Show Yourselves
This image is borrowed from Suburban Misfit (who borrowed it from someone else) to tell all you lurky-loos out there that now is the time to come out come out wherever you are and bask in the light of my love. Or something. That's right--it's Delurking Week and you're all invited!
In an effort to be more like the cool kids, I'm tagging onto Dutch's coattails and offering to donate half a buck (I work for peanuts) to charity for every unique delurking comment left on this post by Saturday at midnight. Please leave your name, your location, and anything else you think I'd like to know, e.g., how you found the site, how long you've been reading, why you keep coming back to agirlandaboy.com, whether it's time to cut the bangs again or just grow them out already for crying out loud because they looked stupid in the first place. I would love to hear from you all, and I'd love to donate some money to the Red Cross in your honor.
If you want, you can also add yourself to this lame map, but don't tell Will because I gave him no end of shit about how guest maps are for the feeble of mind and weak of spirit. (The map won't, by the way, pinpoint your exact location, so you don't have to worry about me showing up on your doorstep. Alas, I can not look forward to you showing up on mine either, which is sad because I know you'd bring cookies.)
p.s. Regular commenters can play too!
so, even if i comment regularly, but not on every post, but read all posts, and lurk those where i do not comment, what does that make me?
I am a lurker...i will freely admit it! I am from Minnesota, and came across your blog via a friends blog that had a link to someone elses blog who I believe linked to yours. I had some free time at work one day and now I am hooked.
I think you are a great writer. And admittingly, I am a bit jealous (in a good way, not the stalking way) of you and simon...and your fun fun life.
And I love your photos too...I just bought a new camera and I wish I was that at ease carrying it around everywhere and taking photos of everything.
Anyway, that is my lurking story...thanks for letting me lurk...
I am a lurker...i will freely admit it! I am from Minnesota, and came across your blog via a friends blog that had a link to someone elses blog who I believe linked to yours. I had some free time at work one day and now I am hooked.
I think you are a great writer. And admittingly, I am a bit jealous (in a good way, not the stalking way) of you and simon...and your fun fun life.
And I love your photos too...I just bought a new camera and I wish I was that at ease carrying it around everywhere and taking photos of everything.
Anyway, that is my lurking story...thanks for letting me lurk...
Does it count as delurking if you know I read? My name is Krissa, I live in New York, I come here all the time, I wish Stuart had bought me cool ghetto bikes, and I hate broccoli.
I come here all the time, post sometimes...have you as a link on my blog...live in Portland, Oregon...and I have eaten a whole box of those cool seedless mandarin oranges all by myself this week!
really, i just swing by to covet your pimped out ride.
alright,i lurk, truly i do...every DAY,even. i'm shameless. 'like my morning coffee, you and simon. i've been reading for-goshes-EVER and i believe i came by your site thru wills himself. he's a peach & i've lurked around his site even longer, sad but true, tho i've actually chatted with HIM,and leave comments irregularly...he shares my taste in band teeshirts and porn. oh, and he made me a mix cd once.(rockin)
i've never commented on your site because leapin' lizards, i'm not worthy! you're an incredible writer....i wish i'd managed to hold on to half the nauseaus romance you and simon share! (i kid). i love the photos & the simultaneous posts...its fun reading the he/she versions of things & its nice,the feeling of *catching up with old friends*
please,please may i keep visiting?
De-lurking to tell you that I too got microwavable socks for Christmas. Love them but must admit that the walking around in them is a little difficult (although I recently moved a few hours away from the ocean so the hard but oddly squishyness of the bottoms allow me to pretend I am at the beach)
My name is Beverly and I am from a town called Kamloops in British Columbia. I don't remember whose blog I linked here from but I love it and have come back often! You and Simon make me laugh and who doesn't like to read a sweet love story as it's happening?
Anyway, just a couple last tidbits.
Your bikes are so cool (being an english major you would think I could come up with better vocabulary to describe my feelings toward your bikes...however, there just is no other expression that will capture the coolness of the bikes.
Also? Are those beer cans on your desk?
Lastly, I promise to never put you through my de-lurking again...i'm sure that was painful.
Hmmm...well, I've lurked and lurked and lurked around your blog for a long time now, though I have left a few comments here and there in recent days. Do I still qualify as a lurker? Lol, I'll let you decide.
