May 31st, 2010, posted by Aimee, Tags: WoMoLists
Everyone I know loves that blog, Stuff White People Like, and so in the vein of “imitation is the most sincere form of flattery,” here is my riff on the same idea … from a WoMo point of view. To be honest, I am pretty sure much of this sampler list is probably more of “What Aimee Likes” but hopefully more than a few of you can relate.
Stuff WoMos Like
o White wine – I know, all moms have a predilection for the Chardonnay, but working moms in particular seem to mainline the stuff, particularly at the after work happy hours or weekend pizza gatherings. While many of us preferred red pre-kids, it’s all white all the time now that three-foot high munchkins are running around underfoot and we are all worried about our fading pearly whites.
0 Wine bars where children/babies are welcome – Sensing a theme? Wine bars are popular among the WoMo crowd for a few reasons. First, they are not quite “bar bars” but a more genteel version of the saloon for getting sloshed. more...
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May 27th, 2010, posted by Marcie
So. I got myself a new toy. And this little play-thing got me thinking (uhoh) about perspective. How is it that a very simple twist can make even the most mundane, taken-for-granted things suddenly appear spectacular? Life just depends on how you look at it (I'm having a Brady Bunch flashback here...Hawaii. Big spiders. Tiki head.). I digress. Frankly, most WoMos I know need to get better at seeing the world from a different angle now and then. Yes girls, there is plenty of humor and beauty amid all that chaos and stress. We just need to stop running for a moment
and see
all the
good stuff.
Back to my new play-thing: Hipstamatic. I ran around my house last night like a kid in a candy store (or a women in a really good sample sale). Looking at everything with delight — even the stuff that would normally make me cringe suddenly appeared super-duper cool. Life. It's all a matter of how you look at it. That, or buying the right shit to help.
I call this one: Post-baby Hemorrhoidal Quadrate: more...
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Coming off a wonderful week at the beach, today was a rude awakening to the harsh reality of my day-to-day WoMo existence. From the six hours of meetings to discuss staffing and personnel issues, to a load of drama with an overly sensitive colleague, to the fun of a BART breakdown that stranded thousands of commuters in a stuffy underground tunnel, it was a day of delays and frustrations … and very little productivity.
It got me thinking that Marcie’s post about Things That Waste Our Time could use a few “Aimee additions.” Here are a few of the items I have tried to ditch in the quest to reclaim more of my life.
o BFF Drama – Michelle’s pissed off at Andrea because she told Emily that she didn’t like her husband and so Andrea was left off the girls’ night out Evite, pissing off Andrea’s BFF Annie. Lord. I didn’t even have time for this nonsense in high school, let alone as a grown woman with child.
o Colleagues Who Need Coddling – Similar theme as above, but more...
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Tags:Time Is A Four Letter Word
May 21st, 2010, posted by Marcie, Tags: WoMoLists
Let’s face it: with the working mom struggle (and juggle), we get overwhelmed. And grrrr... change is hard, I get it. But life’s waaay too short to bother with these NOT OKAY distractions. How many of these things do you do?:
1. "Yes" Being agreeable and available all the time isn't fair to you, or that wee one. Say "no" now and then — to your job, your hubby, whoever is expecting too much from you. Uh, yourself, maybe?
2. Hair Maintenance Blowdrying, ironing, curling, coloring. Argh. And what about all that nasty hair removal? Legs, pits, brows and vuh-jay-jay. Necessary? Yes. Still doesn't make it okay.
3. Tech Chatter When we give people an open forum to share anything, we’re bound to get anything, including some freaks. Don’t get pulled into cyber time sucks. These include: the “comments” section on blogs (erps. biting myself in the arse here), healthcare forums (unless you’re prepared to consider cancer or autoimmune disease as a diagnosis for your ailment), and girls, even Twitter and Facebook can suck the life out of you. And by more...
