Filed under Blogging …
I’m Just Going to Get My Bitchiness Out of the Way
Last year, I did the obligatory I wear flip flops all day/I have weird habits like brushing my teeth all the dang time/Squee!!! BlogHer!!! Post. Since then, my nickname hasn’t changed, nor has my affinity for comfy footwear and the occasional high heels. Therefore I thought I’d just get down to what you all really want to know…what makes me turn bitchy.
Generally speaking, I’m a pretty chipper person. I definitely see the cup half full and I’m always looking for silver linings. HOWEVER, there are a few things that will make me not so pleased…
- I broke my shin playing soccer when I was 16. I was in a full-leg cast for a few weeks, then a cast up to my knee for another couple of months. It sucked. It especially sucked because I was told after the cast was off that I had to have surgery to rebreak my leg and insert a metal rod and a few screws to straighten it out. When I had that surgery later in the fall, something screwy happened and that muscle that runs along my shin now sticks out like a golf ball when it’s flexed. Because of this I wear pants or jeans a lot – even in the 100 degree heat here in Sacramento. If you see me in jeans, please don’t ask me if I’m hot. Yes, I’m hot. It’s New York in August and I’m in jeans. A few years ago I got up the nerve to start wearing skirts. And then the “OMG, what happened to your leg?” comments started. Don’t do that. I don’t like it. I’ll be nice about it. I’ll be cordial. I promise I won’t go off on you. (See #2) But it will annoy me. And to answer your questions: No I didn’t sue the doctor, I’m not even sure if he did something wrong or if this was going to happen no matter what. No, it doesn’t hurt. Yes, you can feel it (it’s squishy) but only if you don’t say, “Ewww” or, “That’s so weird” or, “Oh my gawd” afterwards which is basically the same thing as me saying No, you can’t feel it. Yes/No/I don’t know if it’s fixable. If it is – which is a big if, it isn’t medically necessary so insurance won’t pay for it and I can’t really envision a time in my life when I would ever prioritize getting my leg fixed over something like a diamond ring or an awesome vacation with my kids or a boob job (yeah, I said it, I nursed two kids for more than a year each…I could use a pick-me-up). If you’d like to pay for it, however, I’d happily accept your donation.
No, you can’t dry hump it. Yes, I was (jokingly, of course) asked this question before. Yes, I gave the person who asked it the same answer. No, you won’t be getting special treatment. - When DJ or B-Bop come to us to tattle, they always, ALWAYS hear the same thing from me and Scoot: “You worry about you.” We say this because we firmly believe that there will always be people in their lives whose actions and reactions they cannot control. This is the same with us adults too. The only thing we have any control over is how we react to a situation. If you want to complain about cliques and drama and parties and swag, please know that I don’t particularly want to hear it. I’ll listen if you need to vent (I’m not a total bitch), but I won’t be as upset about it as you are and it might get old to me after a not-so-long while. If you want to ruin your trip to one of the most expensive, interesting, beautiful cities in the world by worrying about other people, feel free. I, on the other hand, will be worrying about me. I will be with people who I want to be with (including, sometimes spending time by myself…see #3), doing what I want to do and having a blast. This is my general approach to life and it’s served me well so far, so I’m just going to stick with it.
- You have no control over this, but my super good attitude woohoo approach to life tends to expire after 3 days away from home. It’s no one’s fault. It’s just how I am. I leave home on Tuesday, I get home late Monday. You do the math. I’m going to try real hard to not turn into a royal bitch by Saturday but if I decide to just have some chill time by myself, please know it’s not you, it’s me. I promise you I’m not shunning you forever. I’m probably on the phone with my boys or taking a nap or wandering around the hotel by myself. It’s ok. We’ll both be ok. I promise chipper me will be back momentarily so just carry on and I’ll let you know when she is.
- I get overtired. I need sleep and a lot of it. I do best with 8 hours a night. On weekends I add a nap to that mix. If I don’t get my 8 hours, everything listed above will be exacerbated. I do have control over this. I will do my best to prevent this, but it’s probably inevitable. Nothing that a good nap won’t fix, though.
I think I’ll just stop before you think I’m a very big bitch. I promise you, I’m not. 99.9% of you that I meet will not encounter bitchy Emmie at all while we’re in New York. But for the .1% of you who might maybe might (you know who you are), please allow me to say in advance I’m sorry.
Now stop staring at my leg.
