I Asked And I Received

I am either stupid or have a very thick skin, because even though Ask And Ye Shall Receive totally slayed me and my blog, I think the review is hilarious.

The thing is--they're totally right.

Divorce Sucks

I'm supposed to be taking a self-imposed break from the internet for 24 hours but the book I'm reading isn't very riveting (or, I should say, books: Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed; Dr. Laura's In Praise of Stay Home Moms; Chris Brogan's Truth Agents--library for the first two and won the third on a contest on Twitter). That and, to be honest, I'm sad and distracted and can't concentrate on much of anything right now. Why? Because after 3 years of being divorced and struggling with custody issues, trying to do what's best for my kids and, admittedly, also wanting to avoid $30,000 in legal fees, I'm realizing I may not be able to avoid it. I don't usually go this TMI on this blog--or at least I haven't for a while--but tonight I just feel like it and, since I think I've skipped posting in here for long enough that nobody much is reading anymore, it feels like as good a place as any to air this.

The reason divorce sucks is because there are no easy answers. The kids are supposed to be with me tonight. At 7 their dad brings Mimi here. Not Matthew. Lately has been deciding that since Mimi won't stay with him anymore (long story...bottom line she basically sleeps at my house full-time now, with his consent) Matthew should stay with him more (NOT with my consent). So tonight he told Mimi let's go, didn't tell Matthew they were leaving, and he dropped Mimi here. I called his house and Matthew answered, said he didn't know daddy had even left. Here's the thing: what the hell do you do in this situation? Poor Matthew is trapped in the middle. I can't seem upset or mad to him or he'll feel bad and think it's his fault. I can't call Eric to discuss it because when I tried twice, Matthew picked up both times and I didn't want to let on to him I'm upset. If I kick up a fuss and get into it with Eric--or even if I calmly request that he bring Matthew to my house as is mandated by the custody agreement--it will make Matthew feel bad. So instead Matthew is there and I'm here and Eric gets away with this for the millionth time.

I already spent $500 having my lawyer send Eric a letter a few months ago telling him that I was "concerned about your unilateral changes in the custodial arrangements" and that if he didn't start sticking to the court-ordered custody schedule I'd be "forced to take stronger measures." Obviously the letter meant nothing to him; now it's on me to either allow my kid to slip away from me without protest or put him through some version of Kramer Vs. Kramer. Either way it sucks--I guess it's on me to decide which sucks least and do that. Which, at this point, looks like it's probably the expensive, potentially traumatic for the kids custody battle option.

Sigh. Wish us luck.

Long Time No Here

Well hello there children!

Long time no see/blog at. I'm afraid I continue to become increasingly boring, blogging only about social media. The thing is that it turns out it's so much easier to write regularly if I am confined by a certain topic. I never realized how much easier it is to write that way, but it's like ordering off a menu--the more choices there are, the harder it is to pick one.

But I digress.

Nothing much new here. Another summer over. Had lots of fun, read lots of books, saw lots of movies. I copied the deluxe Shelfari feature from my sister, Cassie's, blog so you can see what I'm reading there. They need to invent one for movies and I'd never have to write a word--just click on the pictures and add them to my shelf.

Well, that's about all I got right now...I'm going to try to branch out and write over here more so we'll see how that pans out.

Example #1001 Of Why I Am A WPE

See this article in the WSJ called "Pursuing an Academic Edge at Home"?

Yeah, um,...I would never be pursuing an academic edge at home.

I worry about plenty of stuff, but one thing I can emphatically say I never worried about was my kids' math skills when they were 6. Or any age, for that matter.

Here's my thing: am I the only one who thinks that a better solution for a parent who is obsessed with their 6 year-old's math prowess would be Prozac? For the parent, that is; not the kid.

Dirty Moms

(I wrote this back in April but for some reason never posted it. Nothing better than stumbling across an already written blog post!)

I am not a morning person at all but have unfortunately had to become one--what with working and having to get kids to school. I have also had to become a morning exerciser, which is even worse than being just a regular early-riser. The thing I use as a carrot to get me on the treadmill at 6 am are my recorded TV shows: Oprah, Mad Men (I just keep watching the second season over and over), Intervention, etc.

