Blog find of the year: Penelope Trunk, to whom I’ve linked multiple times here, wrote posts that consistently stuck with me for their bravery and insight. The first few times I read her, I thought she was just blogging about networking and Gen Y and blah blah blah. But I was wrong.
Challenge:
Returning to work full-time probably should have been my biggest challenge. Instead, the challenge happened in the six months before I found work, when I struggled to define myself back in Portland, in a new home, without a job. I’m still working in settling in, to the house, to the new life, and to the confirmation of my suspicions that I’m not stay-at-home-mom material.
Album of the year:
Most of the music I downloaded this year was straight from So You Think You Can Dance. But the one artist that I love more than any other from 2009 is P!nk and her Funhouse album.
New food:
Horseradish cheddar cheese, especially grilled on sourdough bread.
Tea of the year:
Thanks to a highly-placed network of international people of mystery, I was reunited with my favorite tea: Messmer brand Apple Gingko Green tea. Sigh.
Shop:
Sephora. I bought a bunch of new makeup this year. I’m actually wearing foundation and eye shadow on a regular basis now. I know you’re riveted by this information.
I’m leaving tomorrow on a trip to Montana, where I will eat some steak and Theo will run amok due to grandparental spoilage, and then we will hang out with a bunch of my high school classmates who I haven’t seen in twenty years. I’m pretty sure none of us has changed a bit.
While I’m away, you should watch this trailer for the new Ricky Gervais film. He is a genius.
I haven’t posted about what’s going on with me in a while. And that’s mainly because, on a day-to-day basis, it seems like nothing much is going on. I eat Cheerios. I post boring things to Twitter. I take Theo to the park, where he spends most of his time begging to climb on the concrete skatepark and I spend most of my time pointing out that the kids with the low-rider pants and long hair would mow him down with their boards in 1.3 seconds if he toddled into their paths. I watch So You Think You Can Dance.
Aaaand I just killed a spider that was walking across the arm of my chair. Just then. I meant just to brush him off, onto the floor, but he was squashed in the melee. (This is real-time blogging, right here. Riveting, isn’t it?)
Fortunately there are a few other places on the internet where things are a bit more exciting. How about these?
Let’s Panic About Babies!
You might not want to click on that while you’re drinking your coffee because you’ll snort it out your nose. The 1-800-DINGOES ad did it for me.
John Cusack is on Twitter, another example of why it’s sometimes more fun to worship celebrities from afar than to actually know what they’re thinking. (Side note: It’s unfortunate that the more boring and misspelled the twitter feed, the more convinced I become that the celebrity is actually writing it himself.)
Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider,
the way Houdini would expand his body
while people were putting him in chains. It seems
no time since I would help him to put on his sleeper,
guide his calves into the gold interior,
zip him up and toss him up and
catch his weight. I cannot imagine him
no longer a child, and I know I must get ready,
get over my fear of men now my son
is going to be one. This was not
what I had in mind when he pressed up through me like a
sealed trunk through the ice of the Hudson,
snapped the padlock, unsnaked the chains,
and appeared in my arms. Now he looks at me
the way Houdini studied a box
to learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled.
Am very busy attempting to divest my family of our worldly possessions. So far, have sold an electric screwdriver and a rice cooker. I’m sure someone will turn up who needs an entire kitchen including appliances. Also, to rent our apartment.
This is a good distraction from the apparent danger of rioting, according to a warning posted by the US Embassy here. Apparently, football fans can be angry and passionate! Newsflash!
In case I am crushed by a mob of Turkish and/or German revelers/rioters, know that on my last day on earth, this video got me all choked up. I’m not sure why. You might have seen this guy’s earlier efforts, but this is the best one yet.
-The Big Picture, photo site that focuses on a single news story per day, is fantastic. I started to link to specific pictures, but realized I get chills almost every day from at least one of their images. See for yourself.
-Only on the internet: Black Hockey Jesus, whose avatar is a Diff’rent Strokes-era photo of Gary Coleman, writes a daddyblog called The Wind In Your Vagina. He calls his wife by a different name in each of his posts. Read the post I’ve just linked to for more reasons to love him.
-Have you signed up for a Twitter yet? It’s like blogging, but easier. And shorter. And you can do it on your cell phone.
-This new Honda ad (airing on TV for the first time tomorrow, June 1) gave me chills.
-The guest writer at kottke.org says this is a vanishing America. But it’s exactly the America that I remember In fact, it was eerie to realize I’ve actually seen more than one of these places in person.
We’re preparing to go away for the long Easter weekend. I refuse to place our destination in print because we all know what happened the last time I did that. And I also won’t bore you with my tales of packing woes and hotels that don’t have a crib available, and SNOW outside my window this morning.
Instead, here are links to my latest discoveries. Go forth and enjoy.
Sublime Stitching I love these patterns! Is anyone up for starting a sewing circle, after I dig my embroidery skills out of the Girl Scout camp part of my brain?
Beautiful resume ideas that work I want to learn to use PhotoShop. Then I’ll put it on my resume. Then I’ll make my resume look pretty like these ones.
Down for everyone or just me? Can’t get into your gmail account? Wondering why your eBay search for Dachshund Hair Plugs is taking so long? Here’s where you can find out if your favorite site is down for everyone, or if it’s just your fracking ISP again.
Digsville I am on the cusp of trying a home exchange but I’ve never been brave enough to take the plunge. If I do, here’s where I will do it.
I’ve started a new Flickr group called Airline Kid’s Swag. It’s your one-stop spot for viewing the stuff the airlines give away to kids to keep them quiet on the airplane. If you or your offspring have received any of this stuff, you should join. Especially if you’ve got some plastic pilot’s wings, because we’re sorely lacking in that area.
If you are in my address book, you’ve probably received an e-mail from me at one time or another that says, “This made me think of you,” followed by a link to some blog post about your favorite brand of socks, or a website dedicated to people with one green eye and one brown eye, or that YouTube video where the guy does the history of dance in 30 seconds. Because I’m addicted to the internet and I’m a pusher.
Just in case I haven’t sent these to you already, here are some of my latest faves:
WantNot is a bargain shopping site that spreads the love of internet coupons and online sales, all topped with sass and good humor. Save yourself from trolling all those scary, blinking, pop-up filled, badly designed coupon code sites that give me a headache and bookmark this one instead.
Don’t you wish you could send this version of The Badger’s resume attached to your next cover letter? She wrote that a while back. This month, she’s posting her favorite song lyrics every day. Wish I’d thought of that first.
I feel like I’m not a real live mommyblogger without a Superhero Necklace, so either I shut down the blog or somebody needs to buy me one. Who’s with me?
Someday, when Theo discovers Legos, I’m going to make this cake for his birthday. For now, he seems to be happy eating and playing with the dirt caked on my shoelaces as he scoots past.
THEO’S BREAKFAST SOUNDTRACK: Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 : Shakira