Hopped up out The Bed Turn My Swag on: My Last BlogHer ’09 Post
We’re less than a month two weeks away from a couple thousand bloggers descending on New York City for BlogHer ’10 and I thought to myself, well, it’d probably be good to reflect on BlogHer ’09. The only problem with that thought is that everyone is doing that in the form of advice posts for newbies to BlogHer ’10. Anyone who knows me knows I’m more than willing to give often unsolicited advice any day so why pretend like it’s related in any way to BlogHer?
Instead, I thought I’d address another common theme in pre- and post-BlogHer posts: SWAG. “Why are we inundated with all this stuff?” some people complained. “[sigh] I had to bring a separate bag just for the swag,” others moaned (as they stuffed those very same bags full of the stuff they were given).
Look, people are given free samples (which is, in essence,what the BlogHer-type swag mostly is) in order to increase brand recognition or introduce new products. Marketers do it because it works.
After BlogHer ’09, someone (I cannot at all recall who) sent out a tweet saying that those of us who received anything for free should thank the people who gave it to us. Now, at my day job I represent companies like the ones who sponsor BlogHer. I know they appreciate a hat-tip for their generosity. BUT, as a consumer, I also know I’m not going to throw out an endorsement of something just because someone gave it to me for free. Frankly, free crap is still crap.
HOWEVER, there were a handful of items that I was introduced to at BlogHer ’09 that a year later I’m still using. Not only that, but these companies, for no reason other than their donating items for various swag bags at BlogHer ’09, have earned a paying customer. I have no problem recognizing those products. So, without further ado, here is the BlogHer swag I’m still using:
Bounce Dryer Bar
I got this from the Expo Hall last year. It’s really simple in concept but it’s just about the greatest thing to happen to a laundry room since, well I don’t know, if you spend any time at my house know I don’t do laundry. That’s Scoot’s job. But even Scoot loved this product. First things first, though. Bop has ridiculous allergies and reacts to everything so I was concerned about using a “normal” fabric softener bar since we use all that no fragrance, dye-free detergent and dryer sheets. I talked to the Bounce representative who humored me, even if they answered zero of my questions. But I brought it home and handed it to Scoot and said, “Let me know what you think.” He loved it. First of all, it works. That matters. Secondly, it didn’t affect Bop at all. We still use the fragrance- and dye-free detergent but apparently this bar is a-ok for his sensitive skin. Thirdly, it saves money. We’re slightly obsessive about our laundry so used 2 sheets of fabric softener in our dryer. We’ve replaced this bar (which says it lasts 2 months) maybe 3 times since last July. And we do A LOT of laundry. Do the math…we spent less than $20 on fabric softener in a year whereas we were spending somewhere between $30 – $60 per year on fabric softener sheets before. Fourthly, we don’t have to think about adding fabric softener. Once you install the bar – which is easy to do – you just load your laundry and forget it. I am a HUGE fan.
Intak Hydration Bottle
I think I got this in my swag bag from the BlogHer 5K. This is a BPA-free water bottle made by Thermos. It has a nice wide opening for drinking with a tight seal. Just below the push button is a dial to track the number of bottles you’ve consumed throughout the day. This is perfect for those of us who are mathematically challenged! My kids love this bottle. We had to fight over it so much that I bought DJ one of his own (in green because mommy’s pink bottle was apparently a girl color). Which he promptly left at basketball. So he was back to stealing mine…which he then lost on his first day of soccer camp. Yesterday I bought him a new (red) one. (Mine was recovered today.) For those of you who fill up your bottle at work, another convenient feature is that in addition to its screw top that opens up nice and wide, the spout through which you drink is wide enough that you can use the water cooler at work to refill it without unscrewing anything. I’m fully expecting to purchase yet another one for Bop in the very near future.
Scotch-Brite Greener Clean Products
I’d never go so far as to call myself a tree hugger, but if given the option between buying something bad for the environment vs. something better than bad for the environment with all else (including price) being equal, well I’m not a total asshole. That’s why I appreciated Scotch-Brite supplying their entire line of Greener Clean products in the Room 704 party swag bags (I’m pretty sure that’s where these were.) I’m sensitive to accusations of green-washing and Scotch-Brite isn’t free from such accusation with this line of products. However, unlike many “green” products, the Greener Clean line of products from Scotch Brite cost the same (at least at Walmart) as their regular line and I normally purchase Scotch-Brite sponges for my dishwashing needs. Though using them may not have made me an uber-environmentalist, I’d like to think I’m doing something better by using this line. Again, these products work. I’ve used them on my granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, ceramic tiles, bathtubs, and dishes. Nothing has been scratched.
