Tuesday, September 13, 2005

354 Days

Dear Readers, I had planned on sitting around on Tiny Cat Pants's first birthday getting drunk and reminiscing about things, but since I'm going to be out of town, I thought I'd do it today. Sadly, there's no liquor in the house, so you're just getting rambling, not drunken rambling. I enjoy blogging a whole lot more than I would have imagined. I like the immediacy of it, that I can write something and get feed-back right away. I like the people I've met through it. I'm constantly surprised and grateful for the ways in which total strangers open themselves up. Bridgett put it best yesterday--y'all sustain me. I'm also eternally curious about how weird it is. In many ways, you guys aren't real. You're just some words on a screen attached to a name--as am I--and what that means is constantly hard to say. Still, if I have to have so many imaginary friends, I'm glad they're you guys. When I started Tiny Cat Pants, I had six readers and got about twenty hits a day. (To those original six--The Professor, The Super Genius, the Shill, The Legal Eagle, Miss J., Ms. B.--I hope you're still entertained.) For a long time, I could call all of my readers on the phone. I knew where they lived and what their real names were--first and last. Then, slowly, some other folks started poking around--Steve Pick, Peggasus, and then Twyla--and they were cool. It was weird, to write for folks I didn't know, but they were kind and generous while I was cutting my teeth. After Bitch PhD linked to me, though, I went from having seventy five hits a day to having between 120 and 150. Now that Nashville is Talking aggregates me, I consistently have between 180 and 225 hits a day. This week I'm running at about three hundred, but that should settle back down after I fall off the front of Jesus' General. Still, I think there are a core of about one hundred of you. This might seem like a very small amount, but it often intimidates the shit out of me. I'm not sure I've often navigated the switch from "I can kick your ass if you upset me because I know not only where you live, but where your mom lives" to "a lot of people who I don't know read this" very elegantly. I get embarrassed by things like Rex L. Camino or Steve Pick saying, "Yeah, I know that dude you just lambasted and he's actually quite nice." They never say "jackass," but I often feel it. Not to mention Aaron Fox showing up and demanding I remember that he's a real human being. Oops. I keep thinking maybe I should try to be nicer, but I don't think I'd be very good at it. Still, though this has always been a different kind of blog, it's changed a lot in response to how I perceive you. I have no goals for Tiny Cat Pants. It'll be more of the same old shit it always is. As always, I'm glad to take requests or answer questions or whatever. If you've got anything, you can leave it in the comments or email me. All suggestions will be considered and then probably ignored.

Love,

Aunt B.

16 Comments:

Blogger Kat Coble said...

In many ways, you guys aren't real.

I guess that would explain why I feel funny today.

Congrats on your anniversary.

9/13/2005 05:45:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I have no goals for tiny cat pants."

I think you should make that the official slogan for year two.

I didn't realize you had been doing this that long. Then you make me think about all the stuff that has happened to me or to you or to TCP in a year and it is like when I was driving to work today and I saw a building with the coprorate logo that sponsored my childhood (and now my dad's retirement) across a field of the major crop in this state and I got all weepy about what was different and what was the same and which of those things were good or bad or both.

What's does that have to do with anything? Dude, I would rather stick a fork in my eye than say something all yearbooky and/or sentimental so I will just say you should keep doing this. You know, if you want.

I hope we have lots of classes together next year - SuperGenius

P.S. This is pre-TCP, but remember that time we went to Memphis and drank all that cheap beer and then we went to Tater Red's? That was awesome. And it has nothing to do with anything.

9/13/2005 06:00:00 PM  
Blogger Aunt B said...

Are there any good stories that don't start "Remember that time we drank all that cheap beer?"

9/13/2005 06:03:00 PM  
Blogger tls said...

I can't think of any. Except that time we drank all that cheap vodka and terrorized the library and then moved on to terrorizing cute boys at the student center.

No, wait. That was cheap beer too.

9/13/2005 06:12:00 PM  
Blogger Rex L. Camino said...

You certainly didn't lambast that dude. You had a perfectly understandable reaction, and you went on to express it in your brilliant, humorous, and always entertaining way.

[sarcasm] Pay no mind to the fact that he will probably cry himself to sleep if he happens to stumble across it [/sarcasm].

Happy Birthday, Catpants!

9/13/2005 06:22:00 PM  
Blogger bridgett said...

We must be real, because if you didn't believe in us, we still wouldn't go away...some sci-fi guy said that better, first.

Happy anticipated birthday, TCP.

9/13/2005 06:41:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've got one that doesn't start with cheap beer*! The dog whisperer can verify this if she isn't stealing her daughter away from hot dogs and chips.

Remember that time we drank all that malibu and then that Bailey's and then those pepper vodka shots and then we made the most awesome mix tape** the world has ever known and then we lost it when we moved and we always thought the other person had it? That was awesome.

-SuperGenius

*Just for the record, we are very friendly, often have cheap beer in our fridge, and have sleeping space other than the floor for up to seven people besides the residents of chez shacking up. In case you wanted to come for the massive party I plan on having when I am medication free and alcohol ready.

**We are old.

9/13/2005 07:31:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, happy anniversary!

9/13/2005 08:11:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy blogiversary..

If it makes you feel any better, I have met many people I've been complete dicks to and am no worse for the wear..

Blogging in some sense is just an extended dialogue, and at the end of the day it's just heated argumentative conversation.

9/13/2005 08:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think this year's slogan should be "All proceeds go to beer."

Congrats on making it this far with a growing reader base. Maybe you'll have to change the name to Medium Cat Pants.

W

9/14/2005 07:00:00 AM  
Blogger Aunt B said...

Professor,

I don't want to go into specifics, because, please, allow me to have some dignity, but I do want to say that a. I never said I wanted that, only that I wouldn't be adverse to it if conditions were right and b. you know maybe some of y'all have one or two things you're very good at--with 57 lovers, I'd bet you know a thing or two that can move a person to tears--and so you can be picky about what's on the table.

Others of us are not that great and have to wow them with variety... or liquor... or flashing...

Yeah, about the flashing, sorry about that. I hope he didn't mind.

b.

9/14/2005 08:13:00 AM  
Blogger twila said...

Still lovin' you. Still snorting coffe up my nose when you catch me with your insanities. Still thinking deeply about issues you rant about. I get lost in the comments now, but I'm still here - lovin' your curly haired goddess self.

9/14/2005 08:30:00 AM  
Blogger melusina said...

Happy blog birthday! TCP was one of the first Nashville blogs I found and liked and read on a regular basis. It was the first one that made me homesick!

Keep doing what you are doing. I love your writer's voice.

9/14/2005 10:10:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I say more flashing next year. That habit needs to spread.

W

9/14/2005 10:26:00 AM  
Blogger John H said...

TCP is now one of my twice/thrice daily stops. Always interesting, often hilarious and a good read..

You have a singular voice (you might have a nice cingular voice too, for all we know). Hope there are many more TCP anniversaries.

9/14/2005 01:56:00 PM  
Blogger Peggasus said...

Damn, if there was gonna be a party I would have brought both my roasted jalapeno salsa AND marinated mushrooms.

You always make me consider points of view I hadn't before, which is a good thing when you've lived in the suburbs for as long as I have. I always learn something here. And I snort a lot too, which is also a good thing (unless you're sitting next to me).

And just so's ya know, my fridge is always stocked with cheap beer.

9/14/2005 03:30:00 PM  

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