Category: Storytelling

Blogging University: stuck in a Y-seam

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Blogging University 201 was much more intense than I expected, and I’m just now recovering from all that thinking and exploring. To recap:

I LEARNED I get frustrated when trying to learn new technology. I don’t have the patience to learn all the steps needed to get the result I want. I’m much more patient when learning a new quilting technique. Technology skills are essential, though, for having a well functioning blog, and if I want to create a pattern which I can share electronically, I need these skills as well. Here I am. My ideas exceed my abilities.

I also learned I’m undecided about where I want to take my blog. Oh, it was easy to set some goals and explore the ways to get more followers. BUT, here I am at the fork in the road, wondering which path to take — the proverbial Y-seam.

Time is a factor in my indecision. I have a full time job, an overtime husband and a daughter I want to spend time with.  I also sew sometimes. I’m involved with Liberated Quilters group and I’m helping to form the Central Virginia Modern Quilt Guild. I should get more exercise, and I feel overwhelmed by it all.

Stuck in a Y-seam,

Wanda

Blogging University 201: Set Three Goals

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In an effort to improve my blogging, I’ve enrolled in WordPress’ Blogging University 201 course.

Today I’m considering what I want to accomplish and setting three goals for my blog:

IMPROVE CONTENT

I want to create a weekly feature on my blog. I want it to be something followers look forward to reading each week.

LEARN MORE TECHNOLOGY

This is something I need to do to make my blog better. For example, I want to share tutorials via a pdf that readers can download instead of having to stroll through my blog to follow the directions.

COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS

I want to set aside time each day to communicate with followers and quilt bloggers.

Undaunted,

Wanda

When Facebook breaks your heart, make wine.

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I LEARNED this weekend that Facebook can break your heart.

My aunt’s daughter (my first cousin) got married, and neither my sister nor I was invited to the wedding. Seeing the photos of my other family members at the wedding made me distraught.

My mother and her two sisters all died from breast cancer. My aunt, SJ, was a sweet person. I could write a long story about her, our adventures together, and her children.

I thought I had a relationship with her daughter. Facebook gave me the false sense that I was involved in her life. I was a part of her virtual life, not her real one.

When I saw the photos on Facebook of her wedding, all I could do was cry — for hours. The last time I cried like this, I was at a funeral. I wasn’t happy for her at all. I couldn’t sleep. You never know when something is going to happen in your life that changes you and how you feel about the way you interact with your family and other people. This was that moment.

I ALSO FELT guilty. My mother would not have allowed this to happen.

I didn’t know what to do. I considered closing my Facebook account because I didn’t ever want to feel this way again. Wasn’t ignorance so much better?

I didn’t close my account because I’m participating in  the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop, and we have a group on Facebook. Our hive queen, Terri Ann, explained to me that I could make my Facebook “private.” I didn’t know this. That’s what I did or at least it’s mostly private. Here’s a youtube video on how to do that.

I discovered Facebook and the overload of posts from acquiesces had weighed me down. I won’t be able to restore my relationship with my cousin, or the rest of my mother’s family, or at least I don’t think I will be able to at this point. Even though I’m an attorney, I wither when confronted by members of my family. It’s just better to hide, and Facebook allowed me to do that. And, I’m hiding again with my privacy changes. (I need therapy).

So I’m going to take my sour grapes and make wine — somehow. I just don’t know how. I’d love some wisdom from the crowd.

Heartbroken,

Wanda