eos Lip Balm
OK, so I really did ask, “What is that?” when I first saw this weird orb-shaped thing. For some reason I was envisioning it holding something like a charm or a tooth from my childhood or something. But no, even more bizarre, it was lip balm. I was skeptical if for no reason other than it’s shape. But come on…go take a look at a picture of me. I don’t exactly have Angelina Jolie lips. In fact, when I was in high school an ex-boyfriend called me a “no-lipped bitch.” In a note. Which I can almost recite by memory. But I digress. This orb-shaped lip balm works even on my non-existent lips. What I really like about it is that, unlike a number of tubular lip balms, this version didn’t seem to have that addictive quality to it. I put it on in the morning and, while it’s not greasy or heavy feeling, I don’t really need to put it on again until the next morning. And the flavor doesn’t make you feel like your lips have turned into mints or strawberry candies, rather it’s a very subtle mint flavor. In addition to the lip balm, I was also given some eos (it stands for evolution of smooth, by the way) shaving cream which I love love love. I rarely use shaving cream so I haven’t finished the bottle I got last year yet but when I do, I’ll definitely purchase eos again.
Honorable Mentions
There were a few pieces of swag that deserve a nod even if they didn’t exactly convert me to a paying customer yet. The folks who had the Disney NetPal set up were great. Honestly before BlogHer last year I had no idea what a netbook was. They walked me through the product and got me thinking about what kind of security and accessibility features I needed as my boys became interested in our computer (which they’ve really done in the past 12 months). I loved the Disney NetPal and immediately went home and told Scoot all about it. The problem is that they don’t sell it at Best Buy and I’m ridiculously loyal to them (mostly because I their 0% interest offers to buy all of my electronics). Though I didn’t end up buying the Disney NetPal, I did end up buying an Asus Eee PC which SURPRISE! is the same non-Disney branded netbook. I admit, I missed out on some really cool features but at least Asus made out.
I really loved bringing home a Mr. Potato Head for my boys. It’s a classic toy and they love the character in Toy Story movie but I really never considered buying one.
I got a couple of reusable shopping bags from Blue Avocado at BlogHer last year. These bags are really nice, not like the crappy ones they have at Safeway or Walmart. I use them for everything. Shopping, lunches, bringing dog bowls and food to my parents’ house, cleaning out the car, transporting towels and swimsuits to and from camp. And they’re totally washable! I haven’t actually spent more money on reusable bags since I got these but I have been better about reusing the numerous reusable bags that I had.
Dishonorable Mention
I really hate to say this but I just have to. The Strawberry Shortcake-sponsored room at BlogHer drove me nuts. They put bags down on every chair full of stuff that I doubt any parents of two boys need. And they included in that a printed press release about their DVD? Not interested. Not only that, but they restocked the chairs between panels even though the panels were all within the mommyblogging track. So not only did I have one girly bag to get rid of, I had to get rid of multiples. I appreciate everything that the sponsoring companies do to keep the cost of BlogHer down for attendees but if I were consulting with a client, there is no way I’d ever recommend they drop swag on every chair of a room for multiple sessions of the same track. *steps off my soap box*
Eat.Blog.Run. Live Blog
Saturday
10:07 am Stopped off at Michaels to get car paint for our “vans,” GMC Acadias lent to us by our friends at GM. Hitting the road to Napa!
2:44 pm Waiting at the relay point between our second and third runners (Meg and Kari). I’ve been driving so far but am giving up the keys so I can prep for my first leg. (I see Meg!)
9:34 pm Finally eating. Ran my leg in 90 minutes on the dot. Too tired to write about it but it was uphill and hard. I kicked ass on the first 4 miles. Last 3 had a lot of walking on the steep hills. Overall, I’d give myself a B+ for effort (have to save some energy), an A- for pace. Must eat. Must sleep. Should be running around 5 or 6 am.
10:56 pm zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Sunday
2:10 am Van 2 is up and “breaking camp.” We got a decent amount of sleep at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were lucky to be on grass. People are sleeping everywhere including on the sidewalks.
2:25 am Van 1 has arrived at the relay point. Linsey is running over the bridge right now. Then Carrie is off and at it again.
4:41 am Waiting to give Meg some water on Skyline. I’m pretty tired. Just keep telling myself this next run will be a short one. Then we’ll head back to the hotel to sleep. We’re a good hour behind our projected pace (at least).
