A Question of Ethics

This came up the other day when speaking with a fellow blogger about the Boston Bloggers Party that Susie, et al. are arranging for the middle of next month.  People suggested I should go, and it does sound interesting, but what do I tell people I'm doing?  Now, I blog, and no one close to me really knows about it (which seems a bit unhealthy to me, but that is for another post).  My reasoning for this is that I don't want to censor myself.  I write about my life and the people in it, and I don't want to hurt or offend anyone, and I also don't want to have to hold back.  It's not like I lie to people.  I mean if someone straight out asked me "Do you have a blog?" I would say yes.  But it isn't information that I'm offering to my friends (except 1, but she lives 3000 miles away.  HEY BECK!  Another girl friend.  What is my deal?).

So the point is, if I do decide to go to this little shin dig, what do I tell people I'm doing?  I don't like lying to people, but on the same note, I'd feel a little weird being like, "Oh, I'm going to meet up with some people I don't really know that I've spoken to online a few times."  No offense to anyone.  I'm sure you're all wonderful people, but to me it seems like there is this stigma attached to "online friends."  

I still haven't even decided if I'm going yet.  Not because of all of this, but because I have no idea what I'm doing that weekend.  I do know that it is father's day, so I will be having to make a trip to see dad at some point during the weekend.

At any rate, I guess the "Question of Ethics" that this all started off with has to do with whether my fellow bloggers (yes, you) are in similar situations.  Do your friends know you blog?  If so, does it make you feel like you need to censor yourself or not talk about certain things?  I'm fairly certain that would be the case for me, and honestly, I think this blog would lose a lot of its character (not that it has a lot to begin with) if I were just talking about the P.C. stuff and not dishing on my true feelings about every situation.

Let me know how you all feel.  I'd put up a poll or whatever, but I'm not terribly HTML savvy, so comments would be GREATLY appreciated.