So hopefully my yard sale blog will do really well, because it looks as though I might be selling ALL of my furniture and moving to Chad. I can live in Mongo and experience plagues of locusts firsthand. Of course I will blog about it, at least until I am killed by rebel forces.
Why move to Chad? I gave my new Gmail address out to my neighbor who sells Mary Kay, and didn’t realize that the name on that account shows up as “Michelle Cepeda” who, by the way, has been getting Googled lately. She sent me an email that quoted one of my posts.
I really don’t know what to say.
Michelle Cepeda is me, but most people don’t know me by that name. So I felt safe. I’m one of those people whose writing stands still like a squirrel in the middle of a busy highway if I know that someone I’ve met on terra firma is reading what I write. For example, if I had realized that my neighbor was reading my blog I would never have written this:
There’ll be no multi-level marketing pimpin’ over here. Unless I decide to become Mary Kay rep, of course. Any cross-dressers out there? You know I have to put my own spin on things. It would be fun to build a large network of shemales and then go to one of the Mary Kay conferences as a super-duper team leader director person and earn a pink Cadillac while others explode with envy, splattering the walls with NouriShine Melon Sorbet lip gloss. A girl can dream, right?
Oops.
I totally set myself up for this by the way. When she talked to me about Mary Kay, I mentioned that I was trying to make money writing. I mentioned a blog. Mistake. She asked for the URL and I said that I don’t give it out due to not being able to write when someone knows it’s me. I said I worried too much about the small community that I live in.
You know what? If someone said that to me, I’d be at the computer Googling their name the second I got through talking to them. I’d probably suspect them of running a porno ring of circus sluts or something. So I totally can’t blame her, because I’d do it myself.
So, this presents a new challenge, which is to not freak out and go ahead and write anyway. People don’t always get my sense of humor in real life, they won’t always get it on the blog, and hopefully someday I won’t care.
Meanwhile, I’m still trying to figure out what to say in “real life” so I don’t come across as a passive-aggressive bitch. Ideas? Plane tickets?
Haha! I have made many such boo-boos in real life myself, but that’s just me being real frank. In fact once I even pissed off my best friend’s girlfriend - thank god they aren’t together now.
I pretty much say the same things I do now online and in real-life. It’s tough trying to get everyone to understand who you are and what you are, so I don’t try (that much) nowadays. Not much advice here but I guess it is more of knowing who you are and what you stand for. And then spending the time on your priorities in life instead, with good intentions.
Most of my blogs have my real name on them so I’ve never put anything that I don’t want the public to know on them. So I never had this problem.
As for this case, I guess it sort of depends on what else (if any) she said in the email…
I got rumbled on Sunday night, by my FB, who’s apparently been reading for months, and some stuff I wrote was real cringe worthy knowing he read it.
I’ve decided to keep blogging, the way I do, because it’s me, my blog, noone elses.
It’s not like you blog your entire life here, so just pretend she doesn’t know. And I think you wrote this post pretty well with her knowing, so you aren’t quite that squirrel in the headlights!
I’m afraid I might have panicked, pulled the plug and walked away.
The last thing I want to be is “that blogger”.
“Are you going to write about this on your blog?”
“Be careful what you say around her, it’ll end up on the internet.”
I can’t imagine having to explaine your blog posts to people off-line. ’shudder’
Is this the same neighbor that you had said “has a spectacular body hair and odor problem”? She doesn’t read the comments does she?
…
I don’t tell people I know here in BFE about my blog at all. I made that mistake once and ended up starting all over. I just tell them I make a little extra money on the internet. When they ask what I do, I just smile and walk away. I’m sure the little church ladies think I’m running a ginormous porn ring from a back room in my crappy little trailer.
Works for me
It takes real courage to be yourself and speak your mind whether it’s online or offline.
I say embrace it and try to enjoy freaking people out from time to time.
A) You didn’t say anything bad about her. You made a very funny comment about YOURSELF as a MK consultant and honestly, if she was offended by it, that really says more about her level of security with her chosen profession than it does about you.
B) Good writing polarizes people. Always. I’ve been playing it safe for so long that I’ve been writing pablum. As you know, I mortally insulted my MIL earlier this summer, just by being, um, honest and sarcastic. She’s over it. People get over things and stuff on the Internet passes faster than most.