I found agirlandaboy through a link in a blog that, sadly, is no longer in existence--it was written by a witty and charming guy named Todd and was called ronkainendotsomething. Clicked once and was hooked forever on the amazing writing, the charming stories, the great pictures and even the whole backstory which I read on one of my first visits. You get better and better every day--it might have something to do with that Simon character, I think (He lends a fine edge to your office decor, by the way). ;)
Anyway, I live in Arizona and am back in school for the second time, working on my second degree. I write fiction in my spare time (when I'm not engaged in lively battle with the commas!) and swear I'm good for at least three novels before I die.
Oh, and I'm still wondering why it is you don't like the present progressive....
Hi, my name's Catherine and I'm a lurker. I'm 24, Irish and living in Amsterdam. I keep coming back here...
a) because I think you write incredibly well
b) for quirky music & movie recommendations
c) for the wonderful photos
d) last but not least because I think I may be you three years ago and I'm trying to figure how things will play out. I have the EBTR boyfriend but we couldn't be more different and I think he's starting to feel pressured into popping the question. Problem is, I think I've already met a "Simon"... we clicked and we re-click every time we meet and I can't stop thinking about him. Reading about how happy you are with your Simon sort of makes me think I shouldn't be settling for EBTR. So there you have it.
Lurking here too!
Been reading for several months, can't remember how I found the site...
location: uk
Old time lurker, semi-regular commenter now. I must say that it's nice to come out of the lurking closet. A lot more freeing. :)
I can't exactly remember how I found your website, but I do remember immediately loving your writing style and fabulous taste in music. Have been a regular ever since. (Geez, over a year, I do believe.)
Anyhoo, I think you and Simon are fab and that you still rock. The bangs are cool but I think that it's a lot easier to maintain if you just grow them out.
Oh yeah, my location is Virginia and I'm a libra. :)
sssshhhhhhhh..... I have to be very quiet. My husband knows that I have an addiction to reading your blog (I had to fess up when he caught me in your archives). But I promised him that you didn't even know I was here because I was a "lurker". He just looked at me as if I were insane and then went to count the pills in my medicine bottle!
I have fought the urge to delurk several times but just had to do so today since you demanded it! I'm from NC and I linked here through another great blog (Kristin's). I thoroughly enjoy your writing and your wonderful love story. I also think I envy your ability to truly live life to the fullest because at your age I was already very old at heart.
Keep up the great writing and maybe I'll sneak in a comment or 2 when hubby isn't watching! :)
hello! Found your website through our stats since you were linking to us... so technically, you found us first! (No doubt because of our extensive travel photos, not the journal I never seem to update!) :) Anyway, I really enjoy hearing about your adventures in life and silliness, thanks for sharing all of this with the curious internet.
i'm no lurker, i prefer to call myself "shy".
hahaha.
xo
Been around for a year or so, LOVE your writing and your real-ness (word?). Thanks for sharing yourself with us. Oh and I'm from St.George(Utah).
Leah, a year ago I didn't know what a blog was. I was doing a search on google for something and accidentally ended up on your page. I was amazed by the fact that every vivid detail of your life was on the internet, and I was also impressed with your writing talent. I spent hours poring over your archives, then I started clicking on some of your links. Without you I woud never have known the likes of Dooce or Secret Agent Josephine! Crazy! I quickly became addicted to reading blogs, and eventually started my own. So what I'm trying to say is: you are a gifted writer, I love how much you love your Simon, and I check for updates every day so please don't stop writing. Thanks for letting me stumble upon this site and discover the realm of blogging. :) (I am from a little town in British Columbia called Summerland.)
Hi from Topanga, CA. Still lurking after all these months (sung to Paul Simon's Still Crazy). Bet no one else who's lurking had a new grandbaby on Tuesday! And, in case you're curious, she's exquisite.
You know you write well, but also so enjoyable is your energy and delight in life which are so very palpable.
leah, i've been reading your blog for ages. and found other fantastic blogs through here too. enjoy your writing very much. and identify with you in some way. started reading your blog when i was in living in leicester/london...and continue to read it from where i moved to..in kuala lumpur, malaysia.
I commented once, about missing Berkeley Bowl, and you emailed me back!
Currently in Denver, and I believe I found your site through SAJ.
Thanks for writing about the BA - gives me a little twinge of homesickness whenever you write about your adventures.
Regular commenter here from Nelson, BC. I'm very glad I found your site, oh, a couple of years ago. We seemed to have parallel lives at one point, I de-lurked then and have been posting ever since. Very much enjoying this new chapter of your life and hope that I have agirlandaboy.com on my links list for a very long time. Perhaps another site will come one day... agirlandaboyandtheirtwokidsridingfourcoolbikes.com
;)
I’m a lurker from Texas who linked over through Cora’s blog. Keep coming back because I enjoy your perspective and the fact that you can express that perspective so clearly. It’s fun / entertaining / enlightening to read about someone else’s silliness and seriousness.
