Thursday, April 30, 2009

Destined to Spinst

Spinst can that be the verb form of Spinster? Anyway, the question that I have been asking myself for awhile is-was I born to be a spinster? Some people say that they always felt that they would never marry or marry late in life. I never felt that when I was younger, but sometimes I wonder if I just fit the spinster stereotype a little too well. First off I work in a library. So I'm a librarian of sorts. I can just see Donna Reed walking out of the library in glasses and frumpy clothes in It's a Wonderful Life, when Jimmy Stewart sees how his wife would have ended up without him. Why do so many people picture a librarian when they think spinster?

Also I like to garden and do genealogy-(maybe that just sounds like a retiree, I don't know). And I do like cardigans. What does this say about me? Plus maybe I am a tad frumpy and a little round around the edges, but I don't wear glasses. I wear contacts. And I never wear a bun in my hair. I also don't own any cats. So no one can call me a crazy cat lady, but sheesh it's still not very comforting. I've accepted my Spinsterhood to an extent, but I would like to think it was a choice not my destiny!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Oh Blog!

So do you ever get bummed out reading some people's blogs? I do. Some blogs are the equivalent of a Christmas newletter. They relate only the best things about a person or family's life and make it look perfect or at least better than yours. Everyone seems accomplished and happy and good looking. And the worst of these kinds of blogs are the ones from people your own age or even younger, people you went to high school with or even people your siblings' age.

Recently an old friend from high school added me as a friend on facebook. Fine. Good. Then I happened to see she had a blog posted on her profile so I went to it. It was an alright blog. She had a cute family- two little kids. It made me feel a wee bit envious, but happy for her. Then I saw a link on her blogroll to a blog that linked toother blogs from people that graduated the same year I did. This was a mistake, because as I perused through blog after blog of my peers with pictures and stories of their spouses, and kids, and homes, and great jobs, etc. ad nauseum, I got nauseated. Yet I couldn't stop looking at them. I felt like in comparison, my life couldn't compare. It was like, "look at everything you missed and can never have."

I will admit that it wasn't totally logical thinking, but the raw emotion of it overwhelmed me-a moment of spinster weakness perhaps. It's hard to see people you grew up with and not compare yourself to them. Oh course they have struggles and problems and maybe I wouldn't want to trade places with them, but from now on I'm taking those kind of blogs in smaller doses. It's safer that way. Does anyone have any similar experiences?

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I'm here, I'm here

Hello dear readers, your friendly neighborhood Spinster here. If you have been wondering where I have been and if I'm ever going to post again, I'm here and I will! It seems like most bloggers have a post like this every few months explaining why they aren't blogging and why. Well this is the last post of this sort you'll get from me, because I've come to the conclusion I will never be a consistent blogger. I wait until I have like 5 or 6 topics that I'm just busting at the seams to write about and then I will post in fits and spurts until I feel like I've exhausted all my ideas.
And sometimes I do feel like I've run out of ideas since I have been writing this blog for over a year now and my topic is kind of a narrow one. Actually the other day I realized that I had written a post that was almost identical to one I had written a year before! Oops. (See single vs. family wards) I guess I'm still going through the same issues, so I just need to keep blogging it out. A wise person once said, "It's not one thing after another, its the same thing over and over."
Since it has been over a year since the blog began I thought I'd perhaps do an overview of where this site is at. It started as a small blog and will stay a small blog or should I say a niche blog. I started it specifically for the Mormon spinster so I haven't gone around advertising it to just anyone. Mostly I've told my friends who have told their friends or people have just stumbled upon it while doing google searches.
In fact if you search "LDS spinster" I'm the top two hits you get. Also if you search just "spinster blog" I'm the second hit you get and the same for "spinster stories." I actually love looking at my sitemeter and finding out how people end up on my site. Here are some of the recents searches that have found me: "nice girls finish lonely"; "Join a nunnery"; "groceries for one"; "Virgins in their thirties" (I'm not sure just who is doing this search); "I feel like an old spinster" and "love taxi"(huh?). Anyway I love the many paths that lead to me.
As for my other stats-I have 17 subscribers on Google reader and 3 followers on blogger.com. And as far as I know I'm on 10 blogrolls on other blogs. So all in all not a runaway success, but not bad. I'm pleased. If you do feel so inclined though go ahead and add me to your google reader, blogroll or become a follower or my favorite thing of all leave a comment! Also if you have any great ideas for posts I'd love to hear them or if you think your blog should be on my blogroll let me know. Ok I guess that's it from me, but you will be hearing from me soon, I have a whole list of spinster issues to rant about-ahh, just what you've been waiting for. ;)