Wow...
I have a postcard of a drawing, with the caption, "Unusually Repulsive Cat Startled by a Gesture of Affection." That`s how I feel, looking at my comments. Okay, so I DID leave that post on top of my blog for an extra day, like a cheap floozy propositioning as many sailors as she can. But I`m mighty glad I did a delurking post after all.
To be sure, I didn`t get 78 comments like MFA Mama did. I didn`t get 460 comments like Finslippy. Nor did I get so many comments that I decided to shut them down entirely months and months ago, like Dooce, whose husband was able to quit his job because they can live on the ad revenue from her blog. I told Hub about her, and he didn`t believe me. (I mean, wouldn`t it be hilarious if Dooce turned out to be the blogging equivalent of James Frey or JT Leroy, and Heather Armstrong is really not the sharp, witty stay-at-home mother of an adorable baby girl, but some childless old fart who created the whole persona from scratch to get attention?)
But I think I got just the right number of comments, so that a personal response to each one is possible, and I can also return your favor and start reading all of your blogs, too. This would not be possible past a certain number, because, well, I do at least try to have a life outside my computer, though whether I succeed or not depends on your definition of "a life."
So, to continue... in the order of comments received:
1) Becky, I confess I didn`t believe you when you said you asked for delurkers and got zero -- not even one from your husband. I am sorry for doubting you. I feel like the man with cheap shoes complaining to the man with no feet.
2) Granny -- hi. Keep it up!
3) Jen, thanks for helping me set up my blog (which is why Jen is listed as a "contributor" at the top, in case any of you have ever wondered). I think I already answered your question in this post, but I will recap: our household consists of an English-speaking mother who speaks only English to the kids but Japanese to the father, who sometimes speaks English to the mother but never to the kids. The kids speak Japanese to their father and to each other, but only English to their mother. If you find that confusing, it might help to draw a little chart, with arrows.
4) Kath2003sma, I`m guessing you went to Sacred Heart? I`ve heard stories. And you married a French guy instead of a Japanese guy? Oh, lucky you! You wanna trade? (Just kidding, Hub. Stop reading my blog if it upsets you so much.)
5) Faith, thanks. I think you are the first human who has ever called me, "personable." This makes me really, really like you.
6) AmericanFamily, I have lurked on your blog, too, on and off, for nearly a year. I think I found you through comments on Blogging Baby. Raising a mixed-race part-Asian family in SF is as easy as breathing, but it seems to be a different story sometimes in the Midwest.
7) JW, `nuff said.
8) Andrea, it looks as if half my commenters found me through your blog! What can I say, except, THANKS. And yes, I checked out the foreign wives link. Thanks again.
9) Uncle Roger -- hi, neighbor! It`s a beautiful day in the neeeeeeeeeighborhood....
10) Christine & Eishichi, I will enjoy following the story of another mixed couple in Japan. I really hope your father-in-law doesn`t make you eat sea cucumbers, as mine does.
11) Sedmikraska, you win the prize for weirdest question. Did I ever attend a Baptist uni? Is that short for "university," or is it some other slang of which I am not aware? To the best of my knowledge, I have never attended a Baptist anything, except for a mothers` group in LA that met at a Southern Baptist church hall. Um.... why do you ask? Is there something about me that strikes you as particularly Baptist? Is it all my swear words and references to consuming great quantities of alcohol?
12) Frannytop -- another Canadian reader. I seem to be attracting a fair number of readers from north of the border. Is it because I hate America? C`mon, you can tell me -- is that what it is?
13) Tertia -- yours was the very first personal blog I ever read, from the link on Blogging Baby (which was the very first blog of any kind I ever read). You are my blogging idol, and every time I hear from you, it`s as thrilling as hearing from Oprah or something. (No, even more -- I`m not much of an Oprah fan, because I don`t watch much TV). The idea that someone in South Africa is reading about my boring life here in SF is really, really cool. And I am utterly in AWE that you shave your cooter. (Oh, Hub -- I did warn you not to read this!) I raise my glass (of wine) to you.
