Self-Made Mom

I’ve been bogged down with a major (but necessary, I’ll tell you about it later) home project this week, but I somehow managed to have time to get really fired up about SAHM consulting rates.  You can read my angst over at Work It! Mom.  I promise my next post here will be much more entertaining.  And will include photos.  Free of charge.

One of my favorite bloggers, Pundit Mom, asked me to guest post on her blog today! Head over to her site and see what I wrote about Hillary as the Abigail Adams of our time. And don’t laugh, it’s my first-ever attempt to write something political, people!

Can you tell my lame-o posts about keeping Passover are just a ruse to keep my blog trucking along through this gorgeous weather we’re having?

Frankly, it’s tough to blog when the weather finally gets nice in the dreary Midwest.  I love you all, but I’d rather sit on a kiddie slide (made for a kiddie tush not an adult tush) than type away at the computer. I miss my blogging mojo, but I actually have freckles on my nose for the first time since well, a long time.  The air smells fresh. Fresher than behind the soot-stained screens in my office.  My son smells sweaty and dirty and his cheeks are flushed, not pasty.

It’s spring finally, and spring in the Midwest makes it tough to blog.

Good thing I heard it’s supposed to rain this weekend.

… to help her put a down payment on a condo…

… and it got me thinking.

Hope you’ll read my thoughts on navigating the nanny-employer relationship on Moms On Issues!

And no, if you care to know, I didn’t give her the dough.  Certain things just aren’t Kosher for Passover.

I don’t think I celebrated the one-year anniversary of my blog last fall, so instead, I’m going to give a blog “toast” to another.

Work It! Mom turns one this week, and in celebration is having a week-long birthday bash fit with great giveaways!

This is much, much better than anything I could have provided my small viewing audience.

Congrats, Nataly! I’m so proud to be a part of your lovely team.

Why is it that whenever you return from a vacation (this one being childless to boot) it only takes 48 hours for the vacation euphoria to wear off?

Forty-eight hours post such a vacation and already I’ve been to Target, the grocery store, done umpteen loads of laundry, changed a number of indescribably smelly diapers, cooked dinner, AND got the dry cleaning. (Notice, blogging was not listed in the above. No time to blog when there are real things to be done in the house.)

I’ve gone from somebody’s wife who stayed up late every night drinking wine to somebody’s mother who hasn’t had time to dry her hair since she got back.

   

Bet you can’t tell which one was taken before I went on “vacation.”

It feels like I never left.

A snowstorm in April:

This is not what I call “spring skiing.”

A random product I reviewed a long time ago (so long that I can’t even find it in my archives) staring at me from the bar where I was enjoying a drink called, “The Geisha.”

To my knowledge, Gloves in a Bottle is NOT a key ingredient to the Geisha drink.

Making it onto Alltop Moms. I can’t even believe I’m in the company listed on this site. I’m all the way at the bottom, but who cares, I’m there! (Thanks, Nicole.)

Kim, thanks for the button. That about sums it up for me too!

Seeing many friends of mine in the blogosphere meeting KATIE COURIC in NYC. Beth, next time you offer me a chance like this, remind me that my husband will always be there, while Katie may not be. You guys rock!!

Vacationing alone with hubby is overrated compared to meeting #1 female celebrity. Just kidding, honey.

That’s all until I get back from snowy paradise…

Edited to add: I SO did NOT meet Katie!! I think re-reading the caption it makes me sound like I did, but I didn’t. Just jealous of those that did. Next time I’ll get out of my vacation haze and proof before I write!

It seems like everybody everywhere is packing up right now for that “Baby” event thing in New Jersey, Blogher business, or something else fun that doesn’t involve kids.  There are parties for cool websites and mom friends I hope to meet one day.

I still feel I have lots to say about topics like this, but I’m going to wait until I read all the recaps from all the smart mommy bloggers I’ve met and see if I have any more useful fuel to add to the fire.

I’m sorry to be missing all the action out East, but family and a long-awaited vacation with my husband beckon.  So if you’re like me and still around this week not hob-nobbing with mommy bloggers extraordinaire, you might find time to read my new post up at Work It! Mom or something. If not, I’m sure we’ll all have something to talk about when this week ends no matter what.

To all those traveling enjoy and take good notes for the rest of us!

If you’ve ever felt like being on Facebook is like being in junior high again, read this recent article by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune. I hadn’t over-analyzed my own Facebook middle school experiences until I got to this part of her article, which said:

As a Facebook neophyte, instinct told me, you don’t want to add too many friends too fast; that would make you look promiscuous and insecure. On Facebook, as in life, you never, ever want to look needy.

