Pre SOTU ramble

I was talking to someone about blogging--she was considering starting one--and I said I thought the key was not getting carried away by having a medium: just because you can easily broadcast what you had for breakfast, doesn't mean people suddenly care. Now, it's not that I've never blogged about what I had for breakfast, but when I did, it was in the context of having breakfast with my parents (mom's narrating the order in which I eat the things on my plate, or overanalyzing what I put in my oatmeal, etc.).

The point is, there are tons of things, even on a given day, that are important to you. That doesn't make them worth blogging about. This, too, goes back to the Mendelsohn piece on memoirs: even before new social media, there's some $hit you just need to keep to yourself. I could have a blog solely devoted to rude people on the metro, and I have to admit, I've caved and written about people who don't cede seats to riders who obviously need them more, or who stand directly in front of the doors. I could blog about things that are mundane but quasi-intriguing, like the stuffed animal, noise-making hedgehog in my house, which I did not invite but cannot get rid of it. I could tell you about how I took my shoes to the cobbler, and the guy at the counter recoiled. And when he took them into the workroom to check on the price--because he'd apparently never seen such worn shoes--I could hear the woman gasp when she saw them. I took them in on Saturday and only got them back today. At first I tried to wear skirts every day, so I could wear boots with them, but that lasted *a day.* Yesterday and today, I just wore pumps. Glad that's over. But see how quickly that got boring?

Okay, State of the Union's on. Ciao.