Haiku Friday: Seriously, A Year

Wow, it's been a year
that I've been hosting this meme ...
time to up my game.

I'd like to blog more
in haiku, poems, and prose ...
BlogHer '10 inspired.

I declare it here,
I'm going to get serious
'bout blogging again!

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week. I will carry on the esteemed tradition of deleting any links without haiku.

Mystery Dog

This little guy was hanging out on one of the beds at the CheeseBurgHer party at Blogher '10.

I have 2 questions: Was the music too loud for him? (It was too loud for me.) and, Did he get to eat a cheeseburger? (There's a scrunched-up wrapper behind him.)

I've got a review of the Angus Snack Wraps that I got to try at CheeseBurgHer, plus a giveaway, over here.

Haiku Friday: Conference Hangover

I had so much fun last weekend at BlogHer ... then promptly fell off the face of the earth!! My apartment is covered in awesome BlogHer swag that I want to write about, take photos of, and on and on.

So far we've got one of DuckyBoy's swag pix up on his blog, of him with the adorable TempurPedic bear he got!

I'm uninspired re: haiku this week. I did join the Haiku Friday Facebook group, though ... and I added "#haikufriday" to my saved Twitter searches.

One poem per week
doesn't sound that hard ... yet it
rolls around so fast!

Seventeen morsels
of thought from my brain to yours
and from you to me

This summer haiku
drippy with humidity
and silliness too!

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.
Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field. Or just tell me what you think of my haiku. Or what your weather is like. Anything!

And have a great weekend.

Haiku Friday: BlogHer '10 Edition

How embarrassing ...
Spent the day at BlogHer '10
but forgot to 'ku!

Some hostess I am ...
I do better in person,
snacks, drinks I can do!

Maybe need to think
of hosting haiku as more
of a house party!

I'll try to redeem myself with a few photos of the day... obviously, DuckyBoy came with me ... his shirt (made by me) has his blog URL on it. :)

On our way into the hotel for the conference,
there was Mrs. PotatoHead getting out of a cab!


We also saw the Pillsbury Dough boy ... I saw him twice.
DB enjoyed poking him in the stomach to hear him "Tee heee..."

After the 4th or 5th poke, the Doughboy started to poke DB back!!
(Which made him "tee hee" too...)


Duckyboy really wants this Tempurpedic-material bear!
Me, I want to win the 2-free-mattresses giveaway!!


The S'mores suite was amazing, they recreated a hotel suite to look like an actual campout. Very unique and cool. In addition to eating 2 S'mores, DB snagged an awesome set of telescoping marshmallow toasting sticks, in a case!! Plus, they filled his backpack (not everyone's mind you, just his...) with Jet-Puffed marshmallows, Honey Maid graham crackers, and Hershey's chocolate. No other brands will ever do for him again!! And, now we MUST go camping.

So, what are you doing this weekend? (I think I asked that last weekend too! It's summer, people do interesting things...)

BlogHer NYC Holiday Party: Haiku Review

BlogHer holiday
NY party -- with Jory! --
was a nice event.

A mix of bloggers
and sponsors, it seemed to me,
and int'rested folks ...

Washington Square Park,
Great Neck's Motherhood Later,
Gympressions and Curves ...

Snacks rocked @ Pranna,
chutney, sliders, shrimp, and naan ...
fusion like the crowd!

Proud I went alone,
wish I'd remembered my cards,
but still glad I went.

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 3 lines, and count syllables, 5-7-5. The best haiku evoke a feeling of place or emotion. (Unlike mine which are often factual.) More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). Don't sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. if you'd like, pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week.

BlogHer 09, The Overview

I took the official post-BlogHer '09 survey yesterday, so I guess it's time to stop fooling around and post my thoughts.

Honestly, they're so many and varied, I'm afraid I'll bore and/or overwhelm myself by posting them. And I haven't yet had a brilliant idea for breaking them up.

And that's no fun!

I had an epiphany while doing the survey, though. I had to choose how I felt about the conference overall, and realized that overall, my experience was more positive than negative. Until that moment, I honestly wasn't sure how I felt.

I'd expected more of a content focus, more how-to, especially in the ideas-for-how-to-monetize area. Perhaps I simply attended the wrong sessions. At one point I felt I had to pick either the Expo OR the afternoon sessions, and rereading the titles perhaps that was where I missed out. I really enjoyed the Expo, though!

There was something about BlogHer that I’m having trouble describing. It was a taste of another world, a glimpse of another life … a chance to just talk and connect with other women, a time to not be isolated.

I felt important to fellow bloggers and to the sponsors just for being who I am, in a way that being at home just doesn't give me.

I'm going to break up my specific impressions into different posts by day -- as much for me to remember as for anyone else to read it. But if you do read them, I hope you'll get a glimpse of how fun it was to be part of that community in person, however brief it was.

I may not go every year in the future, but next year's an easy yes since it's in NYC, yay!

Where the H*ll Did All This Shame Come From?

While Husband and I were having our regularly scheduled chat with a professional friend this week, I discovered that I feel very ashamed at not being able to figure out what I want to do with my life. It was amazing how much better it felt just to have someone --practically anyone! -- tell me that it's OK, normal, to need time to figure it out. What a concept!

And of course my father's voice pipes up then -- steps to the microphone at the Everybody Committee meeting, as it were -- and intones, "There is no figure it out, just do."

Yeah.

Which brings us to BlogHer '09, and the post I've been putting off for over a week. I've been having trouble articulating how I feel about BlogHer, because like many attendees --as the posts about the conference I've read so far indicate-- I have a mix of delight and disappointment, good and bad.

