Alter Egoe or Split Personality?

My supervisor mentioned today that he would like to read my personal blog. We are attempting to tap into the social media frenzy and both he and I are new to the market. (Yes, I know we are a bit late in the game. Better late than never, right?) I’ve been exploring Twitter and Facebook and blogging on a personal level so that I can get a grasp around the entire concept and how it all works together. I casually mentioned to my boss that I had started a blog to learn how it works -and he asks to see it. Big mistake. My personal blogs are my feelings on various, insignificant matters that may come to mind at any given time. Do I want to give my boss a peek at my inner soul, at who I am and how I feel about things? I’m not so sure about that.

I try to keep my private life separate from my business life. It’s not that I have anything to hide or that I let it all hang out on the weekends (on the contrary –I have nothing to “hang out” anyway). It’s that I don’t want to become one of those people at work who’s life is an open book and that lives for the drama that unfolds. I prefer the simple, quite side of life and it should remain private and separate. I do interface with friends and coworkers about family, kids, vacations, etc., and engage in light conversations that are appropriate around the water cooler. (Do people actually stand around water coolers and talk anymore?)

What I don’t do is divulge details like how this weekend I accidently (it’s always an accident, right?) drank too many martinis at my cousin’s wedding and my husband found me sitting out in front of the hotel, martini glass in hand, soaking my sore feet in the water fountain (you know, the one right there by the circle drive where the valet’s handle all the guests’ cars) and blowing teeny, tiny bubbles with that little bottle you get as a wedding favor. Naah, I don’t think they need to know that kind of stuff about me. And neither does my supervisor.

So maybe a fake blog is in order. I can set one up on a different website and give it a name that obviously points to me (fake of course) and allow him to read about how mundane my life is, how I always exercise and eat right, and how I spend the weekends gardening and reading to the elderly. My alter ego. (Like Bizzarro World on Seinfeld.) But those that I am close to know that I’m far from that. I never have time to exercise, I love food (powdered donuts and skittles are my vice), my thumb has never been a shade of any color resembling green, and reading to the elderly might just mean reading to my aging self. So to keep my private life private, I guess I have to hide behind an alter ego. Hmmm, now that could be fun. [insert sinister laugh here]

Now What?

Okay, I admit it. I’m a newbie at blogging. Okay, okay. I’m a newbie with all social medias. I know –it’s just sad. This is my very first attempt at a blog, I’ve never twittered or tweeted or whatever it’s called, I only recently set up a Facebook account (so that I could get a free product sample that I heard about), and I don’t text. Nope, I don’t even text. My cell phone is just that –a cell phone. It doesn’t have a camera, MP3 player, special apps, or fancy ringtones. It’s just an old flip phone (no, not the old Motarola kind —though I still have my first one somewhere in my garage) and it’s used for calling people, which seems to be a lost art. It has web access-ability (is that a word?) but I never use it and it has text-ability (again, is this a word?), but I don’t use it. And I do occasionally receive texts from a few friends who can’t seem to remember that I don’t text.

Sidebar: When did it become acceptable to send a Happy Birthday text in lieu of a mailed greeting card or a friendly phone call?

It’s not that I don’t think social media is relevant –it is here to stay –it’s just that I’ve been so busy with life that all the technology, and media, and apps, have just flown by me. I’m so far behind that I’m not sure how to catch up. Running full speed ahead seems to be the only way and with this blog, I’ve put on my shoes and laced them up. Hey, maybe my snazzy new running shoes that I bought last weekend at DSW will help me out. Nike even printed a nice motivator on the bottom of the shoe that reads: “I run like a girl. Try to keep up.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I love it!

So now that I have this blog, what do I do with it. I need interesting information, readable content. I need bubbles! Yes, I said bubbles. You know, those little things that pop up above a cartoon character’s head to show you what they are thinking or saying or doing? Bubbles! My bubbles seem to appear at the wrong times –when I can’t exactly write them down. Like in the shower (who brings a pen in the shower?), in the car (I don’t know about you but anything I write while driving is unreadable chicken scratch), in meetings (yeah, you know all those notes you jot down on your pad just end up lost amongst all the real, valuable business information that you lose on your desk), in church (shame on me!), in the grocery store (I’m lucky if I remember to get the milk I dashed in for so I’m not going to chance it by stopping to jot down a random thought or my kids face a dry, milkless bowl of Cheerios in the morning), etc.

I guess blogging about my random thoughts is not going to be as random as they are in my mind. Maybe I should get one of those voice recording pens (oooh, with a laser pointer!!) so that I can recall those random bubbles. But then there is still the shower issue. Hmmm…