Whadda Ya Want From Me?

Forgive me for a bit while I whine and wallow in some "poor poor pitiful me-ness".

I am a 51 year old woman who still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up.
In fact, at this point in my life, it seems doubtful that I will grow up! ;-)

I am having a difficult time blogging lately.
Or rather, I'm having a difficult time figuring out what direction to take this blog into.

Lots....ok, then, most blogs have a theme or a direction.
Me?
Not so much.
I started out just blogging to clear my head so I could cram different minutia into it without seepage occurring.
Seepage is never a good thing.
 
Then I got my first followers/readers.
Being an ex-theater person(see egotistical exhibitionist), I was hooked!
I <3 followers..... ;-)

So then I felt compelled to continue blogging because, well....you need to satisfy your audience.
Maybe some one out there is having a shittier day than me and comes here to read something to give them the will to go on....ok, maybe not that, but at least feel better about their life compared to the junk that goes on here in mine.

So I tried to pigeon-hole my blog, so I could link it and promote it.  It's hard to know how/where to share your blog if you don't know WHAT KIND of BLOG you have!

I am a mom.....but my kids are alien-life forms or almost adults and all the blogs I could find who were mommy bloggers had small children and dealt with issues that I no longer have an interest in like potty training, food allergies, chore building, teaching, social interaction, pta helping(or avoidance), etc.
We have left that stage of life behind thankyouverymuch!
So I talk about what passes for my real life now.  It's fairly tame and as the blog title should clue you in....boring!  Maybe I need to go out and do some wild and wacky things, like naked bodysurfing, doing a year long pie-eating tour of all 50 states, parkouring across Manhattan or auditioning for the next installment of Project Runway?  Now that would certainly liven it up around here, huh?!

I am a spiritual person....but because of past experiences in my life I am not a proponent of organized religion.  A lot of the mommy bloggers I found are Christians(not that there's anything wrong with that!)and they sprinkle their blogs liberally with bible quotations and the messages that they have received via their direct hotline to g*d.
While I am an ethical and moral person(no, religions don't have the market cornered on morality), I don't wear my religion like a mantel.  I think you can be a good person without being a card carrying member of *fill in your religious affilication here* and I don't want to club anyone over the head with who I think is going to a good place or a bad place when they die.

I am a couponista, and most of whatever that entails....and I did try my hand at coupon-match ups and being a "deal" blogger.  But that didn't work out so well.  Most deal blogs are so boring, even more boring than me!
Don't get me wrong.....I appreciate what they do....I just don't want to do it.lol  It's long dry work, shifting through the sales flyers each week to find the good deals and then one by one, matching up the current coupons to post with the deals.  THAT, my friends, too closely resembles W-O-R-K!  Since I am not paid to sit here hour after hour and do this basic mechanical work, and I refuse to just copy somebody else's work and post it as my own(tsk, tsk), I would just as soon lick the inside of my eyelids....whatever THAT means!
I do post a lot of my shopping trips.   Again, this devolves down into snoozefest territory, especially if the reader does NOT shop at the store you are writing about.  I realize that my grocery trips are only relevant to local readers since we have no national chains here but I will continue to talk about local deals since there is no one(or almost no one)blogging about local deals.  If something I post helps someone feed their family better/for less, then it's worth doing. ;-)  I know the Rite-Aid stuff bores the unlucky peoples who can't shop there, but.....My name is Sluggy, and I am an addict.......so feel free to just move along if you see a Rite-Aid shopping post.  I won't be dropping those.

I am a giveaway hound....I love to enter giveaways unless there are like 3 thousand entries at which point I laugh hysterically at the bad odds of winning and move on.  So I tried holding giveaways, and still do.  They say it's a great way to build a following/readership, even though after you have a drawing you do lose a percentage of folks when they don't win.  But participation in my giveaways is markedly down....except for a few regulars, most of whom would enter every day if I let them...you know who you are! lol
But I am now on the fence about the whole Giveaway issue and whether it's 'prosituting your blog' when companies, who don't pay you a fee but just give you stuff to give away, use you to promote their brand.  And besides, strictly Giveaway blogs have nothing to offer you outside of 'stuff'....which leads me to my next thought....

I am a frugalista who is mostly anti-consumerism.....but talking about reusing baggies and compost and ranting about the overconsumption in this country only can be a yawnfest if one is not careful.  While not an ardent Tree Hugger, if I didn't have a spouse I would probably be more "out there" with modifying the house & "alternative" building projects around here to make us more green and cheap until our place resembled a hippie commune with an air of ramshacked-ness.  But I have a grumpy old man here who keeps my ideas from fruition and keeps our property values up. ;-)
I find I can be only so frugal since I love a good deal too!  These two sides of me....being frugal and deal-hunting seem to be at odds with each other.  It makes for a schizophrenic blog at times....."Don't fall for mindless marketing by going to the mall", is followed by "Hurry! Great deal on Widgets at Amazon today only!!".

I am into personal finance issues......but again, talking retirement calculators, bank rate deals, T-bonds and FICO scores, etc. only, will make all the non-geek's eyes glaze over and their brains turn off in a nanosecond.  So I tried to interject my personal experiences/examples as a way to liven the subject matter up and maybe inspire someone.
And again, I found that if you have mostly made all the right decisions with your finances(and been lucky) and aren't currently in a debt hole trying to shovel your way out, most people don't want to hear about your experiences.
You would think that people who want help/ideas about moving away from debt/bad choices would listen more to someone who has done it.  But it seems to me at least that people want to hear about those who haven't made the right choices(perhaps so they can feel superior to them?)and if you have done well with money and talk about it, you are viewed as just bragging....even if that is the last thing that crossed your mind when you blogged about it.  I guess I need to go broke a la Dave Ramsey first and then make a bazillion dollars and build a 4 million dollar house before anyone wants me to open my trap about money again. ;-)

So, after having whined about all of the above, you tell Adam Lambert and me.......Whadda Ya Want From Me?

*What do you like about this humble little blog?  Please, say you like something, ok?lol  Is there some particular subject matter or direction you like and why?

*What do you NOT like about the blog?  Be brutal...in a nice way. ;-)  Go ahead and let me have it, I can take it.

*Why do you come here and read the blog? Try to come up with something more than I like your blog, ok?....even though saying you like my blog will earn you brownie points with me. 8-))

*How often do you drop in and read me....every day, week, month or did you just stumble in here and are frantically searching for the Exit?

* Is there something you would like to see here and what?  Do I talk about something you would like to read more about?  Do you have any suggestions about anything at all?.....from the physical layout(where stuff is visually, the ads-the placement or lack thereof, the colors, the photos/graphics, lack of professional web design, etc.)to subject matter covered(or not covered).

Here is your chance to sound off.  Any and all feedback is appreciated.

I've got my ear pressed to the web......go ahead and bend it!

Sluggy