Shoe Friday #162

Julie sent me this picture.

Smart Women Are Smart

Last night I had the joy of attending Amy's book club with Joanne because we were discussing Joanne's book, PunditMom's Mothers of Intention: How Women & Social Media Are Revolutionizing Politics in America, which I have an essay in.  And I had never been to a book club.  I've always wanted to be in a book club, but no one has ever invited me into a book club (sob.)  (I'm a loser.)

It was wonderful.  Smart, funny women sat around drinking wine (which I did not because I am still on my stupid detox diet.) (10 pounds! I'm down 10 pounds!) talking about intelligent things like politics and standing up for your kids and advocating for a shade at the baby pool.  We talked about why women take a step back from their career and what it means for this country and what it means to be political and why  it is important for your kids to see you as political.

I forgot what it was like to talk about things other than social media, and my job.  I forgot what it was like to spend time with people who don't tweet and blog their every thought.  (No offense bloggers.)  

Joanne is brilliant, that is pretty much why I follow her everywhere she goes. But so was everyone else is that room.  I was thrilled and honored to be a part of that discussion.  

Bits and Pieces

Thank you so much for all your comments and emails regarding yesterday's post.  I say this a lot, but I have the BEST, most caring, amazing readers on the planet.  I have somehow built a little community here on jodifur and you all mean more to me than you could ever know.  Michael is fine, great really, and the phone call I made turned out to be a wonderful thing.  He is going to be even better very soon.

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I leave on vacation in two weeks and I have a problem.  I always shop like crazy before a vacation.  I feel like vacation is just an excuse to buy new clothes.  Tell me I'm not the only one who has this problem.  I'm home sick today AND we are getting a new furnace and it turns out that is the loudest thing on the planet.  I can't watch tv.  I can't think.  So I'm stuck internet shopping.  

I actually bought a dress I pinned on pinterest months ago.  I really believe I should get an award for that.

How awesome is this?

I bought it for one of the "smart casual" nights on my cruise.  Apparently smart casual really means semi-formal, in which men wear suits and ties and girls wear fancy dresses.  I have no idea on what planet "smart casual" involves suits and ties. But it is not formal, because we have those nights too. And luggage restrictions on airlines.  

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Speaking of my trip, if anyone is interested in guest posting on jodifur while I am gone email me at jodi@lucidphoenix.com.  I would need all posts by February 15th. Also, I am in desperate need of shoes for shoe friday. #saveshoefriday.

 

 

*image via modcloth

 

That Parent

I was talking to my friend Corey the other day about an issue going on in my life right now, and how to handle it, and he said this to me, "you will never regret advocating for you child."

I am an advocate in my profession.  And I am very good at it.  But when it comes to my daily life, I don't always take the advocate role.  Part of it is a fear of being seen as "that parent."  The one who screams and yells.  The one who makes mountains out of mole hills.  I also believe, maybe wrongly, that people have my child's best interest at heart.  The most people want to help.  That most people want to do the right thing.

I'm learning the hard way that that is not always true.  Some people do not have my child's best interest at heart.  Sometimes bureaucracy controls, or personality, or good old fashion anger.  Some people simply don't know what to do.  Some people, are simply wrong.  

I made a difficult phone call last week.  A phone call some people had been urging me to make for a while now, and in all honesty, I probably should have.  But I feared making an untenable situation worse.  But I got to the point where I wasn't sure it could get any worse.  And the person suffering the most was Michael.

I became "that parent."

20 years from now Michael is not going to remember the ins and out of exactly what is going on right now.  And I may not either.  But I always will be able to look at him and say "I advocated for you.  I was your fiercest advocate."  And that is the most important thing.

For Susan

We go purple.

I'll paint myself purple for you. 

Join us.

Color is OPI Divine Swine, from the Muppet Collection.

Shoe Friday #161

My friend Angel's shoes.  

Where I've Been

I hate when bloggers post after an absence and start off by saying, "I'm so sorry I haven't posted." Because it assumes that you have been sitting around hitting refresh and stalking jodifur.  Because you totally have not been doing that.

(I totally used to do that on my favorite blogs before I knew about readers.  Remember Bloglines?  RIP Bloglines.)

January is totally and completely kicking my ass.  Our roof is leaking and we need a new furnace. Michael has decided now is the perfect time to stop behaving.  I go on vacation in less than a month and I am counting down the days.  (Vacation sponsored by no one, except my parents, who really, were my original sponsor.)  

