Speaking of Successful Blogs

I must admit I am recently and completely obsessed with The Pioneer Woman's blog.  I heard she offered wonderful give-aways on her site and noticed a gorgeous lidded pot available for enthused readers who left a comment on Friday and Friday only.  Ree mentioned three would be given away and I thought my chances might be pretty good.  That is, until I scrolled down to comments and saw 33,000 other folks had beaten me to the punch.  In one day.

Whereas I hesitate to remove my own page views from my Blogger stats lest I am left with no stats at all.  I've always maintained I'm my own best audience and Blogger stats shows I'm no liar.

You can imagine my surprise and joy when someone I don't know in real life and am not related to by blood or marriage mentioned my blog the other day on a homeschool mom chat board.

In my euphoria, I did not notice she began her post title with a "Hmmm..."  Rookie mistake.  "Hmmm...." and "Just curious" always mean the poster is about to eviscerate you.  Don't be fooled if you are on a Christian mama board or even talking to a real life Christian mama.  They can be the most practiced at this skill.  Beware in the South that this type usually precedes the comment with a "bless your heart" or "bless her heart" before moving in for the kill.

I skipped the hmm until I read the comment, which sweetly wondered if I hadn't blogged just the opposite perspective of the one I voiced on the chat board.

I don't know, did I?  Very possibly.  I deliberately ignored the obvious "you hypocrite" undertone and decided to center on the positive.  This lady remembered my blog?  And a post I didn't even remember?  That's amazing to me.  I can't remember what I said yesterday and my writing lodged that firmly in her brain?

Naturally, I thanked her for being a reader and asked her to become a "follower" of the blog so I would know she's reading.  Plus, 11 followers seems so much less loser-ish than 10, don'tcha think?

To which she replied she was NOT (ok, I capped.  She didn't, but it felt like she did.) a reader.  She had read it one time, "Sorry to pop my bubble."

But ya know what?  I'm still kindof elated.  I never did find whatever post she recalled, but I obviously provoked an intense reaction in her.  Strongly negative, but surely that's better than lukewarm, right?  I'm gonna go out on limb here and state categorically that Jesus thought so.  And you know Jesus is the trump card that ends all arguments, so I win.

I don't want you all--all 10 of you--to think poorly of this woman because she seems quite friendly and wonderful to everyone else on the board.  I can only surmise the issue is me.  Probably, I brought this one on myself by a true but unnecessary comment a year or so ago in response to a post of hers.  There's another lesson in that for me, I am sure.  If I were going to write myself a note about it, I'd probably begin it with a "Hmmm..."

(If you are reading my blog, whether by FB or another means, if you'd take a moment to become a "follower" on the blog's homepage, I'd appreciate it!)

Blessings, Holly