24/7

I saw this badge on the National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) site. It best represented my successful completion of the challenge, so I took it. It reminds me of my favorite sarcastic retro slogan: Anyhoo. This was the easiest go I've had at NaBloPoMo since I started participating in the thirty-day blog posting challenge three years ago. I think the secret was in the fact that, for the first time in my writing life, I gave up all regard for the opinions of others. I didn't censor myself or hold out for brilliance that I was completely delusional to think would ever come. I just wrote. Many of my posts this month were longer than those I usually commit to this blog. I'm pretty sure they were more boring. They were the essence of what Anne Lamott terms the "shitty first draft" in her archetypal book on the writing process, Bird By Bird . I'm not sure if her words were working at my subconscious when I embarked on NaBloPoMo this month or if I somehow came to t...

It shouldn't surprise me, being that I met my husband via America On-Line, but somehow the shock is still there every time the world as it appears on my computer screen intersects with the world that lives and breathes and smells and shrieks around me. A blogger I know named Lauren wedded an Irishman named Sean in a nature preserve before the snow started to fall on Saturday. She was protected from the elements by a gazebo, by Sean, and by a fur trimmed coat that The Boss tells me is something a snow princess would wear. The thing about the coat--the thing that intersects--is the fact that it was sitting in my own closet just a few days ago. It never occurred to me when I first stumbled upon Lauren's blog three years ago that this wiry, red-haired artist would be making her wedding vows while wearing "something old"--in this case, vintage 70s--from me. Lauren came over my house on the Thursday before her wedding and mentioned that she had to go shopping for a coat. I...

I've blogged every day so far this month. This is no small feat considering I wrote only 60 posts over the course of the ENTIRE YEAR before November rolled around. NaBloPoMo is designed to help make blogging a habit by motivating writers to crank out posts every day, including weekends, for thirty days. It's great in theory. But the way my mind works, a habit is only worthwhile if it makes me fat and drunk and gives me cancer. Blogging every day? It's like jogging. These are dangerous gateway exercises. Next thing you know, I'll be running a marathon and writing a novel. Seriously, though. I'm way past making promises that I'm going to keep up this kind of prolificity . I didn't even announce my participation in NaBloPoMo this time around, so leery was I of embarrassing myself like I did last year when I flaked out on November 22 and didn't write again for five days. One of my biggest failings is lack of motivation. Admitting it is not my problem--it...

A virtual baby shower was held this weekend for GGC and Kristen as each awaits the birth of her second and third child, respectively. Is that sentence even grammatically correct? Oh my God, I have no idea. That's where I am right now. Anyway, I missed the shower. The brain of mine that is currently in hiding from the Strunk and White grammar police also balked at the price of admission to the virtual shower: one blog-ode extolling the virtues of newborn babes. Sometimes I get into this mood where I am unable to write about weighty subjects because I feel I can't do them justice. I am in such a mood now, as I have been for the past weekend. And certainly there are few things weightier than bringing a new life into the world--even if it only comes in at 7 lbs 1 oz, like the baby Boss, or 6 lbs 15 ozs, like my recently-born little boy. So as I sit here typing with the latter in my lap--he's simultaneously eating, sleeping and pooping--I will let these words suffice: Best wis...

Welcome to the new and improved 24/7, courtesy of: Shannon was a pleasure to deal with. She whipped out the design and helped me install it to my Blogger account in the span of one day. The final product is her telepathic rendering of my vision. It had to be telepathy, because I'm pretty sure I didn't make any sense when I tried to put into words the look I was going for. But no matter. Shannon can read your mind over email. That's how good she is. But if you thought the new design is the only thing being unveiled today, you underestimated my desire to kill two birds with one title. Today, I lift the curtain on the New Guy's Name ! Before you make any assumptions about the winning name based on the fact that I created a poll and asked you all to vote in it, you have to know a couple things about me. One is that I don't generally go with the most popular choice in any given situation. The second is that I often disregard my gut instinct, only to return to it after a ...

The results are in. Last week's informal survey has been evaluated and synopsized. With no further ado, here are the top ten ways to avoid blogger's block. 10. Recline your swivelly desk chair into the therapist's couch position. "i get to sit and wax about things that i think about and never say in the course of a day. That might not always be meaningful to the reader, but it's a panacea for my soul." - jen 9. Move into a blogging state of mind. "...if I think of something, I sit down and write it as soon as I can, sometimes building a "bank" of posts. Or I write down snippets of ideas. I also look online for writing prompts." - Mrs. Chicken "I have a notebook of snippets, topics & ideas I write down as soon as I have them. If I'm stuck, I go back to that." - Lawyer Mama 8. Use your kids. Just because you've got nothing to say doesn't mean they've got nothing. "I guess on days when I really don't hav...

I have nothing to say at this time. Like, not a single thing. How I've managed to blog-blather for almost two years now with any consistency (I know I use the term loosely) is a mystery to me. I need some clarity. For bloggers : How do you come up with things to write about on the days when no inspiration is readily apparent? How do you foster the discipline necessary to put yourself out there on the computer screen day after day? If you are cognizant of issues that often/sometimes/rarely block you, how do you write through them? For readers : Taking into consideration all the blogs you regularly digest, what topics do you most like to read about? What style(s) of writing do you appreciate? What makes you come back to one blog and what makes you stop coming back to another? If you'd care to discuss the above in the comment section, I'd be grateful. Your ideas will help keep things lively in my creative absence and just might help get me--and anyone else on the same stalled ...