So I was excited when I saw the Oprah line-up in the DVR: The Secret Lives of Moms. You know I'm all about hearing people's dirty secrets. And it was Oprah so of course it was going to be totally sensationalized--even better.

But I turned it on this morning and these were some of the "dirty" secrets Oprah's guests were revealing:

"Sometimes when I read to my kid at night I skip pages."

"Once, when I was on a 7-hour drive with the kids asleep in the back, I had to pee in a diaper."

"Sometimes I don't shower for a week."

"I bought the food for my kid's birthday party at the fast-food drive through."

Are you fucking kidding me? This is what you call dirty secrets? And bad mom confessions? Come on, Oprah--I expect more from you.

How about the moms whose diaper bags are actually full of those tiny liquor bottles like you get on an airplane? The ones who meet guys on the internet then meet them in the parking lot at the mall to have sex in the minivan? The ones who blow their doctors in exchange for Botox? The ones who embezzle money from the PTA, or steal jewelry from their best friends' houses or sleep with their neighbor's husbands? Or sleep with the other moms in playgroup? Or something--anything better than "Some days I just really don't enjoy taking care of my kids." You and every other mom on the planet.

Oprah's version of mom confessions should be like an episode of the Family Guy, where baby Stewie listens to the confessions and says "Oh, right--I get it--you're saying you're a bad mom because you skip pages when you read to your kid at night but you really mean look how great I am for reading to my kid at night in the first place."

Happy 4th

Whew, I'm coming over here to escape the drama shitstorm happening on my other blog right now. Apparently the secret to big blog activity is insulting internet big-wigs. All I know is that I think I just might make enough money off blogging this month to buy a #1 meal at McDonald's thanks to this whole exchange. I think I make $5 per 1,000 page impressions with BlogHer ads on that blog, and I think in the past 24 hours I've gotten over 500. Don't let anyone try to tell you making money blogging is easy--or for the thin-skinned. There are plenty of other ways to make $5 that don't involve having 20+ strangers point out what a stupid asshole you are for daring to criticize an internet celeb.

I'm tellin' you, it's hard out here for a pimp.

Compare blogging as a way of making money to being a lawyer--yesterday I had to visit one to address some custody issues that I'm getting sick of dealing with. His hourly rate? $325. If you want to make money, clearly being a lawyer is the way to go over blogging.

Anyway, a lot has happened since I last posted. Jon and Kate are no more, for one. I've seen a ton of movies--I can't even keep track anymore. Off the top of my head:
Transformers--rocked
Public Enemies--didn't exactly suck but was kind of a yawner
The Hangover--was pretty funny but not hysterical or anything
The Taking of Pelham 123--ROCKED
Night at the Museum--was ok
Land of the Lost--SUCKED. Sadly.
Angels & Demons--I think it pretty much rocked--saw it a while ago
Star Trek--rocked

Off the top of my head, that's all I can remember.

Just read an awesome book--Look Me In the Eye: My Life with Aspergers by Augusten's brother, John Elder Robison. I LOVE this book and was sad when it ended. I sort of figured it probably just got published because he's Augusten's brother, but I have to say the book totally holds its own and he holds his own as a writer. He better be working on his next book because now I love him almost as much as I love Augusten.

I'm finally reading Ayelet Waldman's book and LOVE it so far.

One thing the combination of the blog throwdown and Ayelet Waldman's book is making me think about is social media as a career and how, while it seems to be tailor-made for women with kids (can work from home, set your own schedule, etc) I personally think it is one of the most time-consuming and intrusive careers you can pick if you're a women with kids. I'm not talking about a career like mine--doing social media for an organization; I'm talking about being a social media guru--writing books, blogging, speaking...AND keeping up with 80,0000 or more people on Twitter. Think about it--even if you're a lawyer or some other time-intensive professional--at the end of your 80 hour week at least you get to go home, play golf, watch TV, travel, whatever. If you're a social media celeb, when do you get a break? Never. Your work is YOU, basically--you are expected to be on 24/7. Ayelet Waldman's book is all about how it's impossible to be a good mother yet easy to qualify as a good dad.

