Fun Monday and the book swap

Lisa is hosting this weeks Fun Monday and this is what she says:

I’d like to know more about you, what makes you tick. I’d like to know how you started blogging. Did you keep a diary under lock and key safely hidden as a child? Do you still? Do you share the same things on your blog that you would have, or do, in your diary? Why did you start blogging and why do you continue? May as well throw in any roadblocks you have run into while blogging. If you still have your old diaries we’d love to see them.

My old diaries and the corny poetry I wrote in junior high were all thrown away the day I moved out with my boyfriend when I was 19. I didn't need him reading that stuff. I should have known right then and there that we would never work out. If you can't trust your partner with your innermost secret thoughts from when you were 12 and 13 then you have a serious problem.

I started keeping a diary when I was about 9. I remember that diary well, it was one of those ones with a page for a day. It was fairly thick, but quite tiny. It had one of those locks that don't really lock. It was one of the gifts in my stocking. Here is quite possibly what it may have said (true story here!):

"Dear Diary,
Today in the line up when recess was over, Tony pulled my pants down. Everyone laughed because I was wearing underwear with 3 elephants on them. I went into the bathroom and cried"

God damn Tony Es.pirito. I've never gotten over that. Oh, and he used to call me stink bomb. God, he was mean to me.

I was not a faithful diarist, but I did always have a diary off and on until I was 21 and then, for reasons not to be mentioned, that final diary was thrown away. I meant to keep a journal when I went to Ireland in 2001, but I wrote in it exactly once. Before I left. I do still have a diary, two actually, tucked away in my pajama drawer. I started reading about blogs and in 2005 my first blog was born. It has exactly one entry and then I couldn't log onto it again and this blog was started. And here we are 2 years later. Today, this is my journal, it has been Saoirse and Sophie's baby record books and has even been a photo album, since I haven't printed a picture in ages.

Last week I wrote a post over at My 4 Kids saying what blogging has meant to me and being the lazy arse I am I will copy it here, with apologies to those of you who read it last week.

I started blogging just over 2 years ago. I was going to blog about motherhood, but my blog turned into my very own cheap brand of therapy, with a whole lot of fantastic people playing psychiatrists or just offering me a "Hey, I've been there and you will get through this." My house may be a little messier, but my sanity? That girl is intact. Mostly.

I have said before that I like my blogger friends better than the majority of my daily life friends. You are the people I tell about the troubles with my oldest daughter, who at 12 drives me absolutely mad. It is you that I sometimes tell about the fights with my partner. While I write for myself, I also write with the hope that someone will read my blog and know how I am feeling, or be sympathetic to what's been going on. Every once in a while a good kick in the ass works wonders too.

Once upon a time, I read a blog post that discussed whether or not bloggers could be considered friends. At the time, I thought "Maybe." Now, I think "Definitely!" No, I may not know most of you in person (although I was lucky enough to meet a blogger last week) and I may never have the opportunity to meet you (unless I win the lottery- then you're all invited to my new house for my very own mini blogher) but you are most definitely my friends. Surely a stranger would not send your daughter a gift for her birthday? A stranger would not send you an email telling you things she is not ready to put into her own blog. A stranger may tell you what you want to hear, but it is your friends who tell you what you need to hear.

So I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful ladies (and a few fellas!) that I have met on this journey. I really do adore you all.

What I had meant to mention in that post was that the girl who asked whether or not bloggers could be considered friends said no, that they weren't. When she turned off her computer she didn't give another thought to the bloggers she had just read. I am the opposite. I wonder about how things are going with you, there are tons of you that I would love to ring up and have a chat with, I talk about you about other people. I wish you were all on facebook (hint, hint.) There have been a few bloggers that have clsed their blogs and I quite often wonder what happened to them and how they are.

Hmmm...not so sure I actually answered that Fun Monday question.

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Remember you have until Wednesday to sign up for the book swap! There are currently 20 people, though I am still waiting for addresses from 3 of you. For those of you who didn't read the other post, you simply have to send a book you have read and enjoyed or a book by a local author to the blogger you get. Or you can send a book to their child(ren) or both. Whatever catches your fancy. I did have the mail by date as Wednesday, September 5th but I think I am going to move it forwarda week as I completely forgot that we Canadians return to school on the Tuesday and I, for one, cannot think about more than one project! Those of you who have been reading me for anything longer than 2 weeks should know this to be very, very true!