Just brief thoughts on 10 years at Open Diary

The best diary out there likely belongs to MissMeg.  She’s been here for a long, long while, and has amassed 32,655 public notes at last count.  Her story is one that young female readers can idealize without drawing the ire of anyone in their worlds.  She’s a small-town girl from the upper midwest who, upon returning home during a year of college in Arizona, commenced a romance with a guy she’s known since she was two.

The romance wasn’t exactly encouraged by some in her world but MissMeg evolved to develop new and deeper appreciation for her small-town life and went on to marry that guy and mesh lives with him in a great way.  Perhaps the difference between her diary and most is that she is an excellent photographer – a professional at that – and she doesn’t hesitate to add great pictures to her prose.

MissMeg somehow came to figure out that she wanted to get married in the idyllic setting that is Telluride, Colorado, and she has great photos to document that choice.

Nobody goes to MissMeg’s diary for daily drama, because it is seldom there – unless they’re ice fishing and having to navigate temperatures of minus 14 or minus 40 enroute.  (once you get there – the ice fishing is all indoors (who knew??) with plenty of modern conveniences for a festive day spent with friends)

When it comes to Open Diary drama, during my ten years here it seldom got better than when at the height of the "Brandee" days and years.  Brandee was a diarist who began her OD lifespan a couple of days after I did, but her being a provocative writer who seemed to cross 20-something sex kitten with "Hints from Heloise" had her amassing the astounding total of 25,371 public notes in just over 9 months of time at OD.  (compare that with MissMeg’s having taken the high and noble road {during much leaner OD times, I should mention} and getting to 32,655 over eight or nine years)

Brandee, as it turned out, was misrepresenting herself with the photo of a much younger person, with which she lured a long-time OD’er from one coast to the other for a visit.  Brandee later told of having arrived at his hotel room door, of being invited in, of being fucked, and only then hearing "I think you’d better leave now".

Perhaps that would have been a case of just desserts had the guy not sunk to Brandee’s level in banging her first and only then sending her packing.

Later, women who had actually met Brandee on multiple occasions (and while it was implied that she was 20-something) posted damning photographs from what might have been the Brandee person’s 20-year high school reunion which listed the writer’s true name, which certainly wasn’t "Brandee".

To this day you can still Google  "Brandee Nordstrom" and get a blast from the past, complete with this photo:

On a positive note, I’m quite sure that Brandee’s compelling bosom is as authentic as can be, yet I’m also sure that her oldest child must be out of high school by now, while Brandee’s legend lives on in the hallowed halls of Open Diary. 

My own note total is just about 11,000 now, which probably isn’t terrible for a male at OD, but that includes private notes as well.

I wonder whether Open Diary itself will still be standing in another ten years?