clique here

recently a good friend asked me how she should go about getting more readers for her blog. she has been blogging for awhile, and must have noticed that usually there are a few comments on my musings.

it got me thinking about this blog circle thing. in some ways, it reminds me of grade school when you spent your time on the playground with those people you had the most "in common" with...but as we get older, hopefully, those circles tend to overlap a bit.

i have more circles of friends now, mostly because i have learned that one size does not fit all with friends. what is important is just to connect on some level, not every single level in your life. so i'm taking stock of THIS group, the blogging friends, and thinking about where they come from.

first off, there are old friends who come to my blog. like my friend kirsten. i wish all of you guys would read her blog, it is so great! it's unique, like her. kirst and i have been friends since about 1988, when i worked at sdsu and she came to apply for a job in my dept. she was fresh off the bus with a transfer from the u. of minn, having followed her boyfriend (now husband) who was getting his masters degree in brookeville. we became friends pretty quickly, as i recall. she was "cooler" than i and had that city vibe that a small-town girl like me never did really master. we both liked alot of the same things then that we do now, even though our lives are very different. i stayed single and had a business instead of babies, and she has long since left the work world for the valiant task of staying home with her 3 great kids (and um, 44 pets :)) - and a husband! - and we still like to garden, crochet, eat, gab and lounge together. her blog comments remind me of how much i love her, and how much she knows about me, and i about her. it's good.

then, there are a couple other old friends, some comment and some don't. that's okay, i am glad you guys are here too :)

then, there are the "design girls" - the women who like me, have careers as art directors. i LOVE having these women in my life. they are the ones that i can spend hours and hours and hours talking about what is pretty and why. i cannot imagine these girls not being in my life. my friend c. calls it "playing barbies" when we get together and that is just what it is...!

then, there is one boy - that i know of - who reads. he is a former co-worker and has pretty much heard about all of the dramatic stuff in my life. and i in his. he also fixes my web and email problems and helps me move :)) he is great.

then, there are one or two "clients" - i use the parenthesis, because these are specifically the kind of clients that i might share more in common with than most clients. these are the clients that i kind of would rather have as friends. the other ones do not know i have a blog :)

then, there are carey's friends. well, i should rephrase that. there is carey. she has been my "husband" for the last 10 or 11 years, and she is very popular it seems. we joke that in any other part of our lives, we probably would not have been friends. she is tall and beautiful and athletic and nice. i am short and quirky looking and artsy and kind of bossy :)) ha ha. but lucky for me, she writes words and i make pictures, and somebody paid us both money a long time ago to forge a wonderful friendship while we worked.

and as for her friends, they are awesome too! i have heard about all of them for years, the sdsu days, the chick reunions, the stories. lots and lots of stories, and even itty bitty pictures in my head of who these women are. oh, and there is even a new friend or two that she has picked up SINCE sdsu. all of them seem to blog, which is GREAT for me. it's like i went back to school and all of a sudden got to sit at the popular girls table :)) at least that is what these women are to me. they are funny, smart, kind, vulnerable, good people. and i like getting to be a part of their day thru this silly blog.

then, of course, there is the Lord! He blogs, you know. not always, but quite often. i see that He frequents many of the other blogs i read too, in the stories and the kids and the husbands and the love and concern and support that pours out onto the posts.

and that is it, i think. all i know is, if blogging is cliquish, i think we are all in the "in" crowd :))