Heading into My 10th Year of Blogging

I'm just a couple of days away from wrapping up nine years of blogging. Nine years! That's just about the longest I've ever stayed with a hobby/low-paying job. Well, actually I'd done pretty well for myself turning my blog into a platform that led to other opportunities and consulting and writing jobs. I've made well over six figures from blogging, I just never hit that mark in any single year.

When I started blogging, it was about writing and story. I was thrilled to realize that with just a few clicks, I could join the ranks of some of my favorite online writers! I hoped a blog would help me launch a freelance writing career.

Truth be told, whenever my sitemeter indicated that someone from New York City visited my blog, I was certain it was a big-time literary agent checking me out.

Really.

But let's be honest, in those early days, I was thrilled when my sitemeter indicated that anyone was visiting my blog. What? 10 hits in a single day? It's only a matter of time until I get a book contract, right?

Ha!

Not only was blogging back then about the words, but there were no social media distractions (enhancements?). No Twitter. Facebook was only for college students. The guy who started Instagram probably didn't even have his driver's license yet. It was the digital dark ages.

Sometimes, I'm pretty sure that blogging for so long does more harm than good in the current environment of gorgeous photographs and highly monetized blogs. I often feel like the old lady yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off of my lawn. "You call yourself a blog with sponsored post after sponsored post and a sidebar full of ads? In my day we told stories!"

Although, to be honest, I don't tell as many stories. My kids are older and though the internet was always open and public, it feels even more so now than it did in 2005.

Lest I get too introspective and nostalgic, let me share my first real blog post. I wrote it when my boys were 4 and 6.

Remember those 10 visits per day I mentioned? Most of them landed here after Googling "fake hickey." That should have been the first clue that they weren't literary agents.

Honey, I've started a blog!

DH rolled his eyes at my enthusiastic announcement. I could see the wheels turning in his mind: How does she have time for a blog, when she doesn't have time to clean the kitchen?

Ah yes, the clutter in the kitchen, the mounds of papers on the mail table, the notes, papers and clippings (mostly all mine) that seem to cover every horizontal surface in the house. Who am I to fight entropy, the tendency of all things in the universe toward a state of disorder?

Anyway, my boys were intrigued. What's a blog?

DH tells them it's a web-log, like an online journal.

Why would someone have a diary online?

An excellent question really. Why indeed?

I think of John Mellencamp's song, "Check it Out" from his Cherry Bomb album. "A million young poets, screaming out their words, to a world of people, just livin' to be heard...." This song, BTW, will be on my CD compilation Music for a Mid-life Crisis, should I ever get around to making one.

I see this blog more as a place for making and building connections than baring my soul to the world or filling up cyberspace with the mundane aspects of my life. (BTW, honey if you are reading this 6:30 concert at school tonight!)

The main topics I'll be addressing in my blog are: parenting, education/gifted children, stay-at-home moms returning to the world of paid work, chronic illness and some vague category I'll call "chick stuff." I hope to inform/enlighten or amuse others with the help of some great guest bloggers. So visit often!

Leave a comment so I know you've been here. My Husband left one comment and I left myself the other "just to try it out" or maybe to make myself feel legit. Leaving a visitor comment on my own blog reminded me of a story of a girl from my high school who supposedly rigged up her vacuum cleaner with an attachment and held it to her neck to give herself a fake hickey so that she could convince people that her made-up boyfriend was actually real. Do you think this is true? Can a person give herself a hickey with a vacuum cleaner--is this even possible? Or did a story like this circulate at every high school?

Can You Ever See Too Much of Your Elected Officials?

Seems like a timely day to post this old thing from the Chicago Moms Blog. It was originally published June 19, 2007.

We were hanging out at the local pool a couple of years ago when I spotted our congresswoman frolicking with her grandchildren. When we walked past each other I took that brief opportunity to introduce myself and thank her for her hard work.

Back with DH, I told him how badly I wanted to go back over to her and give her my two cents about a topic that always gets my panties in a bunch--how No Child Left Behind is ruining our public schools. “Give her a break. She’s enjoying her family,” he coolly advised. He was right.

She went on playing with her grandkids while I ignored my offspring, instead fantasizing about an audience with my congresswoman. Why, yes, Kim, I’d love for you to join me for a meeting with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Before I knew it, the pool was closing. I headed to the changing room and once again found myself face to face with the congresswoman, only this time she was taking off her bathing suit! I immediately averted my eyes. I mean, wouldn't you expect a member of congress to use one of those little changing stalls? It’s definitely possible to see too much of your elected officials.

Still, it’s good to know that the old saying is true. Congresswoman, Shmongresswoman! She puts her pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: Get Your Mind Set

From my Table of Good Fortune, a piece I painted years ago. It's covered in bright blues and purples with a bit of green and yellow on the legs. The tabletop is lined with fortunes from long ago desserts at Chinese restaurants and embellished with bits cut from wrapping paper from a special gift.

Actually, I don't remember the gift, but it came from a new age-y, grad school carpool friend. The attached card said, "May the light of heaven shine down on you."

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: Tashlich

Last week after peaceful Rosh Hashanah services, we headed off to a favorite spot along the Chicago River for Tashlich.

