Meme me

 Recently, The Blonde Leading the Blind posted a meme.  I’m not big on memes, but this one was different, and kind of fun.  Since my day is being taken up with a visit to the taping of this, the meme seemed like a good thing for today’s blog post.

The Name Game

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Woody Pilot (yeah, Woody Pilot rocks)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Sweet Cream Oreo (not a tough name, but sounds like a good sundae)

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
E-Ger.  So not fly.

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Purple Penguin

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Alice Bronx (the version of this with the street you grew up on works better - that makes me Alice Metropolitan)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)

Ger-El  (sounds more like Superman’s mom)

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Pink Sangria (I’ll drink to that)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)

Walter Edward

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Guerlain Twizzlers

10. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names)
Mae Terrell

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
I have no idea who my 5th grade teacher was.  I picked 4th instead…

Tufo Tampa

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)

Summer Lily

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Blueberry Caprie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Bagel Cedar

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Scrapbooking Thunder Tour (wow, sounds like a barn burner)

 

The Dancing Faux-Lesbians of Section 4R

What is it with concerts today?  Am I just going to all the old people shows where no one wants to get off their ass and MOVE?

Last night was show #1 of The Police and Elvis Costello at Jones Beach.  I went with my college roommate and good friend Liz.  Our seats were in the middle of the theatre on the right side.  Not bad, but there aren’t too many bad seats at Jones.

I knew from seeing the bands in LA that Elvis has a tendency to go on early.  We were in our seats at 7pm, ready for anything.  Once again, Elvis went on 5 minutes early, so we were well prepared.  Our section was mostly empty, so when we were overcome by the beat of “Pump IT Up”, we were able to dance without obscuring the views of our seatmates, or bumping into anyone.  I figured once the Police came out, everyone in the section would be up anyhow.

Uh uh.  No go.  We were the only ones in section dancing.  At one point, I turned around and saw others on their feet.  I yelled to LIz, “We’re not alone, yeah!”  She replied that they were probably standing up because they couldn’t see around us.   Oh.  We figured people were cursing us.  We also figured people thought we were on a date, because we kept asking our seat mates to take pictures of us.  They probably assumed we were together and drunk, neither of which was accurate.  We just like to dance. 

*Not that there's anything wrong with that

As you can see from the picture above, I wore my super cool Elvis shirt I bought last summer when I saw him in London.  How can you not dance when you are in a cool shirt like that?

I’m assuming there will be a LOT of dancing Thursday night.  I certainly will be.

C’mon people, this is a concert, not a funeral.  And it’s the last week the Police are performing together.  Get on your feet and dance like the faux-lesbian that you are!

 

Livin’ the rock ‘n roll lifestyle

We had just returned home from a weekend on the North Fork when the phone rang.  2:30pm.  Ish.

It was my friend Rina.  Rina asked what I was doing.  I told her nothing, thinking the next question would be if our girls wanted to have a playdate, which would have been fine.

It wasn’t that.

It was her offering me her husband’s ticket to see Bruce Springsteen with her that night.  Seems her oldest son was not feeling well, and they didn’t want to leave him home alone.

Umm…sounds good…let me talk to Mr. IT first.  Negociate as it were.  He’d have to take care of the kids solo, yet again. 

“NO.”

“But you didn’t even hear what I was asking.”

“Doesn’t matter.  NO.”

Apparently, Mr. IT had hit his breaking point.  Travel, working late, and the crazy “perfect storm” of concerts we’ve been in the past year had finally caused him to put his foot down. 

I protested a little, then I went to call Rina back.

“Wait.”

“What?”

“I’m fine with you going.  I just need to work through this.  I’m ok with it, I just need to say no a lot till I can get to yes.”

Did I mention he is the best husband in the world?  THE BEST! 

I’m totally working on recharging my stash of diaper whuffie to get me through next week. 

Wait.

What’s happening next week?

Well, since you asked, I’m seeing the Police.  Twice.

The first time will be Monday at Jones Beach.  I love seeing shows there.  Reminds me of fun times in high school and college.  I’m going with my college friend Liz.  Elvis Costello is opening.  When I bought the ticket, it was the last show of the Police’s second time around tour.  Then after I bought the tickets, they added another show the next day, making our show the penultimate show.  Then they added the big deal truly last show ever on August 7th at Madison Square Garden.  So that meant we were attending the penultimate Jones Beach show and the antepenultimate show of the tour, and ever. 

That was fine with me.  I saw them earlier in the summer, unexpectedly, at the Hollywood Bowl and saw them a good amount last year.  I could have gotten tickets for the MSG show but chose not to.

