Is That REALLY What I Sound Like On The Internet?

Extreme thanks to Jeremy Blachman and Notes from the (Legal) Underground for linking to my blog. Obviously Jeremy is the Godfather in the blawging world (the Blawgfather?)... before his link I was averaging 20 or so hits a day, since... about 70. Thanks!! I feel like I have to be "on" now that I have some actual readers.

I just don't know what to do with myself now that I actually have some readership. Apparently, I come off as kind of an asshole on this¹, which I guess, deep down, I can be. But it was still amazing to hear it from someone willing to say it out loud (albeit hiding behind anonymity). The only thing I want to argue against, if I may stray off topic for awhile, is the accusation that I am a chauvinist, especially towards my wife. The commenter used actual quotes from my blog (one being "My salary is much greater than my wife's," the other being "And besides, my wife really didn't want to live there anyway") to support this theory. To be fair, taken out of context, these do sound kind of prickish of me... especially the one about salary. Truth be told, this past year, my wife has been a student, and I have been supporting us. So, literally, my salary was much greater than hers, because she wasn't working. Next year, the tables will be turned, and she will be working and supporting us while I am in school, for which I am very grateful. Even though it will be difficult living off one person's salary while one of us is in law school, I'm looking forward to it, because many people have told me that shared hardship is what really brings a couple together²

The second comment was meant to be sarcastic (it is hard to show sarcasm in writing, alas there there is no sarcasm tag in html)... and in no way mean to imply that my wife had no say in my decision on law school. In fact, I'm going to Minnesota because both of our families are up there... and I probably wouldn't have chosen Minnesota if I were single and choosing only for myself (they offered me less $$$ than other schools, and there's a higher cost of living).

I have more respect for my wife than anyone on the planet. She's smarter than me, and has a better sense of humor than most people I know. Thankfully, unlike my anonymous fan, she finds much of what I write here funny, and gives me the benefit of the doubt when I write something that could be taken as either sarcastic or malicious... assuming that I meant it to be sarcastic and funny (even if it wasn't funny).

As for coming off like an asshole... I know I'm not really an asshole in real life, my wife knows it, and my friends know it. So if I come across that way on this blog... well, I guess that's my blog persona. And if I'm a little bit entertaining because of, or despite, it, than great. If not... oh well.

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¹ At least according to the anonymous commenter from Friday's post
² Including my parents, who have told me on a few occasions about shipping off to the Phillapeans during the Vietnam almost immediately after getting married, isolated from their families by half a world, and how it fostered a closeness they didn't have before.