14) Dutch, you and Wood and Juniper are the cutest, coolest family. Heartwarming, with an edge. Okay, I had better stop, before I gush too much, and you start worrying about me stalking you. That is NOT me sitting in the car parked outside your building, I swear. Really.
15) Sally, since you`re a graphic designer, I am imagining you as a cool, arty type of person. I am also envisioning friendly dogs that smile and wag their tails. And I am picturing horrible winter weather in Chicago, and wondering how you get any work done stuck in the house with your kids? Kudos to you, and your comment has raised more questions than it answered!
16) J. -- my God, I never knew you existed, and you have me blogrolled! Imagine THAT! I do think I remember you commenting once when I was complaining about doing laundry. (I usually click on the link to other people`s blogs if they leave comments on mine, but I do get busy and miss some -- hey, I`m human, sorry!)
Okay, about the laundry -- the truth is, I really don`t mind doing it. For several years, when I was young and single in Tokyo, I had to do my laundry at a laundromat. Since then, having my own washer and dryer has always felt like a luxury. I throw the dirty clothing in the machine in the comfort and privacy of my own home, press a few buttons, throw it in another machine, and voila -- it`s done. As for putting it all away, I have that very simplified -- all three kids` clothes are kept in dressers in our guest room, right next to the laundry room. If they want to bring some clothes to their own rooms, fine, but they have to do that part themselves. When I was working fulltime, I used to throw Hub`s clothes in a big, wrinkled pile in front of his closet, for him to fold and put away. Now that I have more time, I do fold them, and put the stack inside his closet door, so I don`t have to look at it. I don`t iron, however. Never. Never ever ever.
17) Val, when I was little I wanted to be a veterinarian because I truly love animals. But I am very allergic to fur -- I get all sneezy and wheezy and sometimes even itchy, especially from horses. I read your blog and envy your life, except for the cancer part. Yeah, your cancer is a bitch. I hope it spontaneously disappears, along with your ex-husband.
18) Autumn`s Mom -- were you really never going to delurk, if J. hadn`t outted you? Another person who had me blogrolled -- right under Dooce herself, for godssake! And you know me from MIM -- that`s some introduction.
19) MFA Mama, hey, shut up, will ya? Who are you calling a whore? Look at the whore calling a whore a whore! WHORE!
20) Kitsunekaze, thank you for saying I`m "not stupid." Be assured that I am still challenged in many other ways, ways in which intelligence can`t save me. As I`ve said before on "I`m Not Sorry," I really love your name.
21) Hello, Midori in Kagoshima! I`ve never been there, but I heard it`s pretty. One of my best friends in Tokyo has a son who also burned his hand on a supposedly baby-safe humidifier, and he later had to have plastic surgery and a skin graft to get rid of scar tissue because he wasn`t using one of his fingers. Those things need more warnings -- I`ll bet this happens more than people think.
22) Angela, as for getting magic markers off walls, I`ve found that if Mr. Clean Magic Erasers don`t do the job, the only thing to do is paint over them. Anyone else have any ideas?
23) Andie D.! Stay-at-home-cowgirl! Whenever I open your site, Little Son points to your blog template and says, "kaba," which is the Japanese word for hippo. And this is very, very cute. So whenever he`s sitting on my lap, you get a ton of extra clicks.
24) Mo-wo, what do you mean by the "tantalizing reserve and mystery of your persona?" Do you realize that if I revealed ALL the details of my mundane life and experiences, even my old friends would stop reading my blog? And goddamnit, I`m a First Ammendment fanatic -- if I want to do a delurking post, then I will exercise my right to do one. And as for your question about weird festivals, I`ve heard of places in Japan that have some dedicated to penises, but our neighborhood shrine just had one dedicated to rain for crops. Sorry. Actually, considering how little land is devoted to agriculture and how many hostess bars there are in Tokyo (especially since we lived very near Roppongi), it would have made much more sense to have one dedicated to penises.
25) Carolyn R. from Michigan -- you don`t have a blog? How will the rest of us know what it`s like to raise a "caboose" kid, with much older siblings? I`ve wondered about that.
26) Carrie Jo, you found me through Tertia`s blog, so I hope some of her eventual great luck in creating beautiful offspring rubbed off onto you.
