Barbara Walters (BaWa): You seem like your average, ordinary, forty-something, American woman. Why do people call you ToadMama?
ToadMama (Me): A lot of folks wonder about that. Way back in the mid-90s when AOL Instant Messenger first started, I needed an IM name. I tried lots of different variations of my name, my name with Mama added (my girlfriends and I call each other Mama), my kids’ names, etc., to no avail. I was getting frustrated. My Internet provider at the time was ToadNet. “ToadMama” was the IM name I’d tried that was available, so I grabbed it. I’ve always liked frogs and toads, too, which is sort of convenient.
BaWa: What made you decide to start a blog?
Me: I wanted an easy way to share news about our Alaska vacation. That was supposed to be it. But I created the blog a couple of months before our trip. I couldn’t just let it sit there, empty.
BaWa: You’ve been blogging for two years now and, at the time of this interview, you have just 18 followers. Do you find that discouraging?
Me: Not really. I’ve really just kept blogging because I like sharing stuff. It gives me something creative to do, and it keeps family and friends up-to-date with what’s going on in my life and the lives of my family. Now, if I ever decide to try and make a living by blogging, and it takes me two years to get 18 followers, THAT would be discouraging.
- – - BaWa had an emergency. As fans ask me questions going forward, I’ll post answers to the more-interesting questions here. – - -