I have to go to the pool with Patrick and the kids now (bad mommy blogging on 4th of July).

Tired
I keep feeling bad for neglecting this blog...and then I just keep right on neglecting it. I don't know why but it's just easier to write my other blog. I guess because I'm limited to the subject of social media--it makes it easier to narrow down the 20 million things I could be blogging about.

John and Kate Plus 8

Have you ever watched this show? Aside from drinking in Kate's hair (color=perfect; style=jury's still out), there's really no reason to watch it. A couple with 8 kids and what they do on a day to day basis. Yawn.

Yawn no more, though. Even if you don't admit to reading Star, People, US, or any of those other magazines, if you set foot in grocery stores or pharmacies, you have to admit you've at least seen the recent headlines about John and Kate. And/or seen her on the Today show.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Long story short: watching a family with 8 kids is interesting for about 8 minutes. Their 8 minutes are long over, but their family is now totally dependent on the income that the show brings in. Aside from Kate having written 2 books and doing some public speaking, the way she and John support their family is by living in the equivalent of a dollhouse with no back on TV for the whole world to watch and comment on. What happens, though, when this is your money model and people lose interest in watching you? I guess you're shit out of luck. Or, you start doing stuff that people are interested in. Like cheating on your spouse or fighting. Suddenly the worlds' ears/eyes perk up. Including mine.

So tonight I will be watching the season premier of John and Kate Plus 8, but not with baited breath like the rest of the world. I know the whole thing is a ruse. The producers of this show sat down with John and Kate a season ago and told them look, you're boring. If you don't want to have to go get real jobs like the rest of the world, you're going to have to let us write some drama and scandal into your scripts. So John will be playing the part of guilty cheating husband, just praying that his kids aren't old enough to realize what a pansy sell-out he is for not putting his foot down and telling his wife enough is enough, get the fucking cameras out of our house or I'm leaving. And Kate will be playing the poor, victimized mom who just wants the best for her family--even though she has not one ounce of respect for her husband and is gladly letting this show ruin her family because she can't stand the thought of letting go of the gravy train.

In the meantime, if you're looking for some entertainment, go have a look at the comment section of this mommy blog post. When they cancel John and Kate Plus 8 at the end of this season, I hope they start a reality show about feuding mommy bloggers.

Oh, and you know I am submitting my blogs to be reviewed by "Ask And Ye Shall Receive." Check out the url; how could you not be curious? And I promise not to go mommy-blogger on them if they skewer me.

Mommy Bloggers

I don't know why but recently I've become fixated on the whole mommy blogger thing. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say mommy bloggers, I'm talking about Power Moms who companies are falling all over themselves trying to woo into hawking their products and services. I'm talking about women like Jessica Gottlieb, who get invited to the American Idol finale and party, and Jessica Smith, who is a Ford Flex spokesmom and gets to do stuff like be flown to Santa Barbara to stay at the Four Seasons hotel, work out with Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer and receive makeovers as part of a 30-day challenge on an upcoming fitness video program for the Nintendo Wii. This is how these ladies roll.

How lucky are they? Or...are they?

First of all, there seems to be a lot of heat on the collective mommy bloggers lately--the FTC is in the process of revising their guidelines relating to bloggers, based, it seems, largely on the tons of moms out there who are endorsing products on their blogs. I've already written about this stuff in my other blog so I won't rehash it here, except to say that, as you can see from those three posts, I'm not really feeling the whole blogging for money thing. Or I didn't think I was.

I honestly don't know, though--I mean, it depends how much money we're talking I guess. If I were able to make a reliable income blogging and do it full time, would I? Especially if my kids were little and it meant I could be home with them? If it meant I got stuff like free trips to Disney for the whole family and other free stuff and cool perks, would I feel differently? I'm kind of thinking yes.

What I do know is this: where there are women, there is drama. Rivalry. Cattyness. How could there not be? We're talking about not only women, but moms--the most judgemental population imaginable. Now in addition to criticizing each others' choices about parenting, breastfeeding and working outside the home, they can criticize each others' blogging styles and methods.