C) You could stop writing, sure. But wouldn’t that be a giant waste of talent? What I would do is to choose a different audience member to whom you write. I try to write to someone who is articulate, funny and gets my jokes. There are, honestly, a few people out there like that.
I do find that I tend to not do a ton of offline promoting of my blog. In fact, most people I know do not know I have it. Some of them know I have a website, but that is all they know :).
I definately echo Ad Tracker’s sentiments in her comment above.
Don’t censor yourself. I know it’s hard because as much as we all say that we don’t care what people think of us, the perception we’ll make on people in real life still bothers us when we’re blogging… But, you have to understand - there are two groups of people who might be offended by what you write:
1. Those who will go “well, ew… that sucks;” but, then end up respecting you for not pulling punches and being honest in your writing.
2. Those who wouldn’t get your humor in RL, either; so why sweat them?
Of course I think there are boundaries - don’t write about anything so immensely personal you’d feel uncomfortable if a stranger overheard you talking about it to a friend… Don’t be hateful… Don’t use people’s names w/out their permission…
But, other than that: don’t censor yourself.
My .02 cents… good post as always, Michelle!
[...] Bloggrrl has an interesting post about writing w/out inhibition on her site today. She talks about how her semi-anonymity allows her to feel free to write; and, how when people she knows in real life read her writing she worries about coming across as a “passive aggressive bitch” on her blog. [...]
That was a bit of an oops. Wish I could offer you asylum, but if you are worried about small communities then South AFrica is not for you. They read minds here…
You said what you really fee and you are right anywayl… if she feels the other way, then she can prove this by getting the pink Cadillac for herself…
My family and friends do not read my blog. What does that say about me? Maybe they don’t care and maybe they think I am going through a phase. You know, I get a nice little pat on the head as they say “That’s nice”
You can always tell your friends and family that you write everything in satire. That way they/she will never know if you are telling the truth or not.
My blogs all have my real name on them and if you Google my name you find an anti Rose blog full of libel crap about me. I’m not worried as my friends should know me well enough not to care.
Anyway this is my first visit here I do believe and I like your attitude.
My url is my name which I thought long and hard about, but finally went for it because my marketing and networking efforts are all about ME, rather than a certain idea that I blog about.
Despite talking about my blog with co-workers, family and friends, none of them read it. Or if anyone has visited, they don’t comment. The biggest reason for this is that people who don’t blog don’t care about blogs. I tell my best friend about my blog all the time and she’s never visited. I’ve thought about subscribing her to my email feed, but it seems desperate.
Since I started blogging over a year ago I have written with a dual mentality: Blog as if everyone in the world is read, yet as though no one is reading. I share what I would share with anyone I met in person. Anything embarrassing is about me, because I’m not a gossip, online or in real life.
The one thing I have done is block my in-laws IP address. Hubby and mine’s relationship with them is not ideal, and although I wouldn’t blog about them, there are certain things we chose not to tell them. My MIL had left me a “happy birthday” comment, but has never said anything else about my blog. When we had some bad stuff go down - our car died and my parents paid to get us in a new one and at the same time we were off line for a week because the cable company wanted money - I didn’t feel comfortable blogging about it, because those are the kind of things we decline to tell them about. If I wanted my life to be the subject of family gossip, we wouldn’t have relocated 800 miles away from them. I don’t feel good about having to block an IP addy, but I felt worse declining to blog about blog-worthy events in my life due to one set of people.
Keep up blogging, “Bloggrrl” - you’re funny and lively. If the RL people don’t get your writing, they don’t get you.
To be perfectly honest. I do not really mind. I want to get my name all over th internet and gain trust to help with my business.
I don’t know…I would probably say the heck with it. As long as she knows you aren’t pimp’n online…who cares!
Oops. Hopefully she won’t be too offended. I also made the same mistake. I blogged about some woman who had ripped me off and kept referring rubbishy mlm salespeople to me. Then I found out she had been reading my blog! I just said nothing and hoped she didn’t think I was describing her.
I think you should keep writing just as you have been. I found your site when I joined ColorStruck’s community and am thankful to have found both of your blogs. Your writing is forthright, you definitely speak your mind and honestly I don’t think anything I have read in your blog is off color, sinister or detrimental to others. Keep up the good work…you are entitled to your opinion!