Whew! I`m tired now. I will publish this, and then, to bring myself back down to earth, I will go read a copy of my performance evaluation I got a few months after I returned to work following my maternity leave with Little Son -- let`s just say it didn`t refer to me as "personable" or "smart."
And thanks again. Really. I love you guys!
To be sure, I didn`t get 78 comments like MFA Mama did. I didn`t get 460 comments like Finslippy. Nor did I get so many comments that I decided to shut them down entirely months and months ago, like Dooce, whose husband was able to quit his job because they can live on the ad revenue from her blog. I told Hub about her, and he didn`t believe me. (I mean, wouldn`t it be hilarious if Dooce turned out to be the blogging equivalent of James Frey or JT Leroy, and Heather Armstrong is really not the sharp, witty stay-at-home mother of an adorable baby girl, but some childless old fart who created the whole persona from scratch to get attention?)
But I think I got just the right number of comments, so that a personal response to each one is possible, and I can also return your favor and start reading all of your blogs, too. This would not be possible past a certain number, because, well, I do at least try to have a life outside my computer, though whether I succeed or not depends on your definition of "a life."
So, to continue... in the order of comments received:
1) Becky, I confess I didn`t believe you when you said you asked for delurkers and got zero -- not even one from your husband. I am sorry for doubting you. I feel like the man with cheap shoes complaining to the man with no feet.
2) Granny -- hi. Keep it up!
3) Jen, thanks for helping me set up my blog (which is why Jen is listed as a "contributor" at the top, in case any of you have ever wondered). I think I already answered your question in this post, but I will recap: our household consists of an English-speaking mother who speaks only English to the kids but Japanese to the father, who sometimes speaks English to the mother but never to the kids. The kids speak Japanese to their father and to each other, but only English to their mother. If you find that confusing, it might help to draw a little chart, with arrows.
4) Kath2003sma, I`m guessing you went to Sacred Heart? I`ve heard stories. And you married a French guy instead of a Japanese guy? Oh, lucky you! You wanna trade? (Just kidding, Hub. Stop reading my blog if it upsets you so much.)
5) Faith, thanks. I think you are the first human who has ever called me, "personable." This makes me really, really like you.
6) AmericanFamily, I have lurked on your blog, too, on and off, for nearly a year. I think I found you through comments on Blogging Baby. Raising a mixed-race part-Asian family in SF is as easy as breathing, but it seems to be a different story sometimes in the Midwest.
7) JW, `nuff said.
8) Andrea, it looks as if half my commenters found me through your blog! What can I say, except, THANKS. And yes, I checked out the foreign wives link. Thanks again.
9) Uncle Roger -- hi, neighbor! It`s a beautiful day in the neeeeeeeeeighborhood....
10) Christine & Eishichi, I will enjoy following the story of another mixed couple in Japan. I really hope your father-in-law doesn`t make you eat sea cucumbers, as mine does.
11) Sedmikraska, you win the prize for weirdest question. Did I ever attend a Baptist uni? Is that short for "university," or is it some other slang of which I am not aware? To the best of my knowledge, I have never attended a Baptist anything, except for a mothers` group in LA that met at a Southern Baptist church hall. Um.... why do you ask? Is there something about me that strikes you as particularly Baptist? Is it all my swear words and references to consuming great quantities of alcohol?
12) Frannytop -- another Canadian reader. I seem to be attracting a fair number of readers from north of the border. Is it because I hate America? C`mon, you can tell me -- is that what it is?
13) Tertia -- yours was the very first personal blog I ever read, from the link on Blogging Baby (which was the very first blog of any kind I ever read). You are my blogging idol, and every time I hear from you, it`s as thrilling as hearing from Oprah or something. (No, even more -- I`m not much of an Oprah fan, because I don`t watch much TV). The idea that someone in South Africa is reading about my boring life here in SF is really, really cool. And I am utterly in AWE that you shave your cooter. (Oh, Hub -- I did warn you not to read this!) I raise my glass (of wine) to you.