Honestly, it's better than TV.

The White House is Now a Black House

If you read this blog you know I'm obsessed with movies about black families. I love them--read that post if you want to know why. (Mimi is sitting next to me while I'm writing this, muttering "racist!" because I said "black families"--but you know I don't mean it like that.)

Anyway, I just heard that the Obamas are having a poetry slam at the White House tonight and I couldn't help but think that no white presidential family ever had stuff like poetry slams. Or comedians saying totally irreverent things at White House dinners.



Let me tell you this: if I could go back in time I would go back and reverse my stance on not voting and vote for Obama because he ROCKS. I stand officially corrected (go ahead and gloat, Beth.)

Calling All Worst Parents Ever: This Book's For You

Hey moms--despite your best efforts did you fail to earn Best Parent Ever status yet again this year? Not sure? Take a look at my Worst Parent Ever scale and see if you can hang with the WPEs. If you can, you'll probably want to read Ayelet Waldman's new book "Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace."

Ayelet Waldman earned herself a place in the WPE hall of fame when she admitted, in an article in the New York Times, that she loved her husband more than her kids. Oh, and that she actually enjoys having sex with her husband and they do it more than twice a year for his birthday and their anniversary. Her admission set the BPE world on fire and landed her on the Oprah show. Surprised at the fury her statement incited, she did what any WPE in her situation (e.g. smart and already famous) would do: wrote a book about it.

Talk about a genius idea for a book--what mom WON'T want to buy this book? After all, doesn't every woman, no matter how bad a mom she fears she may be, want to read about one who's worse than she is?

The Power of a Big Mouth

I'm thinking that it's probably time to move the post with the p-word down a notch, no?

I would say nothing much is new and/or exciting, but actually the past two days have been sort of exciting, in a if-you-call-this-exciting-you-are-pathetic kind of way, at least. Yesterday there was a flurry of twittering and blogging about a new association website--so I added my two cents. Within like 15 minutes of me posting the link to my post on Twitter, 150 people had clicked through to it. People tweeted about it, blogged about it...and now the CEO of ASAE is blogging about it.

Guess it's a good thing I didn't call the post "The Power of WTF" as I initially started to, right?

What if Your Personal Brand is Your P*ssy?

I've said it before and I'll say it again--I love Penelope Trunk. Admittedly, she gets a little nasty sometimes--and I don't mean nasty like dirty nasty, I mean nasty like mean nasty. If you ask me, girl needs some mood stabilizers, stat, but apparently her craziness is not only her charm but her dollar value--her investing model seems to be attract blog traffic by being outrageous.

One of her ongoing ways of being outrageous is talking about her, um, girl parts. Specifically the fact that she waxes her pubic hair. Her and every other girl under the age of 30, that is--or are younger girls now kicking it old school and leaving the pre-pubescent girl look to actual pre-pubescent girls? Anyway...she seems to get a lot of mileage out of using her pubic hair stories to shock readers, investors, her lawyer, etc.

At some point, though, isn't enough enough? Is it really that interesting, on an ongoing basis, to hear about the state of her hair-down-there--or lack thereof? Today she was at it again, on Twitter:

"Brazilian today. New person doing the waxing. I didn't request the wax woman I like best; seems too intimate to admit to having a favorite."

Past pubic tweets include "Living in WI makes me out of date: A NYC friend says "Do lasers, duh," when I tell her the waxer in WI leaves hairs where mouths should be" and "For 90 minutes I'm the productivity queen: 25 emails, 14 phone calls and one twitter. While I get waxed. Everything off. First time. Ouch."

Ok we get it--your pussy is bald. Now move on.

Encore Las Vegas

Rather than blogging about our experience at the Encore in Las Vegas, I'm just posting the email I sent in response to their "Hope you enjoyed your stay!" email.

I have to say that I was extremely disappointed during our whole stay at Encore. We are repeat guests at the Wynn Towers and have received outstanding customer service there. Encore was the total opposite. When we checked in on Friday, they made no mention of the pool being closed--we had to find out when we tried to go to the pool and were turned away. When we tried to go to the European pool we were told we should have been given a pool pass at the front desk and had to go wait another 45 minutes to get it. Then at the pool, even though the regular pool was closed, thereby making the European pool much more crowded, the pool staff refused to let guests use the "reserved" seating, even though it was ALL empty.

