Warning:  If you read my post in October, Brought To You By the Number 10,000… One Big Ego trip, written on the occasion of reaching 10,000 views for my blog (in three months), then you could theoretically stop reading now. This will be twice the ego trip; I’m warning you now. I promise to only do this each 10,000 hits, but hell… then I’m going to just let loose. So turn away now, if this kind of thing bugs you, ’cause this could get ugly. If that kind of thing amuses you, stay with me here. I plan to toot, toot my own horn 20,000 worth! (I’ll be using lots of exclamation points, to really make that point) Ego, ego, ego… let go my ego!

So, you’ve been warned and if you’re still reading, here it is: (cue drum roll:) 20,000 hits, 20,000 hits!!! I reached 20,000 hits Tuesday morning!  Giddy, giddy, giddy up!  I am totally stoked. Wicked jacked. I’m floating on fluffy blog clouds. I’m so excited, that I’m about to fly in the face of each and every warning that Sweet Mother warned about in her post, Is Your Blog Getting Arrogant?  I told her I’d be doing this, and also told her that I’ve been fretting ever since I read her post… trying to avoid doing the things that might make my blog an “arrogant blog.”  However today, I am on one shiny, sparkly, no holds bar, arrogant, ego trip… so here goes!

Did I mention that I hit 20,000?  Man, it feels gooood!   I can’t deny it: I’ve been watching the numbers for weeks, speculating as to how long it would take to hit 20,000. (That is just one of Sweet Mother’s signs that a blogger has become arrogant: posting your stats, or watching your number. Today, I arrogantly own both of those.)  The number can be seen on the right side of each blog post. A small number just under the heading “Thanks for helping this number grow.” Maybe you haven’t noticed it. Perhaps you don’t really notice the stuff over on the side of my blog; but I do. I have watched that number daily. It’s hard not to. Any blogger who says they don’t check their stats is a bold faced liar. Seriously.  I put that widget there (a term I learned only through blogging) so that I would not fudge the numbers. I know one blogger whose number says 76,659,959 and I suspect she faked it. Read that however you want.  Beyond the fact that nearly 77 million would be unbelievable in itself, that number never changes and has “Give or take” written next to it. Because I love her, I haven’t called her on it. (Loving other bloggers, or thinking they’re your friends, is another of Sweet Mother’s signs that you’ve become arrogant… but, Said 77 million views blogger has in fact written me privately, and I think we  have something real. So, I’m ignoring that rule too. Ego, arrogance, loving other bloggers, I’m embracing it all today; I’m breaking all the rules.)

<– Big ass mountain of numbers.

The view from atop 20,000 views is pretty stunning, but last night the concept of others reading my posts came home in a hilarious way. We were at a concert to see Chris Isaac (Since this is my ego trip today, I’ll digress for a moment:  During the concert, he came out into the audience. He came over, stopped and sang right to me! I was like a 17 yr old girl, biting my quivering lip, covering my face, and thinking I might start crying (yes, really), while the guy next to me kept saying: He’s singing right to you! Be quiet Mister, Chris and I are sharing a moment.) At dinner, the good friend we went with, said: “This may sound strange but I was telling a nurse in my office today, that we were going to Chris Isaac with you and (Smart Guy) (another arrogant thing: I translate into blog terms automatically sometimes) and she said Oh! Ask her what a gunt is! tell her I love her blog!” My friend laughed, and continued.  “I have to admit, it was kind of funny to hear her talk about you and your blog, when I didn’t know that she even knows you guys,” he told us, over oyster/vodka shooters, pre-show.  I asked the name of his nurse, but had never heard of her. It’s a small town, it’s not that strange that someone I don’t know is reading my blog…hell, someone in Macedonia clicked on this site this week!… But in the moment, it was strange. My friend found it even more amazing. I blurted out, “I hit 20,000 today!” and we all did a shot.  Ego.