14) Dutch, you and Wood and Juniper are the cutest, coolest family. Heartwarming, with an edge. Okay, I had better stop, before I gush too much, and you start worrying about me stalking you. That is NOT me sitting in the car parked outside your building, I swear. Really.
15) Sally, since you`re a graphic designer, I am imagining you as a cool, arty type of person. I am also envisioning friendly dogs that smile and wag their tails. And I am picturing horrible winter weather in Chicago, and wondering how you get any work done stuck in the house with your kids? Kudos to you, and your comment has raised more questions than it answered!
16) J. -- my God, I never knew you existed, and you have me blogrolled! Imagine THAT! I do think I remember you commenting once when I was complaining about doing laundry. (I usually click on the link to other people`s blogs if they leave comments on mine, but I do get busy and miss some -- hey, I`m human, sorry!)
Okay, about the laundry -- the truth is, I really don`t mind doing it. For several years, when I was young and single in Tokyo, I had to do my laundry at a laundromat. Since then, having my own washer and dryer has always felt like a luxury. I throw the dirty clothing in the machine in the comfort and privacy of my own home, press a few buttons, throw it in another machine, and voila -- it`s done. As for putting it all away, I have that very simplified -- all three kids` clothes are kept in dressers in our guest room, right next to the laundry room. If they want to bring some clothes to their own rooms, fine, but they have to do that part themselves. When I was working fulltime, I used to throw Hub`s clothes in a big, wrinkled pile in front of his closet, for him to fold and put away. Now that I have more time, I do fold them, and put the stack inside his closet door, so I don`t have to look at it. I don`t iron, however. Never. Never ever ever.
17) Val, when I was little I wanted to be a veterinarian because I truly love animals. But I am very allergic to fur -- I get all sneezy and wheezy and sometimes even itchy, especially from horses. I read your blog and envy your life, except for the cancer part. Yeah, your cancer is a bitch. I hope it spontaneously disappears, along with your ex-husband.
18) Autumn`s Mom -- were you really never going to delurk, if J. hadn`t outted you? Another person who had me blogrolled -- right under Dooce herself, for godssake! And you know me from MIM -- that`s some introduction.
19) MFA Mama, hey, shut up, will ya? Who are you calling a whore? Look at the whore calling a whore a whore! WHORE!
20) Kitsunekaze, thank you for saying I`m "not stupid." Be assured that I am still challenged in many other ways, ways in which intelligence can`t save me. As I`ve said before on "I`m Not Sorry," I really love your name.
21) Hello, Midori in Kagoshima! I`ve never been there, but I heard it`s pretty. One of my best friends in Tokyo has a son who also burned his hand on a supposedly baby-safe humidifier, and he later had to have plastic surgery and a skin graft to get rid of scar tissue because he wasn`t using one of his fingers. Those things need more warnings -- I`ll bet this happens more than people think.
22) Angela, as for getting magic markers off walls, I`ve found that if Mr. Clean Magic Erasers don`t do the job, the only thing to do is paint over them. Anyone else have any ideas?
23) Andie D.! Stay-at-home-cowgirl! Whenever I open your site, Little Son points to your blog template and says, "kaba," which is the Japanese word for hippo. And this is very, very cute. So whenever he`s sitting on my lap, you get a ton of extra clicks.
24) Mo-wo, what do you mean by the "tantalizing reserve and mystery of your persona?" Do you realize that if I revealed ALL the details of my mundane life and experiences, even my old friends would stop reading my blog? And goddamnit, I`m a First Ammendment fanatic -- if I want to do a delurking post, then I will exercise my right to do one. And as for your question about weird festivals, I`ve heard of places in Japan that have some dedicated to penises, but our neighborhood shrine just had one dedicated to rain for crops. Sorry. Actually, considering how little land is devoted to agriculture and how many hostess bars there are in Tokyo (especially since we lived very near Roppongi), it would have made much more sense to have one dedicated to penises.
25) Carolyn R. from Michigan -- you don`t have a blog? How will the rest of us know what it`s like to raise a "caboose" kid, with much older siblings? I`ve wondered about that.
26) Carrie Jo, you found me through Tertia`s blog, so I hope some of her eventual great luck in creating beautiful offspring rubbed off onto you.
