Huzzah for the Commenter!

How many of you have ever been to the Northern California Renaissance Faire? When you tip there, they typically ring a big bell, and yell out loudly to everyone in earshot, "Huzzah for the Tipper!" with long protracted vowels, so it sounds more like this:

"Huzzaaaaaaah for the Tippeeeerrrrrrrrr!"

The point of this is to add to the festive atmosphere, remind people that tipping is appreciated, and to reward the person who gave the tip and encourage them to do so again.

I am always embarrassed by the big show, and this actually incents me NOT to tip because I don't want them to Huzzah all over me. All of that attention can be a little embarrassing (though since I blog, I clearly can't be too shy, right?).

Why am I writing this? Because I am going to be a dork and Huzzah all over my first stranger comment on my blog, and I am really hoping Kim doesn't mind and won't run away screaming, regretting that she commented in the first place.

No offense to Lorraine and DH who have been commenting all along. You guys write great comments, and I love them! But you know and love me already, and you are reading my blog because I begged, er, invited you to.

When I went public with this blog 6 weeks ago, I had 2 fears:

1) That instantly overnight my blog would be read by 1000's of people, and the stress of writing for the bigger audience would make me crack, or some weird stalker would out me and my family and we would have to join the federal witness protection plan and change our identities to get away from the screaming fans (riiiiight--fantasyland, I know)

OR, more likely...

2) No one new would read or care about this blog anyway, so making it public just would not matter

Well, 6 weeks, and no news cameras at my door, so I guess I can stop worrying about the first scenario. But the second is still likely. Oh well, I plan to optimize my URL, put some analytics on here to measure traffic, and then start doing some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so I can really market this blog.

Lo, and behold, along comes Kim to leave a funny comment, and I am stymied. My next blog posting, all written and queued up for the Publish button, was about the worm factory in the backyard. I know I have at least one reader who really is interested in how my worms are doing, and I hadn't posted on that for a while. But what about Kim? Having posted a comment once, if she didn't abandon me forever for outing her in my blog entry, would she ever come visit me again if I post about the worms?

And I really want her (and all the other lurking readers her presence implies) to keep reading, because one of these days I might actually write something good! Oh hey, read my Wii remote entry, maybe that'll make you want to come back!

Ok, so I promise not to do this for every new comment. Kim will always be my first, which I think qualifies her as a friend for life. I have already cyber-stalked her, I mean, read her blog, and she seems like someone I could hang with. I got really excited when I saw that she is related to a QUILTER since quilting is one of many hobbies I wish I had more time to pursue. And she has some great posts on her blog, including these gems:

What is Twitter? (she was tweeted by Neil Gaiman (!), my favorite writer!)
This is why it was called the Depression

Nice to meet you, Kim! And really, I promise not to get all weird on you or anything. If it's not too late already, that is. And you might want to skip tomorrow's post--worms, you know.