I don't really have any good excuses for my lack of substance here except that I have been posting other places.  Like The DC Moms.  And The Broad Side.  And soon ivillage's ivote coverage.  (Edit: Here is the post.)   

Your best bet, if you want to keep up with me, is to like the facebook page.  I post all my links there, and links to other stuff that I try not to bombard my personal Page with.  Notice I said try.

And in truth, I've been thinking a lot about Why Mommy.  Please check out our ecard love fest to Susan.  

 

 

Unresolved

I am a New Year's resolution quitter.

Well, not exactly.  

I am still on my no sugar, no alcohol, 1,500 calorie a day diet.  I'm doing quite well on it actually.  I'm down 8 pounds.  My goal was to lose 10.  8 pounds in 3 weeks in nothing to sneeze at.  I look thinner. (Trust me, if I think I look thinner, I look thinner.  I am my own worst critic.)  I am most definitely in a smaller clothing size.

I would give my left arm for a glass of wine.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this was to make sure I could.  My drinking and my eating habits had gotten a little gluttonous and I needed to scale back.  Reign it in.  Remember that we were, in fact, not running out of food and alcohol and that there would still be food and alcohol tomorrow.  I needed to get in control of my eating and my drinking and I have done that, quite successfully.

But there are other, darker, scarier reasons that I don't always talk about.  My friend Jennie did so beautifully, and I recognized so much of myself in her words. 

Detox diet, sometimes, is just another word for eating disorder.

I'm not saying I have an eating disorder, exactly, but I certainly have, at times in my life, had a tendency towards an eating disorder.  And I certainly have a voice in my head that says "not thin enough, not good enough, keep going, keep dieting, be thinner."  And when I start counting calories, as I have been doing, it gets louder, and more pronounced.

Some days I haven't even been eating 1,500 calories.  And the funny thing is, I'm not hungry. I'm too excited when the scale numbers go down to be hungry.

When I started my no alcohol, no sugar, no white flour, no processed foods plan I said I would go six weeks.  I think I am calling it after four.  I don't like what it is doing to me, the places I'm going in my head, and the silent cheer I give myself every time someone says "you look really thin."  I was pretty sure I had gone too far when I was trying to figure out how to hide a juice fast from my husband.

I may be a quitter, but I'm a quitter for a the right reasons. 

 

 

 

Shoe Friday-#160 Pinterest Addition

It is fair to say that I am obsessed with Pinterest.  Pinterest owns me. 

My favorite board, my shoe board.

 

If you like Shoe Friday, you will love this!

 

And Then I Tried to Kill My Family With A Home Soda Maker

Let me preface this story by saying home soda makers are SAFE!  I WAS NOT FOLLOWING THE DIRECTIONS! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! DO NOT SUE ME! 

(Legal disclaimer over.)

We have one of those "home soda makers," and since this post was sponsored by no one, and once you read it the makers of the "home soda maker" will probably not want to be associated with me, I will not tell you which one.  But I generally like it.  I don't drink soda, but I use it to make flavored seltzer water and Doug makes natural soda.

There is a warning that you should not fizzelate (our made up word for using the machine) after you add the flavoring.  But I messed up and thought Doug had already fizzelated so I added my seltzer flavoring. Not wanting to throw out an entire bottle of water and flavoring, I attempted to fizz it.  I figured what was the worst thing that could happen.

THIS IS WHEN I STOPPED FOLLOWING THE DIRECTIONS THAT CAME WITH THE PRODUCT.

If you are familiar with these home soda makers, you know that you infuse the water with CO2.  And when I did that with water that had already been flavored, the bottle exploded and water went everywhere.  I mean everywhere.  And the water was powerful.  It went on the ceiling.  It went across the room.  Doug ducked and thought he had been hit by a bottle.  Michael screamed.  It was all pretty dramatic.  And humorous.  

Directions people, this is why you follow directions.

When the dust settled I was soaking wet and laughing.  Doug did not think this was so funny because he thought I ruined the ceiling.  We cleaned up the water, realized the bottle managed to somehow survive, and once Doug calmed down he found humor in it as well.

Our ceiling is fine in case you were worried.  (I never was.)  We all survived my attempt to termite us all via home soda maker.

Lesson learned: when a product says not to do something, they are not kidding. Because you might die via fizzelation.

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Are you reading The Broad Side, from the brilliant Pundit Mom?  If you are not you should be.  I have a new post up about John Edwards and his delay in trial. I can not be the only one it occured to that he is making up the heart condition.