Since the 10,000 milestone, a lot has changed. When I hit 10,000 early into blogging, there was a big boost that had pushed that number along. I’d been Freshly Pressed (The Grass is Always Greener, on Someone Else’s Head) six weeks after posting my first blog. That post alone brought in somewhere close to 7,000 hits. That in and of itself was a reason to toot my own horn, but frankly, the 20,000 level feels so much more rewarding. Some changes:  At the time of the 10,000 post I was getting about 100 views per post, but often much less. If you go back and read the 10,000 Ego rant (link at the top), you can see the changes that led to that point. I was feeling really good if I got 125 hits for a post, amazed when one post hit 175.  As of the 20,000 level, I now get about 300 views per post. I’ve had 1,838 views and growing in the past 7 days. Exciting for me, but that’s still crumbs for some bloggers.  Check out Lesley Carter, over at Bucket List Publications.  She’s on my blogroll, another thing to see over to the right.  She was just Lesley Carter: Indulge, Travel, Adventure & New Experience, when I started reading her, before she hit 15,000 hits a day and pushed up over the 1,000,000 (yes, 1 MILLION) views mark… I can’t imagine the Ego trip I’d be on with those numbers!  That puts my ego in line quickly… She gets the 20,000 I’m gloating about in days, not months. However, since I’m on my own, personal journey… I hit 20,000 this week!

(<– Got Paraguay in my pocket, 20,000!)

I own this rant because I deserve it.  Blogging is hard work and I am excited to see that work pay off. I’m now getting 200-300 hits for every post. I have officially reached the 200 subscribers mark today (woot, woot!), and now that I can see what countries my views are coming from, I can ego-centrically follow that too!  This week, that has been a source of much entertainment in our house, as the kids check out my geographical stats as well. China (not his real name) made the point that if China, the country, didn’t ban Facebook and lots of other things like WordPress, I might have them on my list too!  One can dream… Of particular amusement, someone (or 2) in the following countries stumbled upon my blog this week: Moldova, Macedonia, Estonia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Iraq, Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, to name some of the more intriguing ones, as well as 1,838 Americans (and even if quite a few of those are repeat visitors, that’s a big number), and 75 Canadians (despite my snarky comments). I feel so (20,000) International!  Since I get asked a lot, I’ll clarify:  WordPress publishes in 50 languages. I assume that any foreign reader reads my posts in English, but it’s a bit of a mystery to me too.  Way cool, but a mystery.  (The list is long, part 1 and part 2 ^^;  that’s 42 countries!)

Brief reality check:  No doubt, there are a few frustrated people in Eastern Europe who looked up “Tales from the Motherland,”  in the hopes of reading about Stalin, only to find a sarcastic, egotistical (today), boring mother of 3 (and host mother of two foreign exchange students), rambling on about stats, stockpiling magazines, ranting about underwear, or going to Vegas. No doubt, they pause, scratch their brows and move on.  Because my stats also tell me what search engine terms were used to find my blog, I know that a certain number of perverts misguided readers stumbled upon my blog, while searching out “big ass small thong” (today), “thong showing,” etc, from my post “Call Me Prissy…Butt,” about the disappearance of the panty line. What a disappointment it must be for those folks!  Or, I can only imagine that more than a couple readers have found my blog, by looking up the U.N., hoping to actually read about serious, international,  U.N. issues, versus the dramas of our multi-national home.  They were not expecting China to be so funny, would be my guess.

<– (Despite the reality check in progress, that’s a lot of the world looking at this blog. Even if there’s only 1 in Moldova)

I am well aware too, that the number of views in a day does not actually mean the number of people who read my blog.  Surely some people stumble upon the blog, see what it is and move on. Others hit on the photos (as many of you will likely do, to read those stats more clearly) and that counts as a view. There are, no doubt, a certain number of curious people who read the name, or find a blog title amusing, and stop in long enough to change their minds. But, for the sake of my ego trip, I love that the numbers are steadily rising.  I had a post in February that hit 600 views. That’s a big deal, in my arrogant little world. I’m honored (and I don’t throw that word out there to sound humble; I’m not) that lots of other readers actually follow these posts and take the time to comment, congratulate me, give advice, or share thoughts. For as many comments as I get, I also get some nice emails. I am proud that I have readers in so many diverse places, geographically and personally.  I have conservative folks, crazy ass readers, gay/lesbian followers, Asian, African American, Irish (my personal sub-set), and even some men. It’s always a hoot when I hear from them and see how amazing it is that my writing helped our paths cross.