You should come up to Napa to bowl for James' birthday, that's all I have to say about that.\
Delurking!
And kisses!
Holy crap, Leah! Check out all the lurkers! I used to be one, until your cuteness regarding all things Simon made me come out from behind the curtain and show myself. I'm in Cincinnati, god help me, and I still have no idea how I stumbled over here.
Oh, and grow out the bangs. It's so much nicer when we can see your pretty face (was that mom-like enough?).
I don't think I count as a lurker.
The word "lurker" scares me.
I'm from Oakland, CA and I heard about your site through a coworker. Though the sap-factor has risen sharply in recent months with the onset of Perfect Boyfriend, I do still enjoy your (and his) writing.
Oh and "slicing the ham?" Genius.
nice map gayhole
I'm not a lurker, 'cause I comment - and email too, but I want in on the fun! I am in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. My name is Jenny - but you knew that. I linked here from SAJ a while back. The "boy stuff" you were going through and wrote about helped me with my "boy stuff"...and now I am inspired to be crazyily in love like you. And we share the GG obsession. (Will Luke tell Lorelai already?!!!) :)
I don't think i can possibly count as a lurker, but I bet I check your site more than anyone out there.
As you know, sweets, even though I see you every morning and every night, I still can't wait to see what you put up. I'm truly an addict; I simply can't quit you.
Welcome lurkers! You guys are awesome!
Steps slowly into the light . . . I read from Los Angeles, CA. Former bay area resident, can’t remember the trail that linked me to your blog. I cried instantaneously when my best friend cut me bangs in high school, kept them for two years and haven’t had a fringe since. Love the blog, even the squishiness of late.
lurker!
i've been reading your blog forever now. started reading around the time you went through your big break up, and then i went through my own big break up... now we're both happy in love again!
looking forward to seeing what happens next,
lindsey (in los angeles)
I've been a lurker for quite awhile now and am the coworker who introduced Jason (above) to your site. I don't remember how I found it, though, but I enjoy your writing and photos. I live across the Bay in SF. I once saw you at a concert and felt as if I had seen a celebrity. The people I was with barely knew what blogs were and didn't get nearly as excited as I was, so I felt like a dork, which was OK.
That's so cool! Do you remember what concert it was? I hope it wasn't the one at which I puked all over Potrero Hill...
I only saw you outside before the show and you looked sober at that point. It was that Tsumani Benefit about a year ago, with Ben Gibbard and Mark Kozelek--a great show.
It was a great show, and I was absolutely sober the whole time, as per usual. (Drunkenness is generally an aberration.)
Been hanging around since 03 or 04 methinks, all the way from sunny Canada. Loved this place then, love it now, will love it for-evah!
Alright, I'm delurking, I saw that you stopped by my sight, so there's no way I could get out of speaking up here. ;)
Name - Alicia
Location - Minneapolis, MN
Weather here - fricken cold
Also, I am disappointed to say that for some reason your site has been blocked from use on the server at work, and this just happened a few days ago. I have no idea what you could have written to be flagged by the damn system here, but whatever it is, it must have been scandelous! So I'll still be checking, but from home from now on :(
Hi! My name is Ted, and I'm a lurker. I have been reading for many years. I have never posted on this site. I found this site from posts on another site. I enjoy reading about, and seeing the pictures from all of your adventures. Your writing style and photo perspectives are unique and interesting. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah and feel like I've known you forever -- probably because of your background of living there before you moved to California. I visit this site nearly every day and the only time I'm disappointed is when there's nothing new.
So, ... there you have it. {Turns away while looking over shoulder and slinks back to hiding place.}
I am not a lurker and I heart you, as you know, and you'd look good with bangs or without or with purple spots.
Mutual admiration society, ahoy!
I'm not really a lurker, but I didn't want to be left out!
I've lurked here for a little while, while you have been loud and proud with the comments on occasion on my blog in recent times!
Thought it was about time I stepped up to the plate :)
Sorry to be so serious, but I keep coming back cos you remind that getting past stuff just takes time, and when you do, sometimes there is a Simon, woops I mean, something wonderful waiting for us!
Damnit! Just realised I'm like 2 days late...I shouldn't be reading, commenting, doing anything other than sleeping when I am this tired!
Sorry Leah! Would have loved to have contributed the the donation!