Hmmm, that didn’t bode well for me. The night before I extended friend invites to at least 10 randoms who I hadn’t heard from or talked to in at least 10 years. I really want to get to that elusive “200″ friends number. I’m almost there, so who cares if I don’t know why I accepted someone’s friendship and have no idea who she is.  I have more friends that way.

According to Schmich, this is the ultimate Facebook-loser move:

I quickly deduced that there’s a fine line on Facebook between being the person who has 1,021 friends because she’s genuinely popular and the one who has 1,021 friends because she’s terrified you’ll think she’s not.

I always thought there was something creepy about the woman who found me randomly and kept e-mailing me to be her friend.  She didn’t even have a real photo in her profile.  Who needs an avatar when you can use your Facebook profile photo to show off how damn cute your kids are? Don’t lie, you do that too.

I’m full of Facebook follies. Seriously, people. The main reason I even signed up for the site is to show off how great my life is now to my old high school nemesis. Yeah, I was that big of a loser then and yeah, I’m that insecure. Un-friend me, okay?  No, but really, the only and I mean only reason I even click on one of my “friend’s” profiles is to see how they look now. Surprisingly, everyone I know actually looks damn good.  It is kinda hard to tell in a 100 x 50 pixel photo, but I’ll give ‘em a pass.

Some “friends” of mine actually use Facebook to communicate and catch up.  People: isn’t this what e-mail is for? After unsuccessfully trying to make a playdate with an actual real-life friend who I hadn’t seen in 6 months I started to wonder, “did she blow me off?” No, no.  She just decided to use Facebook to set up our plans.  Oh, how intuitive.  Yes, I know you get those e-mail updates from the site, but it’s really too much effort to log onto the site and read them in a timely manner.  Getting the gist? I am not sure I’ll ever use Facebook to make (or keep) friends.

For one, I just don’t get all those applications. It was enough that the site knew that I ordered those sneakers from Zappos. (Yes, I know they apologized for that, but it wasn’t enough to keep my husband from making me return them.) Groups? Yeah, they’re fun to be a part of, but other than putting it as a badge, what will I do with being a fan of the best Coney Island restaurant in Detroit other than sulk that I can’t go eat their chili fries on a daily basis?

I may be young in age, but I’m old at heart on the internet.  I know I write a blog, but I rarely post photos of myself and none of my family. (At least where you can see their faces).  I like engaging, but I also like to keep my distance.  Perhaps I’m missing the point of all this social networking and re-connecting, but I’m just not cut out for Twittering, microblogging, Flickring, whatevering.  In my online life, I like being in the know and having others know me, but I haven’t yet gotten to that point of bridging the two seamlessly. 

And until I can get over making playdates via something called “A Wall,” I probably never will. I guess I won’t be getting to that 200 number that quickly after all. 

What are you guys using Facebook for?

I try to live my life seeing the good in people.  We are not perfect. We make mistakes and say things we don’t mean and don’t think before we act. I have definitely done this before in my life many times.

That’s what I want to believe with this whole Disney-event-over-Passover thing.  That it was some dumb intern who picked a date for the event, who wasn’t Jewish and who didn’t realize that the event was held over Passover. That when the blast e-mails went out to mom bloggers to attend, they just weren’t thinking about Jews/ non-Jews, etc.  Of course, they would have never scheduled the event this weekend, because it’s Easter, but I have to remind myself every now and then, while 90% of my friends are Jewish, we make up a small portion of this society. We are on the national calendar of events, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re top of mind. 

I’m not going to turn this into a religious tirade here, and I’m not excusing anyone’s behavior.  I actually hate getting involved in controversy. But, I wanted to speak out about this.  I think it’s unfortunate that the folks at Blue Suit Mom and Disney didn’t realize that the event was scheduled on a major Jewish holiday. But I think it’s just an instance of someone being dumb. Not a mess-up of blogger relations.  I’ve read all the comments and opined myself.  I’ve e-mailed with friends about it. 

 I read Maria Bailey’s comment (of Blue Suit Mom) on Devra’s blog and wonder if she doesn’t have a point:

I think there is a more productive way to meet in the middle than to publicly criticize their efforts. 

That was my approach before this whole brouhaha started. I told Maria over e-mail that the event was over Passover.  She apologized for the oversight and I accepted it for what it was - a dumb mistake. And I moved on.  Maybe I don’t get this whole blog thing, but I didn’t feel like chastizing her on a public forum.  Rather, I wanted to believe she and her team had good intentions and made a silly oversight. 

I don’t know if I’m right on this one.  But I hope I am. I want to see the good in people. And if I’m proven wrong, well, you all will hear about it here first. We all can learn from our mistakes.