7:59 am Just finished my second leg. It was labeled as “Easy,” which was true for the first mile and the last .7 miles which were downhill. The two miles in between were uphill. My left knee can’t handle up. Happy with my pace though at 11:15.
11:30 am I filled my belly, got my stuff ready for leg 3 and am settling in for a quick nap. Alarm set for 12:30 pm. 
12:42 pm Getting ready to head out again. Forgot to mention that the uphill yesterday had a ridiculously strong headwind in addition to the crazy incline. Hoping that the winds will have mercy on me this afternoon. I talked to my dad earlier and it looks like my parents will be making it out for my last leg so I’m SUPER excited.
4:32 pm We’ve decided to “leap frog” the last set of legs so we have two runners going at a time. Should be done in the next two hours or so. I’m the next runner to leave for a 6.2 mile “very hard” leg. Hold me.
7:41 pm We’re done biatches!!! My last leg was brutal. Again I did it in exactly 90 minutes. It had some nice downhills in the beginning (after going straight uphill through a quarry) which I tried to really move on. I ended the first two miles really fast and continued to unleash on the downhills where I could because I knew what was coming: the last two miles were straight uphill and a whole lot of ouch on my hurting left knee. They suuuuuuucked. But my sister showed up with my nephew to cheer me on and my teammates were shaking their booties as I ran by. I ended up sprinting the last bit with my nephew which was fun and made me run a whole lot faster than I would have otherwise. So glad to be done. So happy to have met all these awesome ladies. Now, to eat.
10:16 pm Back at the hotel and so exhausted. We have to clean out the GMC Acadias that were generously loaned to us by GM. One of the great features is the oodles and oodles of storage space. Unfortunately for this tired lady that means more places to clean out.
Monday
7:20 am I finally went to sleep after midnight last night and got up bright and early to bring Brenna to the airport. The first thing I noticed when I moved was my shoulders being lightly sore, then my knee pain, the overall light soreness. I say “lightly sore” because I know that today I’ll feel nowhere nearly as painful as I will tomorrow. I just picked up a coffee and some breakfast and am then heading to my favorite spa for a massage courtesy of my mom. She so rocks for letting me use one of her gift certificates for it. I. Can’t. Wait.
10:44 am Done with one hour deep tissue massage. I should have gone for 90 minutes. I’m hoping to get to my chiropractor for an adjustment this afternoon. The massage therapist said my IT band is inflamed which could explain the knee pain. She WORKED my hips, hamstrings and calves. It hurt but in a good way. If you do activity and then get a massage afterwards, I STRONGLY recommend deep tissue. Regular Swedish massages just don’t go deep enough. Now to drive home and pick up my boys from school. I miss them mucho.
Though this is my last entry in my live blog, this weekend has given me much I want to write about so look for more soon.
**Disclosure: GM provided us with two GMC Acadias for the weekend and bought us dinner on Friday. Our hotel was provided complements of Country Inn and Suites in Sunnyvale, CA. I was not asked to post about my experiences with either company and received no other compensation. I am grateful for all of our sponsors who can be found at Eat.Blog.Run.**
Twitter Friends, Could You Do Me A Favor?
If I follow you on Twitter, could you do me a favor? Go check your timeline from sometime between 12 am and 4 am Pacific Time. Do you see your “Daily Twittascope?” Yeah, well, so did I.
If you don’t *really* need your horoscope to be spammed/tweeted to every one of your followers, would you mind going into your permissions area and denying access to it? For reals. It’s annoying as hell. I don’t even read my own horoscope, why would I want to read yours?
Thanks!
Getting Fresh with Emmie and Mel – Week 6: Spaghetti Squash
When I was a kid, my mom made spaghetti squash and I was absolutely amazed with it. I mean, it’s a squash for gosh sake. And then it turns into…spaghetti? How cool is that? (Dude, I was like six…let me have my moment.) Well, true to form, Mel comes and shows how bad ass spaghetti squash can be. You see why I like her so much? Without further ado…
- EmmieJ
* * *
In my last post I mentioned I was going to work on cooking up some squash next. If you are like me, you were probably all “Ewww, what? Why?” Because let’s face it, it’s not the most appealing group of vegetables. They come in odd shapes, the skin is tough and when I’ve ever seen it cooked it just looked like a pile of orange mush.
