The one where I complain but ultimately decide to change nothing

Ok. I'm utterly and completely labeling myself as a nerd here (like I haven't before...heh) But. You know in the Lord of the Rings movie where Bilbo is all "I feel like too little butter spread over too much bread?"

(And then Gandalf is all "OMG I am a huge wizard and will totally get your back, cuz! And I'll steal your ring and your nephew and save the world all while rocking a smokin' zztop beard and getting high on shire weed"...But I digress.)

Well, I feel like Bilbo. I'm over extended and starting to feel the strain. But its not so much in my "real life"- its online.

I feel spread too thin: My$pace, Faceb0ok, Twitter, Blogger, message boards, regular, old-fashioned Hotmail.. BLARGH! I think I may have just spontaneously combusted overworked brains all over my keyboard.

Am I in a class by myself? Or are others feeling the cyber drain? I know that there are people who are on double the number of sites I am, triple...how do they do it without going the Internet version of looney tunes??

The obvious solution would be to cut back- trim the fat and cut down on the sites I actively check. But the reality is that different people communicate with me on these different sites. My$pace is for my rock n' roll buddies- the group of us that connected over the husband's band and the local punk rock scene. This is the only online means I have of communicating with this crowd. Yeah, I have phone numbers for most of them but to send out a mass party invite, for instance, My$pace is the way to go.

Faceb0ok has extended family, friends, high school acquaintances (that for some reason "friend" me when we maybe spoke two words to each other in H.S., if that? Anyway.) Faceb0ok is also how my crafting buddies and I communicate- how we schedule knitting/beer drinking nights, share crafty links, etc.

Hotmail, obviously, is out of the question- I've had my email address FOREVER (well, 13 years?) and that's how I, you know, email people. Like my mom and congresspeople and stuff.

And Twitter is awesome. Period. And I don't really want to give up my blog...Among other things, blogging connects me to others in a way that the "networking" sites don't and makes me feel like a part of a bigger community. And its got me writing again which ain't no small thang.

So I guess for all my bitching, I'm not really ready to change any of this. I like my online communities. I like the people I'm connected with- both my IRL friends and my online momma/crafter/blogger buddies. I suppose I could cut back on how often I check these sites- My$pace on Tues/Thurs, Faceb0ok on Mon/Wed...but really, who wants to keep track of that shit?

Is there some magic solution I'm missing? A widget unicorn that will fantastically change my life forever? Maybe I just need to find myself a great big ol' bearded wizard and some cyber-shireweed...