threatened, but I just didn't feel like hearing the police helicopters anymore. Watching the news later with my family, though, I just wanted to be home. I really felt like my place was in the neighborhood and I was disappointed with myself for leaving. Mostly, it surfaced the nagging truth behind all my actions in the community- the fact that I chose to live here and can chose to leave any time that I want. I am enormously privileged and the options I have will always separate me from my neighbors.