Oh, right, the blog…

So. If I stopped blogging, would anyone notice? I’ve been giving some thought to ending this blog. I mean, it’s almost 4 years old, it’s helped me articulate a lot of my feelings, I’ve met many, many wonderful and amazing people because of it, but… What I’m trying to say is that it’s served me well, it’s been totally awesome, but I don’t have much to say anymore.

It’s not really that I think I’ll completely give up blogging – I am going to start another blog on being single again, but a bit anonymously – and I don’t think I want to get rid of adventures in motherhood because it’s very much a part of me, but I am pondering making it different. Thoughts?

In the meantime, I love this space on apartment therapy – not the decor choices, but I just LOVE the actual space, all white, bright, and a huge dining table. I adore really big dining tables, just something about having a lot of friends and family over for big meals… one of my favorite things for sure! Anyway, I would totally live there, just, you know, without some of the artwork and that rug!

Happy Monday!!

Thank you gps!

I drove for a few hours in this…

Yes, it was pretty exhausting. And after about 3 hours sleep! But, after many many miles, and stops for the kids…

‘

We finally saw a sign, and we all rejoiced that we were getting closer, and confirmed that our 2 gps units (not, sexy mandy, as she was lost in the separation) were doing a fine job.

However, we didn’t realize that at 5pm, Chicago time, we would be heading into downtown, and it would be about a million hours before we could actually exit into downtown. But, eventually, there is was, all pretty and sparkly and full of life…

“Thank you gps!” said my 6 year old.

Tomorrow – Blogher Geek Lab!

Apparently this is not a photo blog

So, tonight rating/shoveling guy had a talk with me about the status of my blog. He was completely disappointed by the lack of words; I said “dude, I just don’t have words right now”, to which he said “but you must think about us, your readers”.

Thing is that my brain might be on overload at the moment. Sick kids, sick me, work, money – or lack thereof, job insecurity, increase in clients (great thing, but tiring), household chores, homework, projects, commuting, chauffeuring kids, walk-in clinics, divorce agreements… you get the idea. O-V-E-R-L-O-A-D.

That said though, thank God for small mercies (and everything else), but those little things really seem to be the glue that keeps us from falling apart. Like, “Penne Piquant Rose” aka spicy penne with rose sauce, or my 3 year old knocking on the bathroom door urgently to tell me “a bus is called a maxi-taxi" and proceeding to laugh out loud, or my sister making sure that I don’t starve myself, or a really great friend who check on me everyday almost without fail, or increasing temperatures, the sounds of trickling water and the lack of snow outside!

I owe my blog some new digs now that we are not totally covered in snow anymore! Enjoy your own small mercies and happy Sunday y’all!

Awesome indeed

Photos courtesy of Organica, who came to help me babysit the kids. She assured me that she was really great with kids, you know, that I won’t have to worry about anything, I could relax and she would totally look after my kids. I am not one to refuse help. I really thought all was going well, until I came into the room unexpectedly and heard her telling the kids, “guys, repeat after me, come on now, Organica is awesome! Organica is awesome! Say it now.”

Umm, yeah, that really did actually happen!

She is awesome though! So far she’s shoveled my snow, made my breakfast, washed my dishes, offered to do the laundry (I thought that would be pushing it, so I gently declined), so… brainwashing my kids… eh, I am willing to overlook that one.

San-fran-cis-co!

The best part of the conference was being part of the panel that I was a part of, and meeting my co-panelists. I really enjoyed the whole experience, and especially the opportunity to answer how-to questions… I never realized how “high” it makes me to talk about code! Almost every conversation I had at the conference (and even at the airport), involved the words “WordPress”, and “this is what you need to do”, and I LOVED it! Also, the women on my panel, Michelle, Melanie and Nelly were exceptional company, and I had a wonderful time getting to know them and presenting with them, they were incredibly supportive and knowledgeable!

I have at least one fan, who said I was “scarily smart”, although I would have just stopped at “scary”, because that is how I looked in the photo she took of me, but since she wrote the best review of our panel, I just had to share it with you!

I started evaluating how soon I could leave. But the first break-out session advertised itself as technical so I thought I’d stick around for that one. Glad I did. It was worth my price of admission alone. In the first 20 minutes. Between the three uber-techie CyberGals who led it, I figure I gleaned enough good technical tips and links to cool blogging tools that I saved myself weeks of research and months of tears. Then we broke out further into platform-based subgroups. There Tech Goddess Shazia Mistry gave me enough information about Wordpress (the platform I’ve been meaning to migrate to for six months) that I’m getting that done by next week.

Thank you Blue State Cowgirl, and good luck with your WordPress move!

The best part of my trip was spending time with my sister, who, I begged and begged graciously volunteered to accompany me on this trip so that I won’t look like a lone loser! Although my sister and I live in the same house, it’s been years since we’ve had the opportunity to hang out together, and it was really, really great to be able to do that. However, I am sure that there were times when she regretted her decision, like, for example, when we spent 8 hours at the airport in Chicago, where our flight got canceled after spending 2 1/2 hours on a plane without air conditioning!

I did eventually feed her!

Or when I talked about widgets and plugins, and presenting at BlogHer! for the millionth time, even though it was about midnight!

Or when we finally arrived at the hotel in San Francisco, at 1am, about 22 hours after leaving Toronto, and it turned out to be sort of scary (we did move to the Westin that day though, so I redeemed myself!) Or when I started calling her “princess”, because, people, she clearly believes she is a princess! Really, though, I don’t have words for how much it’s meant to me to have my sister be there for me in the past few months – I am sure that there is no way I would be functioning normally right now without her support.

The best part of San Francisco were these kids playing drums, I was unbelievably fascinated by them, the sound was awesome… truly awesome… we stood there for a very long time mesmerized almost by them!

And of course, the mall, because I kinda (secretly) love really large malls (do you think less of me now??)

I’ll be honest, the only reason I went to this conference was because I was asked to be on a panel, and I didn’t attend any sessions besides the one that I was a part of. Not that I have anything against it, and I did enjoy it, but it’s just not my thing – and by that I mean, I am not a screaming, ohmygodohmygodohmygod, kind of person, in fact, I think I might have felt more comfortable in a room of 1000 men, than 1000 women – it was very LOUD and sort of made me want to run back to my hotel room. I did, though, love meeting people that I connect with through my blog, albeit few, and I loved meeting people that I have been reading for a long time and really enjoy and respect.

I must give a special shout-out to Shannon, who came up to me in the lobby of the hotel to talk WordPress, and then, somehow we ended up sharing our souls!

It was a lot like high school – you really must go with your crew, your “peeps”, your buddies, your girls, your tribe – unless you are extremely extroverted it will be hard to find “friends”… I am neither extroverted, nor introverted, nor am I a loner, but I have 1) commitment issues, and 2) abandonment issues (is that the same thing?), I don’t really look for “friends”, so I really had no problem with the atmosphere of “if I don’t know you or recognize you, I am not speaking to you”, but for anyone that expects everyone to be your best friend – that ain’t going to happen – and I think a lot of people discovered this at last year’s conference and managed to have a much better time this year because that expectation was not there.

Would I go next year? Only if I can participate on a panel again, or if I can share my knowledge with others, otherwise, no, but I knew that going in – I actually had a better time than I expected. I must specially mention that the organizers, BlogHer founders and their team did an AMAZING job – this was no ordinary conference – it was actually quite spectacular, and is such an amazing example of “women power”, I am awed by their dedication and accomplishment. If you have the chance to go, you really should, at least once (better with a friend though), it is worth the price of admission, it truly is something that should be experienced.