• Amazing People,  Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz

    Friends First.

    September 3, 2015

    Momo and I met online seven years ago, at some point in 2008. (In Internet time that’s virtually 575 years ago.) We met in real life in June of 2009, when I helped bring a van full of meat to her house. (The Momo’s Meat Wagon story is here.) We’ve been close friends ever since. I became her contractor at BlogHer three years ago, and for every day of those three years I have been one half of a total Dream Team. I don’t think every pair of friends could have a successful work relationship, but we do. We have worked together seamlessly, with excellent communication and just the right…

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  • Blessings,  Confessions,  Family Fun

    New Old Holiday Traditions

    November 26, 2014

    If there is anything for which I am well-known, it’s that I’m not a huge fan of the holidays and holiday traditions. Wait, it’s that I have a Type A personality. Wait, it’s that I love tea. Wait, it’s that I’m a very cheerful, optimistic person. Wait, let’s go back to that holiday thing. I’ve explained it many times before; it’s not that I don’t like the holidays in general. It’s more about not fully enjoying the pomp and circumstance that comes with the holidays: the decorations, the fuss, the clutter, the stress, the “we have to do THIS and THIS”…I’m a creature of habit and it all gives me…

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  • Blessings,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz

    Reason #829 Why I Love The Internet

    November 22, 2014

    The internet is pretty awesome. Okay, it is awesome if you set aside the ways in which it sucks. I’m focusing on the awesome today. Here’s the thing. It’s very common for people on the internet to band together and come forward to be supportive when there’s a personal crisis going on. There’s always someone on the internet to say, “Oh my gosh, me too!” or “Don’t worry; that’s totally normal!” whether you’re talking about physical issues, mental issues, home repair issues, kid issues, or any other kind of issue, really. The Good People of the Internet* are right there, helping others feel better. I was having my own crisis…

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  • Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  UGH.

    Survival Skills

    November 18, 2014

    There’s a saying about how Chicago has only two seasons, winter and construction*. My little corner of my western suburb has been experiencing construction year-round for nearly two years now (even through the winter months), thanks to a gutting and extensive reconstruction of a major state route that happens to be one of the few roads that runs through my entire town from all the way north to all the way south. By the way, that state route happens to border my subdivision. The city planners back in the day had absolutely no idea that eventually Naperville would be the fifth largest (by population) city in Illinois and naturally, didn’t…

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  • Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?

    HanukkahBlah

    November 27, 2013

    No really, I’m excited about Hanukkah. (Really!) The boys are home this week (er, one is en route) and my parents will be here tomorrow for Thanksgiving with a little Hanukkah on the side. It’s just that I haven’t decorated yet, and at this point–since the holiday begins at sundown TONIGHT (I thought it was tomorrow, arggghhh!)–I’m once again thinking that it would be easier to just quietly scoot those boxes of decorations back into the corner of the crawl space. It’s not the first time this kind of thing has happened; in fact, when I searched through my blog archives just now I found the post I wrote three…

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