I'm a longtime reader who also read and commented on your previous site. I keep coming back because the aliens have replaced my brain with Folger's crystals.
But seriously ... you, or at least the blog version of you, is packed with like-able-ness. I can't say I enjoyed the times you were hurting, but as a "virtual Internet friend," I am reveling in the fact that you're happy and in love.
I've been a daily reader for nearly 3 years. I don't remember how I first found you, but I've been hooked since day one. I've have had a soft spot in my heart for you ever since that first email you sent, when I really didn't know you, and you didn't know me, but your few words of encouragement really touched me.
And we would bring cookies and sushi and our bikes* and want to over stay our welcome.
*even though they are not nearly as pimp-a-licious as yours.
** but you already knew that. :-)
Hey, Happy De-Lurking Week!
happy not really a lurker but hi anyway day!
yet another lurker de-lurking. I found your blog through another blog, probably through another blog. I've been reading for about a year. I live in Alaska, it's flipping cold, your little bit of California brings sunshine to my dark world.
lurking in Marin County, CA - like someone else who posted above, didn't know what a blog was until two years ago when I was doing a google search trying to find a discontinued lipstick color. A click here, a click there, and here I was! I have long-time Berkeley roots and reading your blog is sometimes like a trip in the way-back machine, now that I'm a married suburbanite w/ two kids. Good luck to you and Simon -- I didn't like Ethan even before you guys broke up!
Hi, I'm Ky. I think I fouond your blog through Petit Hiboux, maybe? All my blog reading somehow goes back to Pamie and through her old Squishy forum I found Hashai and Hate Your Daddy and dooce and by following various links, I have managed to build myself quite the blog library. I live near Boston, I love your writing and I am fairly new to your blog. All you cool chicas make me want my own blog and I plan to start one soon but I really don't know anything about computers, really and it hurts my artist soul to think that I will have an ugly blog. Oh, well.
ANYWAY. I like your blog, I like your photos and I like your stories. Thanks!
Hi, I'm Ky. I think I fouond your blog through Petit Hiboux, maybe? All my blog reading somehow goes back to Pamie and through her old Squishy forum I found Hashai and Hate Your Daddy and dooce and by following various links, I have managed to build myself quite the blog library. I live near Boston, I love your writing and I am fairly new to your blog. All you cool chicas make me want my own blog and I plan to start one soon but I really don't know anything about computers, really and it hurts my artist soul to think that I will have an ugly blog. Oh, well.
ANYWAY. I like your blog, I like your photos and I like your stories. Thanks!
An Indian gal from NYC, found your blog through another blog(krissa i think) and so on...
mainly read to learn about how people from other cultures live life !
Hey Leah. As you know I'm not really a lurker (and I'm a few days late on this de-lurking thing anyway), but I just wanted to say that your influence extends across the globe--at least all the way to Egypt. All hail the global power of Leah!
I gotta be honest...it's the idea of that giant cat that keeps me coming back to this blog ;) No seriously, anyone who takes the time to send a postcard all the way to the Land of Oz, in addition to being an awesome photographer whose writing makes me smile even on crappy days at work deserves a bunch of de-lurkifying comments...this one was mine :)
I always read, sometimes comment. I can't remember I found your site, but I'm always glad I did. I'm sure it was through a link through a link through a link...as it usually is. Anyways, thought I would join in the ever growing mass of comments.
My name's Monica, I live near Boulder, CO and I've been reading for about 6 months, maybe longer. I thinked I linked to you from feistyscribe.com.
I read your line about the Mormons in the "about me" page and was interested so I started reading. I was raised Mormon, went to BYU so I experienced the whole Utah thing. Then I graduated, moved to Colorado, left the church, married my non-member husband and we're gonna have a freakin' baby in June. And I never knew I could be this happy.
We're about the same age, have a lot of similar views, and you seem like a down girl who happens to write really well. That's why I keep coming back.
I came for the hot gayle pics but stayed for you and Simon.
Hi Leah (not your real name) I'm Beth (not my real name). I found you (Will, really) when you went on vacation last July. I remained, hooked, after reading archives.
[sh*t, I'm having a really tough time with this, today) Okay! Deal is, I love your site. I find the idea creative and the writing amazing. And I love the fact that there are people out there that can write on a near-daily basis!
From the glorious West Coast of Canada...
I'm a lurker in Arkansas. I have no idea how I came upon your page, but I keep coming back for the absolutely fantastic pics and all the cutie patootie stories of you and Simon. You are on my list of favorites and I'll check back often.