SPAMMED!

If you have ever participated in a community clean-up project, you - like me - have probably been amazed at the amount of trash people throw out of their vehicles when they drive down the road. Soda and beer cans, McDonald's bags crammed with greasy sandwich boxes and crumpled napkins, soggy disposable diapers, empty cigarette packages, whole bags of household garbage, discarded tires, broken furniture, abandoned trailers...you name it, and it's probably lying in a roadside ditch somewhere.

Well, think of a blog like a house standing on the side of a busy [internet] highway. You'd be amazed at the trash that gets tossed into my little front yard by passers-by.

Several years ago, when I was writing more and posting much more frequently, way back before nursing school ate my soul and effectively shut down all writing, traffic here at the blog was considerably higher. It had grown from a handful of weekly visitors, most of whom I knew personally, to several hundred visitors a day. I loved writing here at the blog, and I especially loved interacting with people who left comments: it made me feel connected to a much bigger world than my tiny corner of a hayfield.

But then something dreadful happened. An Unknown Visitor stopped by and effectively emptied a small landfill's worth of garbage onto my tiny little blog.

I was stunned. Dismayed. Bewildered. Hurt. Who on earth did this? And, WHY?!

I also felt ever-so-slightly flattered, like I had made it one step closer to the big leagues of blogging.

I learned a great deal from that early spamming experience and felt stronger for it.

(You can read about my first ever spam-dump experience here: BLOG ON!)

But in the craziness of raising and launching kids and getting my first steady paying job and going back to school and diving headlong into the life-consuming world of healthcare in modern America and a several-years break from writing, I forgot all about that long-ago introduction to blog spamming.

Until last week.

Thankfully, this time, I already had safe-guards in place to make cleanup easier. After an initial flush of dismay, I had the blog tidied and back up running within minutes.

And now, I would like to write a few words to my Unknown and unfriendly visitor:

Thank you. As I type this post today, I am smiling - because of you - because your attempt at hijacking my humble little blog is confirmation that I. AM. BACK. And it sure feels good.

Your spam-a-wham also let's me know the blog is getting out, and people are reading it. This is so incredibly encouraging.

Sad guest, I am sorry that you don't know how to play nicely. You obviously have issues you need to work through. Maybe you should considering counseling, or perhaps start a blog of your own.

In the meantime, I'll be over here writing.

BLOG ON!