Whew! I`m tired now. I will publish this, and then, to bring myself back down to earth, I will go read a copy of my performance evaluation I got a few months after I returned to work following my maternity leave with Little Son -- let`s just say it didn`t refer to me as "personable" or "smart."
And thanks again. Really. I love you guys!
posted by L. at 12:30 PM
12 Comments:
Hi L,
I blogrolled you for my own reason...not that many people read my blog (maybe 4?) and I wanted the links of blogs I like to be right there where I could find them. Sort of like a 'favorites' area on explorer. :)
I didn't realize it was any kind of comment to blogroll someone, so let me make sure that it's ok with you...
And thanks for your comment on my post today. I felt famous, having someone other than my close friends comment.
I now KNOW that I love you....
"And goddamnit, I`m a First Ammendment fanatic -- if I want to do a delurking post, then I will exercise my right to do one."
There were some delurking haters out there, but I think the majority of us had some fucking fun, and there ain't nothing wrong with that!
Hmmm... would this be your cat? Interesting.
oooh J shouldnt have said that - now we have to check you out!!!
Great job L, love you as always.
Oh yes, I remember that now! But thanks for re-hashing it. :)
I LOVED reading your responses to everyone's comments! Unfortunately, you just increased my summer (well, winter, I guess) blog reading assignments...so many interesting people all around the world! Damn! :)
That's why I read you - you make me think. I won't start a blog because reading is easier but you have actually given me a reason to do so. Wow. Now I have to think about that. Don't hold your breath though. Good luck with the Catholic school thing. We have to decide where to send the youngest next year and our beloved school is going "too Catholic". Wonder what that really means? Too rigid, I guess. Anyway, good luck.
J., I`m honored to be blogrolled. Paste my link up on a big board, sky-write it with airplane exhaust, put it in bottles and float them in the ocean. The Internet is a beautiful place.
Yes, Uncle Roger, I mean that very same cat. I thought it was Ralph Steadman -- doesn`t the signature look like Ralph Steadman`s?
Carolyn R., I am a little terrified to hear about what "too Catholic" might mean. Our school isn`t so Catholic, and yet my older son`s teacher keeps telling me he is her "cross to bear." Go figure.
Thanks again, everyone, for reading my blog!
I'm actually Kath2003sma but now that I have 6 whole posts on my blog, I feel brave enough to admit it.
No, I didn't go to Sacred Heart. I went to the other Catholic girls school that starts with S...
To be fair, except for one really evil nun who told me my dad would go to hell for working on Sunday, I loved it there. Fondest memories of school and all that.
Back to accolades--love your blog and will keep lurking (and maybe comment from time to time).
L., how wonderful that commented on everyone's comments.
"Too Catholic" to me has usually meant "warped" Catholic. Usually someone or some group that lost touch with Jesus: "I give you a new commandment: love one another".
I have never, ever, even for a blip of a time, thought of you as an unusually repulsive cat!
I didn't ask you any questions because I have to admit that most of the time I just enjoy the excitement of getting what I find when I get here.
That is a recommendation btw.
ooooo booooo I missed out on THE fun!!! darnit. Well I did just manage my bookmarks so that you were in my daily read section.... so that won't happen again. I do have a question...... do you ever think about going BACK? I mean it sounds like living here is kinda hard expeically for big son and I donno the history of why you moved back here or why you left here or any of it. I mostly started reading you after you started reading me :) your comments were fantistic AND then I saw Gawdessness up there doing her bit and I knew I wanted to read you. You are NOT boring .... actually I think you are better then Dooce...... well I do. And I hate that her comments are down. I rarely keep reading people's blogs after they become password protect or comments shut down. (cubbie that doesn't include you incase you are reading! you have a good reason) Oh and one more thing just incase none of your other readers know THIS LADY HERE DOESN'T KNOW ME AND YET WHEN I NEEDED SOMEONE TO GO TO THE DOCTORS WITH ME BECAUSE I WAS SCARED SHE OFFERED TO DROP EVERYTHING AND COME HELP ME!! SHE ROCKS!!!!!!
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