The hotel manager had promised to upgrade our room for the inconvenience but he didn't; when I called the hotel manager to ask why they were having to turn guests away from the European pool because there wasn't enough seating even though all the "reserved" seating was empty, she just connected me to the pool manager, who was unapologetic.

The whole stay underscored the fact that Encore is just a cheap Wynn look-alike that's all show and not at all about treating guests with respect or providing quality customer service. The reason we have been repeat guests at the Wynn is because they genuinely care about guests and if there is a problem, they quickly resolve it. Encore staff obviously have not been trained in providing quality customer service and it is grimly apparent that they have no idea how guests at a supposed 5-star hotel expect to be treated.

I'm sorry to say that we will not be returning to either the Wynn or Encore on future visits--which is a shame because up until now the Wynn was our favorite hotel.

I would also suggest that you make your staff aware that, given the ease with which people can share their stories about travel and their experiences with different hotel staff via social media, they give a bit more thought to the way they treat guests. Bad customer service is a lot more of a liability when one guest can now share a bad experience with millions of people via Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Aside from the experience curing me forever of my obsession with the Wynn, we did have a great time with our friends and a fun time in general. The only problem is that, while I think I got slots out of my system for good, I was introduced to my new favorite experience: the European pool. European=topless. Now I never want to wear a top while sunbathing again. Think that would help or hurt our chances of getting into the pool we're on the waiting list for?

Decisions, Decisions: Botox or Kindle 2?

Sadly, Strattera didn't transform me into a normal person--unless normal means not being able to wake up and work out in the morning, not being hungry ever (which mitigates the not being able to work out part), feeling like you're going to pass out half the time and feeling stoned the other half of the time. And still not able to sit and read a book for hours. Oh well--so much for that--can't say I didn't try. Guess I'll just have to live the next 40 years of my life the same as I lived the first 40: multitasking and hyper.

Nothing much else is new, mostly because I've spent the past 2 weeks either at kid events or sitting on the sofa doing what Patrick calls "the death stare"--staring into space for long periods of time.

I'm having a personal crisis today. As I've blogged about before, I'm addicted to Botox. Sorry if that makes me not only crazy and hyper but vain and stupid, but it's the truth: once you've had a perfectly smooth forehead and no crows feet, there's no going back. Luckily for me, there are plenty of others who are equally vain and stupid, because it at least brings the price down slightly when you go to a Botox party as opposed to a doctor or medspa.

A "Botox party" of course being where at least 5 other people go get shot up at the same time, which means the doctor charges less because he doesn't have to open a new vial--each vial apparently needing to be used up or thrown out and each costing a fortune. Or at least that's what they lead you to think; for all I know Botox actually isn't more expensive per drop than life itself. Peddling Botox is probably more lucrative than peddling crack, at $20-$50 (or more) a "unit"--a unit being a microdroplet, of which you need about 50 or 100 to achieve numb perfection--I figure it's a pretty good racket.

At any rate, here's my dilemma. The Botox party is tomorrow...but today, when going to Amazon to buy next month's book club book--I saw this. The Kindle 2--perfect in every way--no more books to clutter up your life or weigh you down when you travel, wirelessly grab any book out of thin air for $9.99, etc--AND it reads aloud to you if you want. Which means no more having to spend 2 hours laboriously copying library audiobooks into iTunes then another hour figuring out how to load the thing onto your iPod in the correct order.

Anyway, the Kindle 2 costs $359. Outrageous--of course I'd never buy it. But wait. I'm about to shell out at least that much to iron out my forehead for 4 months. I never think about the money part of Botox--I save that money in a separate account and, 3 or 4 times a year, pretend I'm not writing that check for $400. Why don't I just not get the Botox and buy a Kindle if I want to waste $359?

