Now's the time to

Think, think, think... (Yeah that's from Playhouse Disney's "My Friends Tigger and Pooh".)

I have been toying with going public with my blog. As in actually coming out to people I know, forwarding Soup's address, and following other people's blogs un-anonymously. Here's my pros/cons list:

Pro: Feedback. Initially, I started blogging for myself to grow as a writer, but now I'm thinking a response or two might be kinda fun.

Con: Feedback. Do I really WANT people critiquing my writing? Maybe. Do I want people critiquing my parenting and life choices? Absolutely not.

Pro: I think I am living a very common and ordinary life.

Con: I think I am living a very common and ordinary life. I'm not struggling with abject poverty, massive dysfunction, or hanging on to a sick child. I'm kinda mostly boring -- or at least as boring as one can be while working full-time and raising young children.

Pro: I'm a liberal atheist hippie in the Midwest -- sort of uncommon, I guess. Well, I'm not really a hippie as I have never done drugs. OK, I am guilty of underage drinking. Oh, does using Benadryl to fall asleep occasionally count as drug abuse? I did, however decide that becoming a functional alcoholic wasn't a good career goal, so I have shelved that for the time being.

Con: My viewpoint is different than lots of people I know -- will I be disappointing them by coming out of the closet as a liberal atheist almost-hippie?

Pro: Celebrity status! What? Oh, yeah, I'm in Iowa. There are no real celebrities and I don't post pictures of myself on my blog regularly (mostly because I can barely stand my reflection, why on earth would I expose anyone else to that?).

Con: Security. I seriously would hate to "sanitize" my blog by changing my kids names and calling my husband something extra-cute, like "McLovehandles." Yeah, if I go for it, I go whole hog.

Pro: Increased traffic and the potential to meet some really cool people!

Con: Advertising and junk like that. I'm fundamentally lazy and so not sure if I could deal with corporate sponsorship. Who am I kidding? I don't wanna play by anyone else's rules. Alright, I suppose I can display a button or something. but only for stuff I believe in, OK? Ghiradelli Chocolate, for example. I could easily display that.

Pro: More time to focus on me! Recapping and thinking and telling people, "OOh! Sorry, I've got to blog... Do you think you could do my dishes while I'm inspired?"

Con: I already have two full-time jobs -- the one I'm paid to do and the one I paid to do. I can't find time to hop on a treadmill, would I really have time to be a REAL blogger?

And I might need an editor as I nearly always blog, post, and then discover my typos and such weeks down the line. Thank you, Mozilla Firefox for the built in spel checque...

Anyway, this is some of the stuff about which I am thinking, thinking, thinking...