When I was in grade school it was not uncommon for little girls to pass notes to little boys that said, “Do you like me?”  Underneath were two boxes, one labeled, “Yes,” one labeled, “No.”  Oh, the elation if the “Yes” box was checked.  And the devastation if “No” was selected.  Or, even worse, if the note was crumpled in a male fist and no response received.

To a new blogger the world of blogging can be a bit like that.  Don’t get me wrong. Ultimately, I started this blog for me.  And continue to blog for me.  Though I do very much appreciate my readers and find myself unusually excited when I acquire a new follower.  Or somebody likes an article.  Or someone comments.

My immediate response?  “Oh!  They like me!”  And off I scamper to check out their blog. (“Maybe I’ll like them, too!”)

I currently have 29 bright, shiny WordPress followers and 6 email followers.  And they’re not all family and friends.  That’s pretty cool.  Then I go onto other blogs, who have elected to show how many followers they have, and I see 125….500….thousands!  And I experience blog envy.  I want 100 followers.  I want to be one of the cool kids.  The liked kids.  “Really?” says the grown woman to the 4th grader within.  “You’re going there?”  Apparently so.

The other blogging pitfall that reminds me of grade school is that darn statistics page.  I don’t know that it’s good for my mental health to know how many people visit my blog on a daily basis. I have been known to push “refresh” repeatedly in the span of an hour to see if…yes!!!…one more person viewed my blog.  Greece?  Wow!  And that’s fine on days when there is some traffic (You’ll note that I didn’t say “a lot of traffic.”  That’s because I have yet to generate a lot of traffic.  Oh, well, my parents read my blog.  The husband says he reads the blog, but I think he might be perpetually behind).  But, then there’s those days when one person visits my blog.  Those are the days that I find myself asking, “Should I post something?  Maybe I should post something.  I don’t know.  I mean, I can’t expect people to visit daily.  Maybe when I have a big recipe selection built up.  But not right now.  I don’t think.  Maybe I should post something.  Okay.  If I post something should I post a recipe or a story?  I posted a recipe last time.  Maybe it’s time for a story.  Is this a knee jerk reaction?  Maybe I should just wait until tomorrow.  That’s when I intended to post anyways.”

Maybe I’m just crazy.  Maybe I’m just a crazy chick with a streak of 4^th grader in me.

Aiyeeeee!!!  I forgot there was usually a “maybe” option!

I like this one better:

Or is this how it’s done today?