The feeling after a large meal

I just finished eating my dinner. I made salmon patties with baby peas and creamed corn, and just for variety made homemade spiced hot cider with some store-bought cider I accidentally left on the counter overnight. Boiling makes all the potential nasties go away -- as does Tuaca and/or Southern Comfort... but that's another story. As I sit here rubbing my belly, I am acutely aware of my body starting the digestion process as my stomach makes its usual rumblings and tells my brain "ENOUGH! We're all good here -- carry on your merry way, please!" sometimes with a "... now go jog around the neighborhood", or more likely "... what? No ice-cream?" Oddly, that analogy seemed to fit the day today. I've had enough, and I'm ready for my ice cream.

As some (very few) of you know, yesterday I started my LiveJournal with its first post and its first rather empty entry. In a way I'm proud that I got it started, and I'm finally making good on a New Year's Resolution (not counting that its not only late for January, but even later for probably 15 January's or so ago). I have mixed feelings -- kind of like the day after the first day at school. "Will they like me? Will anyone NOT like me? Does anyone notice enough? Do I need to make a screaming spectacle of myself to get noticed? Will the wrong people like me? Will I get hated by the right people?" Things like that -- more mental shrinkage than skinny-dipping in the lake in early February.

Today was good for me, blog-wise. I had two very good friends "announce me" to their blog-world. I love both of them dearly for their friendship, their respect, their opinions and their criticisms. To me, I can't get much better of a send-off. Of course, it's a bit like being called out of a birthday party to make an extemporaneous speech in front of the group of semi-strangers. I have gotten by in my life by just winging it, and often impressing no one more than myself. Letdowns are something you learn to live with, too... but as a very unlikely young 13 year old (I get the strangest random instant-messages) told me lately, his basketball coach told him "The only shot you will always miss is the one you don't take." Odd being taught by someone so young, and a concept so cliché. I HATED my basketball coach! I guess I might have owed him at least a little credit if they teach such truisms such as this. To add to my bewildered glow of the day, I showed the fact that I had two send-offs to probably my closest and most important friend in the world, and he said "How do you get a blog?" I laughed and told him there were plenty of free blog sites you could start with, and... he cut me off. "I want YOUR blog!" I'm not sure he meant me that much of a compliment, but I was happy to show him what I had done to get my meager start. I have no doubt that he'll take to this like a duck to water, while I still feel a bit like a trepidatious and apprehensive house-cat.

Anyway, that's where this entry comes in. I have had a full day, and am sated in my belly and mind. I am digesting the ideas of the whole novelty of blogging, not only the writing, but the friends-lists, the personal bio, the self-analysis of how you want to be perceived, and the crafting of actualizing it into your online persona. It's a lot to take in, and it's a joy and pain in the tukkas to take in. Nothing could make me happier at the moment... except maybe some ice cream.