Tasty Morsels: The Friday Wrap Up

The Morsels:

1) Have you heard? Mustaches are back. There was a whole segment about it on the Today Show this morning. I have two things to say about that. First of all, the Today Show needs better producers and second, I don’t like a mustache unless there’s a goatee underneath it. Yes, I know I have one but that’s irrelevant. I’m a child of the 70’s and I grew up in the era of the ’stache and I don’t want them to come back. Ever. We won’t even discuss sideburns (sooo unflattering) or the nastiest facial hair ever invented —soul patches. Nope. Not discussing. Yuck.

3) The one thing the Today Show producers are doing right is bringing my bud Stefanie of Baby on Bored on the show to pimp her new book “Sippy Cups are Not for Chardonnay!” She’ll be on the Today Show on March 30th and on Fox & Friends the morning of March 31st. Set the TIVO and support a fellow blogger by picking up her book. Break a leg, Stef!

3) This week Stacy (J’s Mommy) wrote a post that keeps bouncing around in my thoughts. It reminded me of how much I miss my girlfriends. Most of the really good ones don’t live here anymore and the ones that do are so busy with their kids/family, there’s no time for hanging out anymore. And if I wanted to make a new girlfriend, there’s just no time to cultivate friendships that don’t involve children in some way anyway. I have a bunch of those already and while it’s not at all bad to have friends with kids, it’s a double-edged sword when the mutual friendship of your children is the guiding force of your friendship. If you don’t know this yet, you will.

I really miss the days when you would drag a friend with you everywhere. I remember getting on the phone and saying things like “Come with me to the DMV” or “Wanna hang out while while I do laundry?” My friends were the bomb. We did everything together. Now I do all that mundane stuff with kids or alone and it’s such a drag. I can still call my friends to bitch or vent if I need to but it’s not the same.

4) I’ve been pondering going to BlogHer and I’m THIS close to deciding “yes.” As most of you know, I wrote a long post about some of my issues with going to a place where I know nobody and have to negotiate being comfortable in a large crowd. While I still have those issues, I have to say that knowing I’m not alone helps immeasurably.

Your comments made me feel much better in numerous ways. I have great readers/friends. Just about all of you that commented are on my Blogroll or in my Bloglines (one of these days I will synchronize them and have the same blogs on both) but there is one person in particular that I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered who left the very first comment, in the middle of the night no less. It was so unbelievably sweet and generous of her to reach out to a stranger and I would be remiss not to give her a shout out –> Thank you, Lena! And to all of you who insist you are not cool enough to go to BlogHer, I just have to say Puh! ’cause I disagree totally.

5) I bought Hubz this shirt from my charity T-shirt line and he looks pretty dang hot in it! If anyone was thinking of ordering something, let me know and I’ll give you a promo code for $5 off.

6) My inner Beavis & Butthead thinks this Google ad from dooce.com is really funny:

Fishy Vaginal Odor?
“How To Smell Fresh At All Times” 68,000 Women Already Know
www.enzara.com/Guarantee

The Wrap Up:
It’s been spring break all week (remember when it was called Easter vacation?) and while I love spending time with my kids (No, I really do…we have a lot of fun) entire days with two of them is exhausting. All week I’ve been Julie the Friggin’ Cruise Director which means I get to find things for my older child, TQ, to do all day long. This includes babysitting for a working friend one afternoon.

I don’t mind doing this because then TQ has a playmate and I don’t have to hear about how bored she is (yes, five year olds complaining of boredom. I know. It’s both unbelievable AND irritating) but since I also have a baby, I never get to cash in all the babysitting credits I’ve racked up. People always want to watch your kid at their house and now that my 9 month old son is mobile, other people’s houses have become “places in which he will surely die” simply because he’s into every freaking thing and will put anything he finds right into his mouth. Knowing this will make it a bit difficult to enjoy all those margaritas I planned on imbibing when I finally made my escape….

Unfortunately, I have to resort to such things as free babysitting because we don’t live in a neighborhood teeming with children. No…we live in a neighborhood teeming with dog lovers. I mean I like dogs, too, but a dog won’t play Barbies or endless games of Candyland with your kid. So yeah…it would not be an understatement to say it’s maximum suckage living here.

PS: Please visit Fidget, my renter this week. She has a great blog full of many things funny, dramatic, bittersweet and of course, mom-ish. Go say hi!

I know I suck…

I know I suck for leaving my anxiety whinefest to languish for so many days without a new post. But I have a really good excuse.

It’s spring break here.

All kids. All day.

Ahhh…see? I knew you’d totally understand once I’d explained.

I intend to do the good old Friday Wrap later so ya’ll come back now, ya heah?

Those Pesky Social Anxieties

(I tried to edit this post for brevity because it was really long. And I did. But I also added a blurb so it’s not really that much shorter. Sorry ;-)

I keep thinking that I ought to go to BlogHer; that it’s good to be a joiner, to be a part of something; that it’s a chance to have fun and hang with the cool kids (that would be you).

The fate of the world is not depending on this and it should be a really simple decision. But for me, it’s not.

While I am not a classic introvert, it seems I still inadvertently fall into that general category. I’m not shy or antisocial by any means. I very much enjoy the company of others but after a lifetime of anxious discomfort in large groups, I worry, with good reason, about whether or not to spend an assload of money to go far away to get that horribly familiar feeling of being alone in a crowd. But what’s worse than that is thinking, no — being certain — that other people can see how un-in-the-loop you feel. Honestly, the idea that all of you could just see right into my psyche and sense how embarrassed I am to be pathetically tagging along as a 24th wheel (well said, Kristen) is a horrid feeling.

