"I read your blog!"

I was startled to hear this from G., who hailed me in the parking lot at the Tallahassee Mall. Ronda and I had just seen Julie & Julia, a film about Julie Powell's blog chronicling her effort to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year. It is said to be the first film about a blog.

G. worked in Adult Services at our library, but left for greener pastures shortly after I graduated from the School of Information Science and joined the reference staff in 2001. She and her husband had just seen the film as well.

My dear friend M. had recommended my blog to her, (they share an interest in quilting). It blew my mind a little. Some months ago, at supper with my sisters, I began to hold forth upon a topic and my sister Carol forestalled me, saying, "We read your blog", where I had apparently already written about it. But it's different to meet someone in a parking lot whom I have not seen in years, and who then says that she reads my blog.

"Oh, G.", I wanted to say, "you don't know the half of what's happened since you left.". But I didn't. I resolved, when I started this blog, not to write about office politics, not to murmur, but rather to write only about the work. Ref Grunt, who inspired this blog, and who said, "Some days I love working the reference desk, some days I hate it, and it's often the same day", left off blogging last year, uncomfortable with his celebrity, and wanting to be anonymous again.