After all, who the hell is looking at me anyway? I'm 40 and married and live in Olney, MD. It's not like I'm a movie star or even a news anchor--it honestly couldn't matter less whether my forehead has lines on it or not. But I'm telling you--once you've gotten it done once, you're done for. Even if they botch it and you end up having to walk around with one eyelid drooping like a stroke patient's for 2 weeks; it's like childbirth: you forget the horrible memories and want to do it again and again.

Then there's the peer pressure of the party--the more people that come, the cheaper it is. So I don't want to be the one who makes it cost more for everyone else, right?

Sigh. Maybe I will develop some self-respect and character by tomorrow and turn my nose up at vanity and Botox forever. Or, more likely, maybe I'll win $359 when I go to Vegas next weekend and use that to buy the Kindle 2. That's in addition to the $250 I already have to win to buy an iPod Touch, of course.

Gen Whine In The House

Yesterday I made the mistake of watching a video of Penelope Trunk giving a speech about Gen-Yers in the workplace. The same now-cliche stuff about managing 20-somethings: don't expect them to "pay dues" because they'll walk if they have to do grunt work like other generations had to; keep them motivated with treats or special incentives every day or they'll walk; don't hassle them if they seem to be doing nothing but listening to iPods and web-surfing all day or they'll walk. In short, treat them with kid gloves because they are so spectacular that we can't afford to piss them off. The rationale being that they're soon going to be overtaking the workforce so we better just let them have their way.

First of all, bullshit. As far as the whole "soon all the Boomers will be retiring" thing--I think everyone knows that is no longer a valid sentiment, what with the state of the economy. Anyone who was even close to retiring a year ago is now most likely looking at another 10+ years in the workforce before they might be able to even consider retiring. And second of all, bullshit--even if they do retire there are still droves of Gen-Xers who are unemployed and willing--not to mention well-qualified--to do the jobs Gen-Yers scoff at. After all, if you have a mortgage, a car payment, credit card debt, kids, a spouse, etc--you don't have the luxury of hiding out in mom and dad's basement until you find a job that pays six figures and consists of one never-ending brainstorming session while hanging out in a treehouse or some equally cool and laid-back work environment.

Enter the blog post that set me off on this rant. Penelope Trunk has a guest poster on her blog today--a 23 year old writing about why it's smart to quit a job after just two weeks of work. The crux of her rationale being, of course, the tenet upon which the entire Gen-Y work philosophy is based: living with mom n' dad. After all, 65% of new grads do it--so of course it's a good idea.

I digress about the rest of the post; you can read it yourself. And don't miss the comments--those are some of the best parts. Here's one of my favorites:

"I quit a job after two weeks too, but I don't believe the company felt I was doing them a favor. (I was, as indicated in the post.) They are not contemplative enough to consider the possibility that they did something - actually, many things - wrong."

Like forgetting the daily reward or making you spend time at the copier?
Wait--there's more:

"Companies are no more likely than individual people to improve their attitudes or practices when something negative happens."

The "something negative" of course being that the lazy, self-centered entry level person left of his own free will, thereby sparing the company the considerable time, money and hassle it would have taken to fire that person had they and their bad attitude stayed in the job.

Call me a bitter Gen-Xer if you want--I have no problem owning that. And I'm not even one to talk about sticking it out in jobs--I'm the first to admit my resume is filled with jobs that I stayed in for a year before deciding I couldn't stand it and found something better. However, one thing I can say is that I always found a better job, always had health-insurance paid for by me--not my parents--and moving back in with them was never an option.

I've asked this in previous posts: where has the stereotype of the adult loser who lives in his parents' house gone? Have 20-somethings never seen Wedding Crashers? Stepbrothers? Failure to Launch? Call it what you will: saving money, being prudent, giving yourself the opportunity to wait for the perfect job--the fact remains that being 20- or--god-forbid--30-something and living with your parents is nothing to brag about.

Not Feeling It

Wow--I feel bad abandoning this poor blog--there's nothing but crickets going on in here lately. Between working, writing in my other blog, taking care of kids, and spending time with Patrick, there just never seems to be any time left to write in here. Not to mention any creative juices I may have had are getting used up in less creative endeavors like writing about Twitter and Facebook.