I had high hopes for coming away from it with a Plan. MY Plan. A way to move forward in a way that would be monetarily fulfilling and personally gratifying.

Holy Grail, anyone? OK, so I'm a dreamer. And just when I thought I didn't have any dreams!

But I didn't get anything that specific from the weekend. Lots of good contacts and ideas. But I feel even further away from Getting Anything Done (see Dad's voice, above) than before.

Which makes me feel like I have to run faster and succeed quicker and better.

Which just makes me tired and want to surf the web and watch TV.

Hence the lack of a BlogHer post or any pictures up yet.

That was very helpful, thank you for listening! Your check for this session will be in the mail!

Blue Bear Goes to BlogHer

Having a little trouble readjusting to life after BlogHer -- and from the sounds of the tweets I'm getting, so are most of the people I met!

I've got photos to put on Flickr, a fabulous bullet-point-filled post planned with all the highlights and lowlights of the conference, plus Blue Bear wants my help posting his own set of photos. But DuckyBoy's 4-hour camp day doesn't get me very far when I've spent most mornings so far going back to bed to recover from the sleep deprivation! So until I can stay awake at the keyboard for a few hours, here's a peek at Blue Bear's first day at BlogHer. It shows him all set at a panel called "Owning My Expertise" that was led by Catherine from The OpEd Project.

The Waiting Game

Waiting at La Guardia's lonely Marine Air terminal to board my now-2-hours-delayed flight to Chicago. Note to self: when the announcement is made that "the bar is closing in 2 minutes," they don't just mean The Bar, they mean THE ENTIRE SNACK BAR. Too bad for you if you wanted something to munch on.

Anyway so Blue Bear and I are passing the time surfing the web, watching everyone else announce their BlogHer arrive via the #blogher09 hashtag, playing FreeCell, and updating Blue Bear's blog with the Hot Dog recipes from Saturday.

I called home and spoke to DuckyBoy, who is so sweet on the phone these days. He wanted to know what Blue Bear and I were doing, so I was sure glad Blue Bear had been active so I had something to say!

Blue Bear is making more friends than I am, I think he's a natural-born networker. A great icebreaker anyway.

Oh, oh, an announcement about our flight -- in broken English -- I think the plane is about to arrive from Chicago. They've been telling us about this plane since it left Chicago to come here -- like that makes me feel better, to know that the plane I'm supposed to get on is still in Chicago at the time I'm supposed to be getting on it? It idn't cheer me. But at least I knew something.

Going back to FreeCell now. Maybe plain Solitaire. What an exciting life I lead

Kitchen Lesson

Making lunch for Husband, DB and myself today, I learned the following important electrical fact about my kitchen:

Having the kitchen light on while simultaneously heating up the Foreman grill and the oven, running the microwave, and making toast ... overloads the circuit breaker.

Okay! Let's move on!

I leave for BlogHer tomorrow night, and haven't even gotten.the.suitcase.out.yet.

In fact, I'm taking Db with me this afternoon to shop more! I thought I'd be all set but alas, it finally got hot and summery and I discovered that no bottoms fit me except ripped jeans. So, although I am taking dresses to BlogHer, I am not a dresses-all-the-time kind of gal, so I need capris or SOMETHING.

Wish me luck at Coldwater Creek...

The Summer of Jeans

So far this summer I've been able to get away with wearing jeans most days. It hasn't been so hot that I've been uncomfortable; just starting to get that way now and I'm realizing I don't have anything that looks and feels good at my current weight!

I also have one outfit to wear to BlogHer... how many do I need?

What's the Plan Here?

Lately I find I have much more to talk about on my other blog about DuckyBoy's school issues, like his struggles to keep his desk clean.

Actually it may not be that I have so much more to say but it's easier to talk about him than the jumble in my head about everything else. I'm excited about a new client but ambivalent about the potential success of the business long-term and therefore the amount of time I put in each day toward the rest of the business.

What I really want is an 8-to-2 job in Queens that pays at least $60k. Oh, prferably 4 days so I cans till volunteer at DB's school library on Fridays. Is that so impossible? Aren't all things possible with God?

Ah, God. I just don't know where God wants me right now. feel like the phone is silent, except for messages that keep saying "Trust God, lean on God." I want to say, "To do what? To go where? What is the plan here?" I hear mixed messages from the people in my house, specifically, "Take care of us and nothing else" but "Take care of ME not him," and also, "We want you to be happy." Um, guys? That's not working so well.

I'm all over the place -- haven't yet posted here that I'm going to BlogHer in July, but since I've got conference tickets and a hotel room at this point, I guess I'm committed!

Between now and then I've got a website to help get written and running, and a half-day seminar to prepare for.

I did some figuring yesterday and scribbled numbers of hours on a calendar to make sure I get everything done in time.

Was that ever eye-opening!

Turns out I don't have to spend the amount of time I kept giving lip service to ("Oh, yes, dear, I can put in 12 hours on this!!") to get it done with plenty of revision and meeting time built in, but I do need to sit at this desk more often if I want to post, read blogs, keep up with my emails, AND work on this business. (And be done when DB gets home from school and still go to the library on Fridays.)

It's good to know. Better than the vague explanse of empty time that stretched out before.

Wish me luck!

I Always Thought My Opinions Counted

And finally someone was willing to compensate me ... for one of them, anyway. I've participated in the BlogHer review program for a new online tool that Discover offers.

Turns out I had a lot to say -- I really enjoyed fooling around with the "Spend Analyzer."

I had a lot of fun creating the banner for the new blog it's on as well, BlogHer reviews need to be in an ad-free space. Check it out!

And now I have a space to rant and rave -- although I already do that in this space, I will now name names!! Haha.