When the boys were young and we didn't belong to a synagogue, we'd invite our friends to these woods and celebrate the "birthday of the world" with stories, songs, talk about what we'd try to do better in the new year and of course, eat challah with apples and honey.

Tashlich (tosh-leehk) is a ritual casting away of one's sins from the past year. This quiet spot in the woods is a great place for reflecting on the past and thinking about the one ahead. And as you can see there is a lovely body of water for dropping in bread crumbs and pocket lint (symbols of our misdeeds).

The problem is that no place is quiet and pensive if my boys are around.

Given their boisterous nature, I was surprised to spot another, calmer family in the forest preserve.
This time of year, it is customary to apologize to those you hurt, or may have hurt, through words and actions. The Jewish concept of sin, is taken from the word's Hebrew meaning, which is to miss the mark.

Surely you have missed the mark in some ways this past year. I certainly have. And I ask for your forgiveness.

I had a boss who once put it quite bluntly. He'd walk around the office saying, "Sorry for being an a**hole."

I like the way my rabbi put it in this Rosh Hashanah reading:

And let us face the honest truth of our humanity:
while we harbor a terrifying capacity for destruction and violence
we never, ever forfeit the ability to choose another way:
the path of forgiveness and reconciliation
the way of Shalom.


Wishing you the path of Shalom, peace, in the year ahead.

Updates: Nearly Wordless Wednesday

This is how far behind I am. I have yet to write about:

My keynote panel at the Sweets and Snacks Expo. Look at me all mic'd up like Britney Spears! (Note the tight pants due to the 8-pound media kit full of candy and snacks I needed to try in order to cement my role as "expert panelist.")

Also this:

A thank you note from my BFF, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, regarding my efforts to help pass health care reform. I excitedly shared this note with my 12-year-old after it arrived in the mail. Apparently, he's unimpressed by a personalized note from one of the most powerful women in the United States of America. Whatever.

And then there's the wonderful Chevy Traverse we drove up to Canada and back in record time. The Traverse provided a really smooth ride, worthy of more than a photo, which BTW was taken next to a lovely U-pick strawberry patch in Warrens, Wisconsin (also home to an interesting cranberry museum).

And I haven't written about our visit to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which took us off the interstate for about six hours, adding several hours to our road trip home. But, look, they walked across the Mighty Mississippi!

Ack! How could I leave out the fabulous Aebleskiver event with the fab women of the MN Blog
Pantry? That write-up will go up on MomImpact.
Starting on Monday, the boys will both be in camp for 5.5 overlapping hours per day, so I hope to catch up on many aspects of my life in addition to blogging!

My first 5K! I finished, not last.

I was looking for a new challenge after completing my bat mitzvah when I saw a sign for the Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate. I signed up at the urging of an IRL friend, but I doubt I would've done if not for hearing my blog friends go on about their new-found running habits.

I didn't formally train using Couch to 5K guidelines, just added a bit of jogging (which I do not like) to my normal fitness walks. I knew I'd approach the 5K with a walk/jog combo. I knew I'd end up with a base time, a time to beat should I decide to tackle a future 5K with greater intention. This time, I just wanted to finish. Not last.

I don't know much about pacing, but I do try to adjust myself based on the crowd. For example, at one nearby indoor track where the typical walker is about 62 years old, my goal is simply to pass whoever is ahead of me. I walk at a fast, but steady, pace.

On the outdoor track at my children's school, I walk counterclockwise, while most of the crowd walks clockwise (yes, there's likely a large metaphor at play here). I try and keep track of where I do or should cross paths with certain people based on whether they are out for a pleasant morning walk or there for exercise.

For this race, there were three main folks who helped me pace myself. I'm not proud to admit this, but one of my pacers was a flat footed young girl with an awkward gate. Like me, she alternated between jogging and walking, only she was sandwiched between her parents, holding their hands. Her father weaved a charming yarn to entertain her that lasted the entire route. It was tempting to stay within listening distance, and yet, I was not going to let her finish before me.

So with the developmentally challenged child in my dust (I am pitiful), I had my eye on two old men. Old being later 50s or early 60s. We took turns outpacing each other, but over time, their jog:walk ratio was higher than mine and I fell behind.

There were a couple of others that I gleefully passed only to have them pass me up in the end.

But as I came into the final stretch, it was "Back Fat" who gave me a run for my money. Now, as an ample woman over the age of 40, I've got a little somethin-somethin bulging out of my bra (on the backside), but I keep it covered up. This gal had her shirt tucked up into her bra exposing, well, you get the nickname.

Back Fat was also a run/walker. We alternated a lead on each other for over a mile. She was ahead of me in the homestretch until I zoomed (ha) past her, but then in the last two blocks, she blasted ahead of me.

I did not finish last! Indeed, I was 1151 out of 1265 runners, and 84 out of 96 for women my age.
A new habit or a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again? Who knows? What exciting new challenges are you taking on these days?

Speechless after my speech on Capitol Hill

The tiny head sticking out to Speaker Pelosi's right belongs to me. It's an odd perspective as she's rather petite. I mean, so am I, but I'm not that short.

What a day! The Consumer's Union folks did a great job of prepping us for this big event. I'll be back later with a Whrrl story, including a shot from the Speaker's balcony at the capitol.