Thanks and an apology...

I love getting comments.  I'm quite addicted to them actually.  Every time I write a new post I spend the next day or two obsessively checking to see if anyone has commented.  I am always so happy to hear from people, I really love it when people respond to what I have written.

I love the wise people who help me in tricky times.  I love the lovely people who just say kind things and 'keep going' kind of supportive messages.  I love the thankful people who say your story helps me. I even loved it that one time someone was rude and told me to 'have a bloody drink and stop whining' because it made me mad and all the more determined.  Plus it gave me great material for a bite-back post.

But I want to apologize for not responding to individual comments.  I know a lot of other bloggers do respond to each and every comment directly at the bottom of their own posts - and for me personally I love checking back after I've commented on someone else's blog to see if they've responded to me.  It's so great!  Like a disjointed chat room.

I am so so tempted to start doing that myself, and I've kept mulling over whether to or not.  But the thing is, I just can't.

And it's because of my bloody MA research.  I am actually in the middle of writing a 40,000 word thesis!  I've had a terrible few months of not-studying, what with the house-sale and relocation, have really faltered for a while there but am finally back into the swing of things and am starting to get into some heavy-duty analysis of my data.

I'm actually meant to be working right now while I type this.  And, you see, that's the problem.  I already 'waste' too much time on blogger when I should be working on my studies.  Of course it's not a waste.  Blogging is my secret sobriety weapon and my blogger buddies are my secret support network, my home group, my lovely faceless buddies spread around the world give me so much strength and hope every day.  I love that we're all lumped together in a crazy blog-o-sphere, opening up and supporting and talking and listening.

But if I were to start responding to comments, on top of trying to comment on others blogs as much as possible, plus keep posting twice a week .. I just wouldn't get my MA done.  So that's all I wanted to say right now. I want to tell you all every time you comment that I agree, or thanks, or me too, or wow really! or some such.  But for now, I'm not going to let myself.  Until I put this MA baby to bed anyway.

Love, Mrs D xxx