Stats and Cliches

I've started looking at the statistics for my blog and I am amazed.

I had no idea so many people looked at this thing. I hardly ever post pictures or videos and I only write about my life. I thought maybe my friends and the 8 people who "follow" my blog might check in now and again.

Turns out I have had well over 3000 'hits' and you are from all over the world!!! Most people reading Ansapo's World live in the US, but some of you are from Russia, The Netherlands, Australia and Qatar! Canada is also represented as are China and Brazil. Who knew???

Looks like most people surfed in after looking for adorable photos of puppies. Sometime last year I made a post called "Running Fluffy Puppy" that featured a photo I found on the Internet of a white doggie with its tongue hanging out. But several of you have read my other ramblings.

Ramblings that, as I realize now, are filled with cliched writing. I've never considered myself a brilliant writer. Usually, I just jot down whatever leaves my head. I pray that it is coherent and mildly entertaining. I know that I write prose and definitely not poetry. I'm afraid my Capricorn sensibilities are far too pragmatic, for the most part, to invent intoxicating sentences. But, hopefully I am able to say what I need to say and get my point across.

I started keeping a blog during my senior year at UNCG, in 2005 I had gone back to college full-time in mid-life. A very un-sound financial decision, but one I have never regretted. I was finally able to prove to myself that I am smart (graduated Magna Cum Laude) and I loved attending classes. During my final semester, I took a long-avoided required English Literature class. To my amazement, I loved it. The professor, a man younger than I, selected fabulous novels for us to read by authors such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Chabon and Joyce Carrol Oates. I found that when I read these books, it made me want to write. So, in fits and starts this blog was created. It has been over 5 years now and I am so glad I have a place to deposit my thoughts. The fact that you are reading them fills me with amazement.

Hope you don't mind the cliches.