A true “history” of the Grand Chahee…
The first “About” section was written back when I was 26. I was an insurance agent with a lot of free time on my hands. The site went all .com back in April of 2008 (mostly because I wanted to own my own domain). And largely it’s still the same old thing, just a different day.
I’m now 28. I’m no longer an insurance agent (however, I do still have my insurance license). I only realized the other day that I mostly write like I’m talking to one of my friends. And mostly my friends are the only ones who read it (with the exception of a few others). It’s my own personal “non-diary” (as the now C(B1)C would put it).
The Grand Chahee Gazette did not start with that first post on August 13, 2007 (yes, I had to look that up). With a name derived from All Dogs Go to Heaven (don’t look at me like that--All Dogs Go to Heaven is a classic), the then CB1, EH, and I sat down (probably drunk) at CB1’s computer a wrote a “news paper” about our “friends” under the tag line of “All the News Not Fit to Print” (EH still has that somewhere). It starred feature columns like “Kooking with Kent” (the former love of my life explained how to boil a kielbasa), “Tales from the Closet” (a fashion blog written from the perspective of Thad—a man who drunkenly confessed that he “bakes, cooks, sews…thinks he’s a homosexual…People! People think he’s a homosexual”), and “The Adventures of Sloppy Sammy” (who was dubbed “Lord of the Underworld” and a “Mole from hell”—the real Sammy kind of looks like a mole from hell).
It was mean but witty, and ultimately just us three having a lark (at the expense of our “friends”). The Cat in the T-Shirt got involved after CB1 had read a wonderful story by New York comedian (and NY Post writer) Mandy Stadtmiller. The story (which infamously lives on through this blog’s current incarnation) was a humorous tale of dating rejection.
Ironically enough, I started The Grand Chahee to write about the stuff I didn’t tell my friends (I’m not going to specify what particularly prompted this new blog; however, it was quite specific—hence, the “trying to stay anonymous” approach). I chose the Cat because the story still cracked me up (and I had begun sending it out to random strangers). But at first, I was just talking about work; however, my weekends and my friends started creeping in every once in a while. And then the sex crept in. It doesn’t figure largely into the grand scheme of things, but it’s one of those things—it spices things up (that and I have no shame).
So, if I have no shame, why don’t I just post things under my name using the real names of the people involved? Well, it’s not that hard to figure out who all the characters are (it's called plausible deniability ).
I keep the pseudonyms for the men, not because I’m afraid that they’ll read it and hate me… Oh no, I’ve thought about letting them read their own “reviews” (shouldn’t sex/dating be a feedback driven activity?). Ultimately, you just don’t name the puppy until you’re going to take it home (and I never take them home).
I am a real person you know. I love comments. I’m very open (despite the guise of anonymity). Please feel free to comment. Please feel free to ask me questions (the domain came with email addresses). Please feel free to make your friends read, too.
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