Monday, June 11, 2007

6/11/07 1 pm

Something frankly terrifying is happening over in the main building of this blog. Phantom gave me a link and traffic didn't just double overnight, in less than three hours it more than doubled over yesterday's traffic. I'm actually feeling an adrenaline surge from this--I have a sleepy little blog, with a group of readers who I pretty much all know via blog or real life. Not a lot of lurkers.

Things could change. That's what's scary. I'm not really ready for things to change.

On the other hand, I'm pretty proud of that post. Before I knew what kind of volume I'd get I was happy to think there might be a few more people reading it. But 100 in three hours? Really, it's a little intimidating.

So on to weighty matters.

I was traveling this weekend and it was a trip that had me pretty well flipped out before hand. I don't get panic attacks, but leaving town is the experience that gives me insight into what they must be like. I usually get so keyed up and distracted that I manage to forget something truly significant, like the tickets (back when there were tickets) or my wallet or, you know, underwear.

This time I had everything I needed and I didn't even really overpack. I mean, I did, but the extras were things I needed for emotional armor, just in case. I was out the door exactly on time. And I was in physical pain from how knotted up my stomach was. This is one of the key identifiers of irritable bowel syndrome: it's worsened by stress.

Well, I don't think I finished more than one meal all weekend. Granted, I was eating in restaurants a lot but it's still not like me to pick. I picked. I looked at things on my plate and wondered why anyone would put so much food in one place.

My penultimate meal of the trip was a brunch that consisted of the dining hall food of my late youth. Really, I looked at the homefries and knew exactly how they would taste, exactly the optimal amount of salt and pepper to add, exactly the temperature and the texture. They did not disappoint, but I could not finish them.

2 comments:

Phantom Scribbler said...

Oh, dear, I thought you were joking about teh hyperventilating. In my experience, links from higher-traffic blogs (which mine only is relative to yours, I'm certainly not one of the 800 pound blogging gorillas) result in maybe one or two permanent readers. Who may be people you already know through the whines, or -- if not -- will be people who will make themselves known to you soon enough.

I am sorry, though. I should have given you a warning before blasting open your statcounter like that!

S. said...

Don't worry, I take full responsibility for the hyperventilating. It was NICE to give me a link. I have loved getting links before--well, expcept for the br*less people--but none have had such a dramatic effect. Come to think of it, that's including ones from you.

I guess people like yaks.

It comes as I am starting to think seriously about how who I'm writing for is affecting my voice. Opening the annex started that because I sounded (to my own ear) much more profane.

Your points about the likelihood of people sticking around are good. I will unfuss when I go back to my usual 50-70 pageviews a day.