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May 19th, 2010, posted by Aimee
Recently I wrote what I thought was quite a tame by my standards look at suburban moms vs. urban moms. A friend of mine who writes "The Mommy Files" for SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle's online site) excerpted the blog on hers and chaos ensued. The last time I dared to check, the comments tally was nearing a 100 - of which at least 95% were scathingly critical and downright hostile. One positive came out of the post, though: the invitation to write for a new community news site for and about our hometown of Danville, California - Danville Patch. As a gal who wrote her first articles in high school for the then weekly Danville paper, The Valley Pioneer, I was thrilled honestly at the chance to take a WoMo perspective on the world in which Marcie and I were raised ... and where I am currently living again. Have a look at my first column: http://danville.patch.com/articles/back-in-the-ville-as-a-mom. more...
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Here’s a tough admission to make: Sometimes it takes almost a full day for me to readjust into “mommy mode” and even to remember just how to handle my son’s care, feeding and discipline when I take over the reins every Friday. And on vacations (such as the one we are currently enjoying in an improbably chilly San Diego) when I am in charge for more than 72 hours straight, I sometimes even face moments of sheer panic wondering what the hell to do with the little bundle of energy Nate and I produced.
The truth is, as much as I bemoan the lack of time I have with my son during the work week and grieve over the stolen, sweet moments his main Monday – Thursday caregiver (my mom) enjoys rather than me, I am not sure I could truly shoulder the full 40-plus-hour a week gig without cracking. At the very least, the reentry for me from full-on career-gal, execu-chick mode to the role of mother of a three-year-old is always a bit bumpy.
For example, the morning more...
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Tags:Juggling & Struggling, Travel Tales: Are We There Yet?
May 16th, 2010, posted by Marcie
I don't know about you, but I rarely have the time to cook. Sadly, my family sits down together at the table about once a month. More often than not, dinner is a 5-minute nuked meal for the kiddos and take out or a can of soup two hours later for mom and dad. Dismal? Yes. But, when you have a hubby that barely knows how to boil water (honestly, he'd rather go hungry than clean a dirty kitchen) and a work schedule that gets you home at 7 or 8pm, there's little time to act like Rachael Ray.
Is my family the norm or completely nuts? What's dinner like at your house? I'm curious. Do tell.
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May 12th, 2010, posted by Aimee, Tags: holidays
Mother’s Day used to be a simple occasion for me. Buy a dozen white roses and a card, show up for the obligatory country club brunch and call it a day. Later after getting married, there were new complications of juggling a mother-in-law into the planning, but not such a huge struggle.
This all changed of course when Tav entered the picture. Suddenly there are now three mothers on the scene jostling for queen-for-a-day treatment. What was once relatively painfree – and what should now be a pretty joyous occasion for me – has become a bit of a juggling act. One mother wants to have a picnic, another wants a decadent brunch and this mother? I just want to read celebrity gossip rags, hit the gym without watching the clock and perhaps enjoy a nice glass of wine.
Really more than anything, however, what I most long for on Mother’s Day is a simple acknowledgment by my husband that I am doing an okay job with this newly adopted role. “You’re a great mom” written with sincerity in a more...
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Tags:holidays
May 9th, 2010, posted by Marcie
I've always loved quotations. One of my favorites is by Helen Keller, "Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all." Ain't that the truth? Well, in honor of Mother’s Day, I compiled a small collection of motherhood quotes. In honor of our book (full of quizzes and games), I didn’t assign the authors. See how many you can get right:
A. Sophia Loren
B. Oscar Wilde
C. Erma Bombeck
D. Barbara Kingsolver
E. The Golden Girls
F. Ed Asner
G. Maya Angelou
H. Milton Berle
I. Anna Quindlen
J. Elizabeth Stone
1. When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.
2. It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't.
3. Raising a kid is part joy and part guerilla warfare.
4. To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.
5. The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of more...
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“Don’t judge.” It’s a popular refrain for me these days now that I know how hard it really is to live up to the fantasies I had of being a good mother all those years when I was a single gal or newlywed. As I feed my kid way too many sugary sweets, let him watch way too much TV and check email on my iPhone when he’s trying to show off for me on the playground, I realize there are dozens of people seeing my every “bad mom” move and damning me to hell for it. Who am I to talk crap about anyone these days?