Then, I was looking on Stewart Copeland’s web site to see they had announced a concert for registered users to win a single ticket to the final show.  I don’t post on the site, and am a lurker in the community.  I joined to see set lists from the shows (why, I don’t know because they NEVER change, thanks to the rigidity of Mr. Sting.) Still, I’m registered as a user, and that was the only requirement.  Oh, that and being able to answer a specific question about Stewart that only a true fan (or someone who knew how to search the site) would know as a qualifier, and then asked for entries to be emailed with the winner to be announced in 2 weeks.  I sent in my answer and then forgot about it.

Last week, I got an email saying that I had won a ticket.  I didn’t quite believe it, but logging onto the site, I saw about 80 people who had also won.  Today, I picked up my single ticket at MSG’s box office.  I’m sitting in a side section next to the friggin stage!  Amazing!  I cannot believe my luck, and am so grateful this opportunity fell into my lap.   Thank you thank you thank you to Stewart Copeland and the folks who run his web site!

When I returned from the box office, I stopped by the bloodmobile truck outside of my office and made a donation.  Paying it forward as it were.  Whuffie must be accumulated by any means possible!

 

“The Mother at the Swings”

I’ve had a post in the queue for a little while about a beautiful piece that Susan Etlinger read at the BlogHer  Blogging About Our Children with Special Needs panel.  It’s called “The Mother at the Swings” and was written by a woman named Vicki Forman about her and her young son, and it’s a precious tale of talking to another mother at the swings about her son, who has multiple disabilities.  I met Vicki before the panel and was honored to hear her talk at the session.

Before it could be posted, I read on Susan Etlinger’s blog that Vicki’s son Evan passed away unexpectedly.  I cannot imagine what Vicki’s family and all the people who loved Evan are going through right now, but my heart goes out to all of them.  Do yourself a favor and read “The Mother at the Swings” and think of them and the love that Evan inspired.

 

BlogHer Recap in Pictures

Since people I work with have been asking for a BlogHer recap from me, I figured I better put something up here.  And what’s better than a post, that requires BIG THOUGHTS?  How about some awesome photos of me hobnobbing with celebrities?

Susan Etlinger, Charlene Li and me

This was after the MommyBlogging, Radical Act or Not, Let’s Discuss session.  Susan, who was to moderate her own panel the next day,  waited with me to get a picture with Charlene.  Fittingly, it was her last day at Forrester Research.  I’m pretty convinced Charlene was a little afraid of me.  You see, fangirls are to Dooce as I am to Charlene.  She may have thought me spooky, she may not have.  I’ll know for sure when I get served with that restraining order. 

Me and Y, down by the schoolyard

For some reason, 2 cosmos gave me the courage to go up to Y (who I met at last year’s BlogHer, and is tight with the Moxie Girls) and ask for a photo.  She’s kind of a big deal in this community, but when you meet her she’s sweet as sugar and you really just want to hug her (and y’all know how I feel about the hugging).  I think we both look pretty damn hot, despite the fact that my psycho-stalker aura is starting to come through.  I ended up the night eating cheeseburgers with her in Alpha Mom’s suite.  That’s a BlogHer thing, you kinda have to be there.

Just a couple of girls with cheeseburgers

I have to say, I love the new WordPress way of putting captions below the photos.  Anyhoo, that’s me and Tracee Sioux, who is an awesome new blogging buddy of mine.  We took about 10 photos before we got to ones where I didn’t look scary, but could have used a little lipstick.  Tracee’s just real cute, period, and hopefully, some of it rubbed off on me.

Charlies Angels Redux

Stephanie Klein’s husband was cool enough to take a picture of her with Neeti Maddan and me.  Neeti went to school with him, so they’re buds.  I was just an interloper.  This was after 2 cosmos + no food.  Not sure I even knew where I was at this point.

And finally, where would “Confessions” BlogHer recap be without a shot of my biggest celebrity encounter?

Aren't we cute together?

I love me the blue Muppets.  I would have posted the video, but it was enough of a struggle to talk to a piece of blue shag carpet without staring at the guy with his hand up Grover’s behind, and look cute at the same time.  Some things are going to have to remain un-recapped.

 

Alltop - All the Cool Kids (and me!!!)

I’ve been aware of Alltop for awhile now.  I use find new blogs, and sometimes to aggregate feeds.  For those not aware, here’s their gig:

We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs.

You can think of an Alltop site as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points—they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In other words, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation” by providing “aggregation without aggravation.”

Several folks told me I should be a part of this.  Not that I wasn’t flattered, but “Confessions of an IT Girl” kinda defies categorization.  I have colleagues in the “Publishing” category, friends in “Moms” and people I respect in “Marketing”.  I talk about all those things, but I am not ONE of those things.

I can’t remember who at BlogHer told me, “Well, just put yourself in ‘Women.’”  Duh.  So I submitted, and as you can tell from the happy badge in the right nav, I’m now part of it.  So visit women.alltop.com and you’ll find “Confessions.”  Which makes me quite happy.

