This weekend my Mom came up to spend Thanksgiving with us and, as we were talking about stuff (nobody can chew the fat like we can), I found myself saying over and over again “this blogger I read…” and then telling her a story I’d read on someone’s blog.  I realized it about halfway through the first day of her visit and I think that by the end of her visit it was driving her a little batty. Not in a bad way but probably in a “do you have stories about anybody that you know IN REAL LIFE?” kind of way.

If you are a blogger yourself or if you spend copious amounts of time online in forums or games (holy hell I hate WoW but it does help my husband understand my attachment to blogging and other bloggers) you get it.  You understand how a community can be formed and friendships forged even if the most you ever do is leave comments on each others’ (s’s?) blogs once in a while.  You know what it is to feel like you really know someone–well enough to relate to them–even if you haven’t ever exchanged direct communication.  It’s a weird little world we live in, and I love it.

If you don’t have a lot of experience with blogging, online life, etc, though… it can feel from the outside like someone is substituting all of these “fake” friendships for real friendships and “why do you care so much about people you’ll never meet anyway?” (nobody has actually said that but I know that it has been thought)

I know that if you aren’t a part of this world that it can be hard to understand.  Having to explain to people why I blog is hard enough, but explaining why I keep coming back to people’s blogs every day is harder.  People have an easier time understanding an addiction to a television show–a world that is usually 100% fictional–than they do understanding the connection someone might feel to a certain blog–or why a person might continue to read a blog even if they stop relating to the author.

I don’t have any easy to understand answers for this.  I don’t know how to say “they feel like my friends” and make it sound less creepy.  I do know that, no matter how creepy and stalkerish it sounds, I spend 90% of my time in the house with only a cat to talk to and the blogs I read, the twitterers I follow–they help my day feel a LOT less lonely.

So, because it is the last day of NaBloPoMo and because this is the first work day after a weekend that was supposed to have been spent “giving thanks” (if you’re in the US anyway) I’d just like to say that I’m thankful for all of my blogging buddies and for all of you who read my ramblings here (even if most of you are not big on commenting) and for all of the bloggers who put their own ramblings up for me to read.  Obviously I’m thankful for my 3-D friends (a few of whom are bloggers themselves) and my family as well but I’m super thankful for all of you who keep me laughing and entertained and feeling like a part of the conversation through that weird and wacky place we call “teh internets.”

And with that I’ll say “so long NaBloPoMo! We’ll meet again next year!”