But what if the other mom is a mega-multi-millionaire celebrity once excoriated in the press for her excessive partying and utter lack of mothering skills, but now celebrated as a turnaround story? What if the whole turnaround story were exposed as a big publicity ploy? What if the “bad mom” was Britney Spears? Can I judge now?
So, to get to the point, a colleague of mine in LA whose child goes more...
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Tags:Bad, Bad, Bad Mommy, Celebrities
May 6th, 2010, posted by Marcie, Tags: WoMoLists
I've come to think that expectations can pretty much kill a good time. You know what I'm talking about... it sounded like a great idea, but the reality isn’t quite what you expected? For what it's worth, here's my WoMo reality-check list:
Pure Living. In preparation for parenthood, you read all the books and learn about all of the bad stuff for your kids: television and video games, processed foods and hydrogenated oils, plastics and non-green household items. You commit yourself to pure ideals — you’ll never expose your child to anything even remotely harmful. Surprise! The whole damn thing is a lot harder than you thought. Suddenly, Baby Einstein and microwaveable macaroni and cheese aren’t so bad after all.
That bigger house on a cul-de-sac (or with a large yard). It conjured up images of childhood friends, bicycles and neighborhood block parties. But it likely equates to life in that stay-at-home mom Mecca: the suburbs. Suddenly, you’re feeling out of it because you don’t decorate your house for every holiday, volunteer for PTA President or take the 10am class more...
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May 3rd, 2010, posted by Aimee, Tags: Just For Laughs
Okay, so we’ve started the gripe session about all the unexpectedly HARD things in life, but just to be fair, there are quite a few experiences that have been EASIER than anticipated, too. Frighteningly enough, I noticed that my list on this side included far fewer aspects of motherhood and working motherhood. Hmm, what does that say? Oh yeah, motherhood is damn tough! But I digress.
The Easy Stuff: What I Thought Would be Tough, but Wasn’t
Root Canals. As someone who now no longer has a virgin tooth in her mouth and has sat in the chair to get drilled more times than she cares to remember, I can confidently say that root canals – while definitely unpleasant – get a really bad rap. After all, you’re numb (hopefully) and it’s over fairly quickly. Can’t say that about labor, delivery or pretty much anything at all about motherhood for that matter.
Getting My Belly Pierced. Okay, it was the nineties! I remember the day this sheltered Marina chick braved up the nerve to venture into the scary “Mission” neighborhood more...
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Tags:Just For Laughs
Adios amigos! My girlfriend and I are off to Mexico. It's our first solo gal pal getaway in almost a decade (has it really been that long?). I gotta tell ya', we are feelin' breezy and free — no gear for the offspring, no anxious hubby or work colleagues, not even a laptop. AND, it's not some overblown bachelorette party, wedding or birthday where someone is sure to end up on the saltillo tiles puking up that last tequila shot. Cheers to that. The two of us are so excited by all the possibilities that come with flying to an exotic location for no reason other than the fact that we want to (and without anyone in tow) that we devised a grand plan for going "carry on." Surely, a 4-day trip to Mexico could be jostled into a 45 linear inch roller bag. The symbol of freedom.
Maybe not.
We leave tomorrow on our little adventure and I'm sad to say we have abandoned our plan. I just received an email from my friend (who, in a former life, more...
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Tags:Travel Tales: Are We There Yet?
“Four eyes.” It’s the nickname I’ve had – and detested – since the day at age five I donned my first pair of glasses. You might think, given the level of disgust I have for spectacles and the severity of my farsightedness, I might have traded them in for lasik long ago, but for some reason I never got around to it. Unfortunately, when I finally decided – 35 years later – to look into this magic laser surgery, I was told it was too late, I was too old, and that contact lenses were a better bet. Great, I thought! That’s almost as good – and besides I could try on some of those blue or green lenses for fun, too.
Right. What nobody told me was how insanely difficult it is to pop those teeny little bad boys in. To say it’s an f_______g nightmare would be an understatement. Entire mornings have been spent cursing and crying, throwing items at the mirror and finally throwing in the towel. Then try enduring the struggle with a dime-sized clear floppy more...
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Tags:Girlfriend Gab, Just For Laughs