So give it a try.  You never know what you might find!

 

Bon Anniversaire

We’re coming up on IT Boy’s second birthday, which means we’re starting to get 6 month progress reports from all of his therapists.  The first came yesterday from his PT.  Net net, he’s still in delay mode, but making progress, even if it’s not as much as we would like to see.  She was going over his results and pointed out that in one metric he was at the very “top end of poor” and all it would take was one percentile point to move him into “below average”.  You have to laugh at these things or you cry.  Can’t wait to see OT, Speech and special instruction next week.

Another anniversary, one I had not given much thought to, is being marked by Little IT.  She’s been making a friendship bracelet and when asked who it was for, she said it was an “anniversary” present for her best friend.  “It’s our 7 year anniversary, so we’re giving each other gifts to celebrate.”  I had to point out that they’ve actually known each other for 6 years, but that did little to dampen the enthusiasm.

Marking time, we are.

 

Count me in

I don’t know what led up to this post.  All I know is that in it, Dooce speaks for so many of us, me included.  You didn’t see it, but my fist was in the air after reading this.  I salute her elegance and thank her for putting into words what I’ve never had the ability to articulate.

 

When Less = More, and even Less = Less

Less = More - Before I went on spring break, I blogged about how IT Boy’s service providers were using the dreaded “P” word - Plateau.  He wasn’t regressing, but he wasn’t progressing either.

So, we came back from vacation, and every one of them has marveled about what progress he’s made.  FROM THE WEEK WHERE HE DIDN’T SEE ANY OF THEM.  He’s played around with his balance, started taking side steps, pointing a ton more, saying “a ball” instead of just “ball”…oh I could go on. 

But what does this mean?  Is my theory that he may be getting too much therapy for real?  Did he need a break, or was he just ready to progress at that moment in time?  Did so much contact with his family bring this out of him?  I may never know, but it’s going to be something that I watch closely.

On a related note….less = less.  I didn’t workout at all during vacation, despite my best intentions and a cute running outfit in my suitcase.  When I got back to the gym, I had lost weight.  A good amount of it, even.  I tried 3 scales at the gym, and all verified the results. 

So, no workouts, Dairy Queen, and mega BBQ = a healthy lifestyle?  Or is Texas just filled with magic healing powers?  You can imagine how stumped and confused I am now. 

 

Freakout Friday

It’s not enough that it’s the week before Sales Conference, and the end of our fiscal year, as has been previously mentioned.  Now, the fates are ganging up on me.  In fact, exactly when I think it can’t get any weirder, it does, so I almost hesitate to post now, lest something amusing and blogable happen.  I may have to update this post if something good comes up.   

First, my babysitter called in sick today.  Not her fault, certainly, because she apparently had quite a day from hell yesterday too.  In fact, she’s NEVER called in sick, so she’s certainly owed this one.  And she reads this blog, so if I dared to say that the planets probably could not have found a worse day for her to be sick, she would feel horribly guilty about something that isn’t her fault. 

I got mom on the phone and asked her to come over here to watch IT Boy.  She first demurred, saying it would be easier to have IT Boy at her establishment.  I demurred (ok, freaked out) back, saying that 3 service providers were due today and to change them at the last minute would put all of us over the edge.  In fact, the 3 were due at 9, 10 and 11, and I called mom at 8.

So, mom gets here around 8:45.  We wait, and wait, and wait for provider #1, and she doesn’t show.  Oh, wait, no, that’s her, pulling in at 10am, right behind provider #2.  They do some sort of cage match/jello wrestling thing, and agree that #2 should stay, and #1 will reschedule.

This is a lot of work.  And requires a lot of brain power.  And in between performance appraisals, powerpoints, session agendas, objectives and salary planning, I ain’t got none of that.  Plus, IT Boy was none too happy to see ANYONE today, and sobbed through session #1, which was really supposed to be session #2, but you get the picture by now.  IT Boy calmed down at the end of the session, but provider #3 just arrived, and I could hear from upstairs that as soon as she came in the door, he just lost it and broke down.  Ah, that’s my Boy.

Finally, I track down the mom who’s kid was supposed to come here for a playdate with Little IT this afternoon.  I left messages for her at home and on the cell.  I was a little worried that we’d have to change both kid’s pickup instructions with the school office, because yesterday I heard of a mom who did that and the office never notified the kid and she took the bus home to find no one home.  The mom called me around 10am and said that she had been at school all morning.  Little IT went over to her, told her everything that was going on, and arranged to have the playdate at her house with that mom picking them up.  Without a doubt, hearing that was the best part of my day.  My kid is working for the team!  GO LITTLE IT! 

Just another day in the life of a working mama.