I have a friend who reads this blog and is, understandably, surprised by the community of commenters that many mutha bloggas elicit. "You've got some enthusiastic supporters out there, huh?" Boz mentioned over lunch this past weekend. "Um, yeah, I guess you could say that. That's how we mommybloggers are. Supportive. Enthusiastic. Yup." And so I got to thinking, not just about my own blog, but about this momosphere in general; and how sunshine, in the form of bright rays of light being continuously blown up people's asses, can get to be cloying. You must know what I mean. Those long rows of comments all praising the hilarity, or the eloquence, or the heart-wrenchinging-ness, or the yes-yes-that's-exactly-the-way-I-feelingness of a given post in a given blog. I've written my fair share of those comments, don't get me wrong. In those cases, that's the only way I can convey how powerfully someone else's words affected me. With some blog...

My family does not know about my blog. The secret was not threatened until TrueBlue came along. A case of the blueberry juice arrived at my door after I was approached about the possibility of reviewing it on my blog. As a sucker when it comes to free stuff, and with a daughter who's a sucker of juice, I was more than amenable to the idea. Tearing into the case upon its arrival, I stored one bottle in the refrigerator (per the kind gentleman's suggestion to let it chill before drinking) and left the rest of the case in a corner of the kitchen. Over the next few days, members of my household became well acquainted with the virtues of blueberries in liquid form. The Partner drank it undiluted. The Boss got a half and half mix of blueberry juice and water. When she went to bed, I drank mine with vodka. TrueBlue was a hit. Then Easter came, and along with it, extended family. The case of TrueBlue remained in its corner, a little more than half full. That's when I made the mist...

Another Easter has come and gone. So has the not-quite-successful Lenten promise that preceded it. On six separate occasions, I failed to light up the Blogger dashboard with my daily reflections. Being, as I am, of the opinion that 34 out of 40 ain't bad, I cannot quite muster up too much disappointment. I blogged a helluva lot more than I would've otherwise. And I did it during the months of February and March, which are perhaps the least inspired pages on my creative calendar. I may not have come through with flying colors, but I came through. I'd like to thank God, The Partner, and whomever invented the Meme. In related news, I am looking for another gimmick to entice me into blogging on a daily, or at least 6-day-a-week, basis. I have no self motivation whatsoever and must rely on outside sources. That's just how it is. I imagine what I'm looking for is something like the bikini that inspires dieters to go through months of deprivation so that they can fit into...

Actually, this post has very little to do with moms and sex. But I am getting addicted to the Statcounter spike I've encountered ever since I employed those two terms in relation to each other a couple days ago in the title of my response to the Real Moms meme . Yesterday this blog experienced the single largest number of unique hits it has ever known. All because of moms having sex. What is it that a famous anthropologist once said? "Never doubt that a small group of moms having sex can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." I mean, if that's not the truth. I'm going to go do my part to change the world.

Just when I was beginning to think this whole blog was devoid of thought, none other than Redneck Mommy comes around and bestows upon me the Thinking Blogger Award. I would be flattered to have received this button from anyone but I am tickled especially pink to have been tagged by T , a favorite blogger of mine and a fellow nose-picker on the playground of life. It's all part of the " 5 Blogs That Make Me Think " meme started at The Thinking Blog . Thanks for thinking I think, T. I think you think, too. Not for nothing, but "think" is one of those words that starts to look really funny when you see it written out more than once. Anyhoo, it is now my sacred duty to pass the torch to five other bloggers I consider especially adept at running their gray matter through its paces. Thinking bloggers. That means different things to different people, but to me the title signifies writers with unique ways of articulating themselves while remaining addictively relatabl...

It sometimes occurs to me how inane by blog is. The thought crossed my mind today, actually, after I left comments on a couple military blogs upon which I stumbled. The soldiers behind those Blogger templates live out tales of heart and guts every day. They share their perspective in a way that's invaluable in the telling. Each post is layers deep. I came back here after leaving those comments and assessed my last few posts with a more distanced eye. I forced myself to look past my mommyblogging myopia. I tried to find something universal, or at least something that would be even halfway interesting to a person not in possession of two stretch-marked breasts and a blown-out vaginal canal. But I couldn't come up with anyting. I realize certain people attract a certain audience and that no single entity (with the possible exception of Anna Nicole Smith) is going to interest everybody. But when I start looking at my blog as other, more removed, parties must see it, well, then I ...

Over the arduous, weeks-long process that is the sending out of holiday cards in my household, I often thought of you blog buddies and how deserving you are of the message I mailed out to the friends and family members whose addresses I possess. Since snail mail does not befit our Internet friendship, I hope you will accept the electronic transmission of this year's 24/7 holiday greeting. You all have made this past year richer and more enlightening than I thought possible. Lest you ruin your eyes trying to view my poor attempts at getting the inside of the card to convert to readable jpg format, I will save you some effort by pointing you to the the original post from which I lifted the text, as it appeared here . ___