Do you remember in grade school or middle school when the teacher would say “Okay, everyone find a partner and pair up”? Is there nothing worse than trying to find a partner and realizing everyone around you has already found one? And doesn’t it seem like it’s happening in semi-slow motion? And before you know it, there you are standing there with no partner and your teacher sticks you with the guy from the other side of the room that smells weird who also wasn’t slick enough to pounce on someone. And just so you know, I really wasn’t a complete dork or pariah like you might imagine. I generally had cool clothes , decent hair and a circle of close friends (and I smelled pretty good, too). I was just invisible sometimes because I didn’t know how to navigate socially outside the confines of an intimate group. As I got older and away from the school caste system, I became much more savvy but still, even then, I had trouble when in the larger group and not within my cozy inner circle. This was a problem particularly when I was in the company of people I regarded as cool or superior to myself. (Big Sidebar: I actually dated an incredibly popular guy in 9th grade but when we got together with his unspeakably cool friends, I swear I couldn’t think of a single clever thing to say so I just said nothing. Every Friday night was a mild form of torture. He eventually dumped me for a girl who was not a mute idiot)

Here’s a parallel to the above that most will relate to… You know how when you don’t really like a guy *like that*, you can be totally yourself; confident and flirty, and you don’t even think about it at all? But when you’re around a guy you like, you can’t think of anything to say and you feel all weird and self-conscious and if another girl comes up and talks to him, you just feel like a stupid, uncool, unsexy dunce-y statue because you’re just standing there without a damn thing to say and if you did say something it would sound hopelessly retarded so you just mumble something and walk away, hoping that you look better than you feel? Well…that’s how I feel in groups (perhaps to a slightly lesser degree now that I’m all grown up, but still…)

One exception to the aforementioned is when I’m around people I totally don’t care about. An example… This past Saturday I took my daughter to a birthday party. I knew all the parents there in passing because our kids go to school together. They’re all nice but not what I’d call my peers. I am good friends with a couple of them but as a whole, I don’t sweat this group at all. So I’m all funny and entertaining and regaling everyone like I’m a freaking celebrity and it’s grand. This, however, is not the person you will meet at BlogHer. Why? because I like you guys and I consider you my contemporaries. I want you to like me so naturally I become the uncool, dunce-y chick referenced above and you all are the guy. The only way I can be comfortable is to have an intimate group to stick with. Not a clique but more of a safety net so that I never feel icky and 24th wheelish (or find myself wandering around all alone, covertly reading name tags trying to find someone I “know”.) Pretty dumb, huh?

Part of me is thinking that unless I want to hear about Blogher for another year and regret not going every time, I oughta go and try to have some damn fun. But as always, I have these silly issues and it’s really bugging me. I want to make up my mind before everyone pairs up like they did in bio class and I’m left standing alone, like the proverbial cheese.

As an aside… I have this vision of me going up to other well-known bloggers and saying “Hi I’m Izzy. I really enjoy your blog.” and they respond with nothing but a stare and a polite half-smile, as if to say “Yes, but who the frig are you?” and then I pray for a rewind button right before I die of embarassment.

Tomorrow I will totally regret posting this but right now it feels good to vent and let it out. *big sigh*

PS: After fielding several requests for graphics and blog headers etc. I decided to gather up some that I worked on for various other projects and as comps and retool them as freebies. Take a look and say you’ll put a button on your blog :-)

Official Blogher Head Count

Who’s going for sure and who’s thinking about it? Please post it here. This inquiring mind wants to know.

As for me, I was going to pass because of breastfeeding but Peebs, now ultra-mobile, seems far less attached to it than I am these days. *choking back a tiny sob* That said, BlogHer is definitely under consideration. This warrants a whole other post wherein I discuss my plethora of well-hidden social anxieties. Can’t wait, can you?

My other question: Is BlogHer just an excuse to meet other bloggers, cut loose and have fun or are you genuinely interested in the “conference” aspect. Just curious.

And finally (I just added this after reading Rhonda’s comment) how many of you would prefer an “East Coast” get-together over going to BlogHer? Again, just curious.

PS: After fielding several requests for graphics and blog headers etc. I decided to gather up some that I worked on for various other projects and as comps and retool them as freebies. Take a look! Wanna HOT looking button for your blog? C’mon! They’re limited edition, for-special-people-only buttons ;-P

PSS: If anyone wants to order stuff from Cafe Press (doesn’t have to be from my store) let me know and I’ll give you a code for $5 off an order of $20 or more.

***Also, don’t forget about Sue’s contest where the winner gets their $250 fee to BlogHer paid :-)***

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Are you doing anything to celebrate today?

Are you Irish or maybe just Irish for the day?

Did you wear green?

Dress the kids in green?

Did you or do you plan to eat any Irish foods or drink green beer?

Here’s a trivia question for you…

What did St. Patrick drive out of Ireland? No fair leaving and googling the answer!
______________________________________________

UPDATE: Those of you who said “snakes” are what SP drove out if Ireland are correct! I know it wasn’t the toughest question but hey…this isn’t your catechism class and I sure ain’t a nun ;-)

Funniest answer goes toMrs. Fortune who, once again, forced me to dig into my pile of “last resort underwear” because I pee myself every time I read her.

Most smartass? Why Mom 101, of course :-)