« Heard Around the House, Part 15 | Main | Heard Around the House, Part 16 »

A while back, a reader emailed me, and said, "I liked your web page, I liked reading your daily trials, and it’s nice to know that not everyone is perfect."

That's me, Ms. Not Perfect.

Now, of course I appreciate her praise (like most writers, I have my Sally Field moments: "They like me! They really, really like me!"). But here's the thing you may or may not be aware of: this blog is a highly, highly edited version of my life.

That's right. Believe it or not, I do tend to put some thought into what I post here. Mostly I write about things that I find interesting or amusing, and which I hope my readers will enjoy, too. And then, after I draft a blog entry, I smooth out the language, try to catch any grammar mistakes and finally run it through a spell checker.

I don't blog about how I sometimes have such terrible cramps, I don't leave the house for two days straight, or about how I've been known to snap at Sam when he's harassing me to reread whatever book he's currently fixated on, or how I'm perfectly capable of picking a pointless fight with George and then sulking about it for hours afterwards (even after he's apologized, and even past the point when I've figured out that I completely overreacted).

In fact, I do my very best to keep you, my readers, in the dark about all of my mean, petty, pissy, unpleasant traits.

So, you see, here on this blog . . . this is about as perfect as I get. And if someone reads this, and the first thing they occurs to her is, “Wow, she’s really imperfect," what would she say if she actually got a glimpse at my real life?

"She's really messed up."

Or,

"How does someone like that manage to function in polite society?"

Or maybe just,

"What a bitch."

Hmm. Probably best not to know.

Posted 07 September 2005 at 10:33 AM