Long Time No Blog

I've been taking a little blogging hiatus. (You may or may not have noticed.) It has actually been quite refreshing. Don't get me wrong; I have loved blogging, and the acquaintances I've renewed through it, the friends I've been able to keep in touch with, and the new people I've been able to "meet" via this medium. I've also loved being able to sit and write---and to have a reason to do so. I used to be a major journal-writer, but I gave that up at about the time I got married. Don't know why, just didn't take the time. So it's been really amazing for me to reconnect with my "writing self" and think about the perfect word in a sentence--because my two lovely gills don't really care about perfect words yet, a great image, etc...and venting via blog has been fabulous too.

But, I think there are a few blogging drawbacks that finally forced me to cave a bit. And maybe I'm alone on this, and maybe I'm not, but regardless--I felt a little strangled by blogging.

MY personal BLOGGING BEEFS:
*I found myself thinking, "what can I blog about today?" more often than I should have. This made me feel slightly pathetic.
*I found myself thinking, "I HAVE to blog about that!," as if a wonderful/frightening/amazing/emotive experience was only legitimized by blogging about it.
*I found myself divulging more info than I should have on my blog. (Think Brazil?) Somehow, telling the "world" something personal on my blog was frighteningly easy. Just let my mind flow, hit publish, and voila! there I am up close and personal. YIKES!
*I was blasted by negativity from one lurker in particular, and through that realized that what I was writing was being read by more people than I ever intended. And that makes me uncomfortable.
*There are tons of freaks in the world who fill their days as computer predators. Am I endangering myself or my family? I know that sounds paranoid and extreme, but all of these heinous Dateline specials on internet predators (there's another one tonite!) have given me cause to pause.
*I was spending too much time blogging. I wanted to keep up with several different blogs, and that takes a lot of time. At the end of the day, I didn't like realizing that I had spent maybe an hour (more sometimes, less sometimes) blogging. The world is too real and immediate and important to spend so much time on the computer, right?
*I crave friendship and connections and women to converse with and I find myself in a bit of a vacuous setting for that right now (some fabulous exceptions 20 miles away duly noted). So blogging has been a great outlet to feel more connected. But why am I not out in my community more, trying to strengthen myself where I'm at?
*I'm also in the throes of starting darlybird.com, and quite honestly, that has taken so much of my time, and i've been LOVING it. (watch for a summer launch date TBA!)

I don't know if this makes any sense, or if any of you feel the same way or have the same reservations. I value the friendships I've made and rekindled via blogging. I really do. I wish I lived near all of my fun friends, bloggers and non, and that I could throw wildly wonderful parties every month (or week, or day!) and be with so many great people--in their presence. Computer presence is not enough.

So, I will continue to blog. I think the good it's done for me outweighs the bad. I just need to be more careful about my time, my personal info and boundaries.

If anyone has any great answers to this conundrum, please fill me in on the process. I've just kind of been through blogging detox, and I think I'm ready to put one foot back in the door.