It's funny how the different parts of your life intersect. When I was having lunch with my friend Barry yesterday, we caught up on the details that we don't get into in email and instant messaging. I know he loves his kids, but he can convey that better in person than over the wire. He knows how my nephews are doing, but I can let him know a little more about their lives when we're talking face to face.

He also knows I keep a journal, and he's online every day, but he doesn't quite get the concept. He enjoyed the wedding pictures I posted because I sent him a direct link, but I don't think he understands why anyone would read someone else's diary every day. Frankly, most of the time, neither do I, but that's another story.

In a way, that made it easier for me to talk to him yesterday. When I'm with someone I know reads my entries, I can run out of things to say. That should be obvious, because I can run out of things to say right here on these pages.

I'm not a different person off the page than I am in the journal, but there's a lot more to me than you'll find here. It's not that I hold back, exactly. But there are areas that don't translate well to the format I've chosen. In a way, that helps me relate to the people I have coffee with. The journal isn't my whole life, and my whole life isn't in the journal. I think realizing that helps make me a more complete person.

There are people who know me only through the journal, but also a few treasured friends whom I've met through the journal. I talk to these folks outside the narrow confines of this web site, some daily and some less often. Early on, I advertised the fact that I answer my email, and it's paid off by enriching my life more than I ever thought possible.

I guess what I was really thinking yesterday with Barry is that he doesn't realize what an important part of my life this journal is. It isn't much, but it's one of the ways I define myself. I'm a lot of things, including an online journaler. I can't force anyone in my life to read, and I wouldn't want to. I definitely won't force anyone to talk about it, but it's always in the back of my mind (at least). That makes it all the more satisfying when it does come up in conversation. I was thrilled, in fact, that he even asked me about it.