I was inspired a few weeks ago when I read a post over here, which was in turn inspired by the new show Food Revolution hosted by Jamie Oliver. I began searching Google and found what a spaghetti squash looked like, how to know when it’s ripe and how to cook/prepare it. I searched a few other sites like Live Strong and Nutrition Data and found that spaghetti squash not only have both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, but some important vitamins and minerals. So I decided to cook up some of it for the family this weekend.
At the grocery store I searched for the most yellow spaghetti squash I could find. They all looked exactly the same, so I started feeling around for soft spots because, according to the site, it shouldn’t have any. I brought it home and stuck it on the bottom shelf of the fridge for 3 days. I realized the cooking part would be the easiest. It would be the convincing your family what you are making for dinner and getting them to jump on board with it is when you have to put your game face on.
Saturday I started preparing it. It said to cut it length wise, but honestly I couldn’t find a knife that would get through it. I even tried putting it in the microwave for 2 minutes, twice and nothing.
Spaghetti squash coming out of the oven.
Tim asked what I was doing and when he heard I was making spaghetti squash for dinner he was all “Sorry, but I don’t see myself eating that. I hope you are making something else to go with it…” I asked him if he even knew what it was and how I was going to prepare it. His answer: “Um, yeah, the yellow thing you just took out of the fridge. You’re going to have to grate it up and make it look like spaghetti.”
So of course I laughed at him, explained how it’s not the same orange mush I myself had feared and that once it’s cooked, the flesh will scoop out into strands that resemble spaghetti. I told him, “People on the internet cook it and said they’re kids even like it!” I was determined to make him believe he would like it because how could I get the kids to try it if he wouldn’t.
Since my cutting efforts failed me, I place the squash on a baking sheet.
It says to poke holes but I had already had at it with a knife so I figured I was good.
Put the oven on 375 and waited about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, I was able to slice it and placed both sides face down on the pan and surrounded it with water. Back in the oven it went for another 30 minutes.
Once they were out, I was ready to dig in. I took a fork and scooped out the darker strands and the seeds and then scooped out the soft spaghetti like flesh into bowls. As the recipes mentioned, kids prefer just a little butter and parmesan cheese but I did have a simple tomato sauce prepared just in case.
For the kiddies...
I tried the dish with butter and cheese and it was really good. It was light and a little sweet, but buttery and yummy. The squash isn’t as soft as pasta, at least that’s not how it came out. It has a snap to it, I guess you could compare it to al dente, but it’s not as thick either. I would prefer to eat it this way. Haley tasted it this way as well and said, “It doesn’t even taste like squash!” which I really don’t understand considering she’s never had squash in her life, but I’ll take it. That had Tim digging in and although he thought the butter and cheese was good, he took a bowlful topped with tomato sauce and it was gone within minutes.
Rory, she spit it right out. I have a feeling this was due to texture, but she’s only 18 months old so I plan on introducing it to her again in the future.
With tomato sauce
- Mel
The Party Is Just Beginning – Eat.Blog.Run.
I had a conference call on our drive home yesterday…one that wasn’t for work!!! (Thank Gawd!) In fact, the call was with a number of my Eat.Blog.Run. teammates. Together, we’ll be eating, blogging and running our way through 200 miles of the San Francisco Bay Area as we “compete” (I use that term loosely) in The Relay.
The race starts in Calistoga and finishes in Santa Cruz. My legs are 7.1 miles in Marin County, 3.7 miles in San Mateo County and 6.2 miles in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The race as a whole will take us around 33 hours, give or take, starting at 7 am on Saturday, May 1st and ending the afternoon of Sunday, May 2nd. DUDE, THAT’S THREE WEEKS AWAY!
I’m nervous that I’m slightly out of my mind, but mostly I’m excited, especially after talking to my teammates today. They’re an awesome group of bloggers.
But I could use your help. Here’s how:
1. If you’re in the area, come cheer us on! You’ll find a map of the routes at the link above. I’m running legs 11, 23 and 35 but all of my teammates would love the encouragement.
2. Follow us on Twitter to watch us freak out over our last three weeks of training and be part of our team as we tweet our way across the finish line.
3. Ditto on the official Eat.Blog.Run. blog. We love comments like, “You can do eeeettt. You can do eet ALL NIGHT LONG,” because, well, we’ll be running all night long.
4. If you or someone you know wants to support us as a sponsor, let me know. We could use things like water, food and snacks, etc. for the days of the race. We’d be happy to show our gratitude by acknowledging your support.
5. If you’re a member of DailyMile, follow me over there as I wrap up my training for this crazy race.
I’m amped. I can’t wait to tell you how it all goes!