Exiting reality check: Since that 10,000 mark, I’ve been sincerely honored to receive several Blog awards, or acknowledgments, from my blogging peers:  The Liebster award, ABC/Awesome Blog Content award, Sunshine award, Good Apple Award and the Versatile Blogger three times. While these are only cyber awards (and as Sweet Mother points out, they did not make it to any shelves), I continue to be touched when the other bloggers who I follow, or who follow me, pat me on the back.  I love writing, and this has become a powerful outlet for what I have to say. That others read what I write and appreciate it (or, sometimes not), means a lot to me. There is a lot of effort that goes into carving out the time to post, putting it in writing, and putting my stuff out there to be judged. I’m grateful that it’s been judged kindly thus far.

In the months since the 10,000 blog milestone, I’ve learned a lot more about adding content, uploading material, tagging the posts to bring in more readers, editing my work (though I still miss stuff, and have it pointed out by a variety of helpful sources). Other bloggers have graciously helped me, like Sharon Howard at A Day In the Life of a Busy Gal.  She even messaged me back and forth, until I figured out how to post images that I wanted to add to my blog. Gracious!  I’ve figured a lot out on my own too, but I owe a lot to the other bloggers who have encouraged me and helped me get better at this. I owe somewhere around 20,000 thank yous, if  it really

<– (For the record: I’ve got Paraguay in my pocket. 20,000 here)

If you try to imagine what 20,000 represents, there is lots of room for ego trips.  Fellow blogger Rob Rubin, at The Mainland, wrote a very clever, funny post called “What 10,000 Views Looks Like,” a few weeks ago, when he hit 10,000. I don’t have the patience to dig up such clever visuals,  and would feel like a copy cat if I replicated the cool details he put out there. So, given my Egomaniacal, arrogant blog status for today, I’d urge you to hit Rob’s link (above) and double whatever he has there. That’s right, I’m bragging, that I would have twice as much as Rob had there, but I’m not clever enough to figure out how that might look. I’m leaving that to him.  For instance, based on Rob’s hilarious calculations, I could buy 5 Yugo cars, if my views were dollars. Yowza!  If Sesame Street’s The Count were  counting 20,000 flowers, instead of flowers, it would take him about 2,900 minutes on YouTube, and there would be numerous thunder claps by now.

<—(I also got Belarus in my pocket too, in the past few weeks. 20,000 more here.)

Concluding this long winded, arrogant, ego driven, tooting my own horn about my 20,000 views post, I have to say, a bit more humbly: I am grateful. I am very, very grateful that people have taken the time to read these posts. I’m grateful to have been Freshly Pressed once, even if I arrogantly covet having it happen again. I’m grateful to people, familiar and cyber, who have taken the time to share info. with me, have encouraged me, and who have pushed me along. I’m sorry for the few times that anyone has been hurt by my writing. While I would argue that in those rare instances (mostly about family) there was misunderstanding: my experience is not yours and I believe that (generally) if you read carefully, what I have actually said is true: popular or not.  Still, I’m sorry to see anyone’s feelings hurt.  It is never my intention here. That said, I mostly feel very proud of what I’ve been doing here, and where it’s going.

<– As I gloat, I also covet these cool new “badges” I can earn. I’ll collect them for the 30,000 post. I get them when people like the post, or I get new subscribers. Pitch in folks.  IF you ever thought of stroking me (read that how you want), do it now. Like this post. Check out the Facebook page and like that. Celebrate this with me. Now that I’ve probably done every single thing that Sweet Mother highlights as arrogant, I feel purged. I can smile the rest of the day and not worry about tripping up on any of that. It’s all out in the open now and I’m feeling 20,000 times more grateful and excited, than I was when I started, back in June.  Thank you WordPress, thank you readers, thank you me… We’re a good team.

Stop! Really. Read this.  Please note:  Check out the Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheMotherland.  Please take a moment and like the new Facebook page (the page, not just a post). If you enjoy these posts hit “Like” and make me smile. It also helps my blog grow and that is the point. Go back and hit Like.  Thanks. Then, be a good doobieand “Share” them with others; it’s nice to share. Better yet Like them; Share them and then do something nice for yourself: “Subscribe.” You won’t get any spam, you can sign up with an anonymous name (I won’t know who you are, unless you tell me),  and you will get an email each time I post.  Think of it as a free gift to yourself.  You know you want to. Go ahead, make my day (sorry about the gun, but this is serious business).