Then--as if the busy schedule weren't enough to suck the life out of this blog--enter Strattera. It's for ADHD and supposed to make you be able to concentrate like a normal person; however, for me "normal" seems to translate into "lethargic and boring." Whereas before Strattera I was able to do 20 things at once, such as work, keep up with two blogs, read a million blogs a day, stay on top of gmail and work email--AND Twitter--now it's all I can do to plod through one thing at a time. Granted, I've only been taking it for a few days--hopefully I won't be forever stuck feeling like a stoned train wreck. Not to mention nauseous and with a horrible headache.

Even in my Strattera fog I am able to stay on-topic; however--I was checking out one of my favorite websites, Crazymeds to see if the wicked headaches I've been having are a side effect of the Strattera and realized that Jerod Poore--awesome creator of Crazymeds--refers to himself as a "citizen medical expert." In other words, FIO doctor. And the thing is that he totally rocks and is actually better, smarter and far more knowledgeable about meds than any doctor I've ever known.

In fact, Jerod Poore's expertise is the reason I'm on Strattera in the first place. I met with my doctor--who charges $120 for 30 minutes--and said I'd read about Strattera and it sounded like it would work for me. He got all excited and was like I think this would actually work really well for you, etc, etc. Here I've been going to this guy for several years, every 3 months or whatever, $120 a pop, and the way it always plays out is that I look something up on crazymeds and suggest it to him and he prescribes it.

Anyway, if you ever have questions about any psychopharmalogical substance, go see what Jerod has to say about it on crazymeds. I do have to say that the layout of the site is insanely bad, but it's worth weeding through the horrible navigation because nowhere else will you find such comprehensive, detailed reviews of every single crazy med known to man.

Weekending

This weekend I have been multi-tasking the relaxation--listening to an audiobook (Jodi Piccoult's A Change of Heart), reading Anita Shreve's Testimony, maxing out on Zuma, and basically logging in an embarrassing amount of sofa time. What, no movies, you ask? Please. Patrick and I saw Push on Thursday (I gave it about a 7.5; Patrick gave it a 6.5) and today I saw Confessions of a Shopaholic (Mimi gave it a zero (shocker) and I gave it about a 6).

The thing I liked about Shopaholic was that the whole thing centered around a girl getting her dream job basically by accident. Everyone couldn't get enough of the fact that she was a total bumbler with no knowledge whatsoever of finance, yet she became more and more successful just by being quirky and doing stuff nobody else was stupid--I mean daring--enough to do. Oh, and she had big boobs and showed a LOT of cleavage. And wore really short skirts and 5" heels.

Speaking of whores--whoops--sorry to dis the shopaholic girl like that--I'm watching My Super Sweet 16 with the kids now. This show is so horrible it's addictive. Two episodes ago I told them we could watch ONE and that was all...now we're on the third because it's so scary/sad/riveting. These girls are only barely 16 and look and act like Girls Gone Wild. Soooo depressing, especially considering that Mimi is almost 13 so it's only a matter of time until her friends start looking and acting like this. Notice I say "her friends" because there's no way in hell she's going to be dressing or acting like these girls.

Anyway, I better go--have to get ready for the next wave of entertainment: Desperate Housewives, United States of Tara and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wow, I've been bad about keeping up this blog! Lucky for me, I already blogged about Valentine's Day last year so you'll have something to read.

Be back soon...in the meantime you can always catch some social media posts on my other blog, Mizz Information, and I'll also be blogging from a conference I'm going to in Miami next week.

I'm sure I'll be burnt out of writing about social media when I get back so I'll have to switch over to this blog for a while. Famous last words, right?

I Used To Be Way Funnier

I was just searching for an old post on this blog (or is it "in" this blog?) and realized something. I used to be way funnier. Now that people actually read my other blog, Mizz Information, and call asking if they can interview me for an article about associations using social media or if they can quote me in their upcoming article about, what else--social media--I have gotten in the habit of blogging almost exclusively about social media. Not there's anything wrong with that, of course--we all know I'm totally obsessed with social media so it may as well result in some kind of professional success, right?

But is it as fun to write--or read--about as Fourthmeal, yuppie sex or making boobs out of period blood?