Who Wants to Be A Blogger?
I’m not the most prolific blogger. This I know. Across a number of areas of my life, I suffer from an excess of inertia. What, you don’t remember high school physics? Inertia is the amount of force in takes to change the movement of an object. Perhaps you remember the saying, “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.” That is intertia. (Thank you Newton.)
What it means for me is that it takes a lot to get me going but once I go, I go like a mad woman. When it comes to blogging, it plays out something like this: I wait days, weeks even, to write a post. I sit down to write it and it takes me hours. I have to get everything perfect. End result: I don’t post much and my posts are really long.
It’s no surprise really. My sophomore year in high school we spent our entire English class learning to write five paragraph essays. First paragraph: state a hypothesis. Second through fourth paragraphs: explain your three main arguments. Final paragraph: Conclusion. As I progressed in school, I continued to excel at that style of writing and it serves me well in my career. But that style, my style, also stifles me when it comes to this place. I don’t express myself for fear I haven’t fully thought out my position or my argument supporting it isn’t complete.
This frustrates me beyond belief because I’m way too young to have the whole world figured out and I think people who think they do are ignorant and arrogant – a dangerous combination indeed. I let the perfect become the enemy of the good here (or even the adequate, or mildly annoying…but whatever, this is my place, I can be annoying if I want, right?).
So here, today, I’m resolving to stop trying to be so darn perfect. It’s not me. Really. I’m going to start throwing up thoughts and ideas and shorter posts, even if they’re not my final answer. Because unlike on a gameshow, I don’t want this place to be my hot seat. I don’t want to walk away for fear of getting the next answer wrong.
I hope you’ll enjoy whatever it is that I have to say on here. I hope this will help me gain some momentum in my blogging. And if you’re a blogger and a perfectionist, let me phone-a-friend. I’d be very interesting in knowing how you restrain yourself from letting the perfect become the enemy of the good on your blog. Any advice?
Legacy
One year ago today, my friends Heather and Mike lost their sweet baby girl. Nothing I write here can express the depth of my sorrow for their loss. Nothing I write here will make you or me understand the unfathomable nightmare that they have been through and the pain they will live with for the rest of their lives. I wish with all my might that there were something I could do to bring her back, to take away their pain. Though I know I can’t, I also know that Maddie’s infectious spirit lives on in ways big and small.
Because of Maddie, a community came together to show support for one of its own.
Because of Maddie, hundreds of children were held tighter, loved deeper, appreciated more.
Because of Maddie, her baby sister Annie has more cyber aunties and uncles than a girl could know what to do with.
Because of Maddie, gardens and balloons and websites and blogs and fingers and toes and ballpoint pens and blackberries all turned brilliant shades of purple.
Because of Maddie, thousands of families are getting the help they need to endure the ups and downs of a stay in neonatal intensive care units across the country.
Because of Maddie, tens of thousands of dollars have been donated to the March of Dimes to help keep other families from enduring the tragedy that Mike and Heather went through.
What an amazing legacy to build in seventeen short months.
May we all continue to keep Maddie and her family in our thoughts and prayers and, more importantly, support them in our actions. Maddie, may you continue to rest in peace.
Later this month, I’ll Marching for Maddie at the Los Angeles March of Dimes March for Babies. Please consider clicking the link in my sidebar to make a donation. You can also support families with babies in NICUs by donating to Friends of Maddie, the charity Heather and Mike set up in Maddie’s honor.
Prayers for Anissa
I’m quite sure that many of you (at least 50% if my stat counter is correct) don’t quite “get” bloggers and these random people who live in my computer to and about whom I talk daily. As skeptical as many of you may be, it is with a heavy heart that I’m reminded today of just how real those people out there in the ether of the Internet really are.
A blogger, a friend, who is ridiculously funny, corrals the funny in others, and speaks out for those who are too young to speak for themselves, had a stroke today. She is young. She is a wife. She is a mom. And she needs all the love she can get.
Please, if you’re a person of faith, say prayers. If you’re not, send good thoughts and good vibes her way. She needs all the help she can get.
It may seem odd to some of you that I’ve taken such an interest in what seem to be strangers. But they’re not. Like many of my other friends who I met online and later met IRL (“in real life”…in case you couldn’t figure that out), they’re real people who need the love and support of people like me…and you. So, please, send #prayersforanissa.
To Anissa, the whole Interwebs is here waiting for you…we can’t wait for you to bring your funny back.
