My Very Own Con

My husband and most of his friends, and many of my friends, by proxy, are really into comic books. I'm a bit of a fangirl myself, although I haven't read much. What I have read (a bit each of Justice League, Ultimate Spiderman, and the latest incarnation of Green Arrow) has only been recent. I've also enjoyed the fairly recent explosion of movies based on comic books (I'll be truthful, they're more succinct -- although that's not always good, as in the case of X-Men: The Last Stand).

Ever since we moved to Columbus, we've been hanging out with Aaron and Christina more often. Mostly it's for playdate reasons, but it's also nice to have adult friends that a) understand kid-related conversations, and b) don't always want to talk about their/your kids. Aaron writes for Superhero Flix and often goes to comic conventions as a member of the press. He's interviewed some seriously cool people, like Seth McFarlane and Jewel Staite most recently at the San Diego Comic Con.

So you can imagine that I might be a little jealous. Even as an ordinary citizen, attending the San Diego Comic Con would be too cool. But I might have a chance to go to a convention of a different kind instead.

Christina has a blog of her own -- you probably read it if you're a mom too -- and she attends blogging conventions. The biggest one I've heard mention of is the annual BlogHer Convention, a blogging con for women bloggers (in fact, the whole BlogHer site is for women bloggers -- it's pretty cool, so I'd check it out if I were you!).

This year the convention is in Chicago, the closest to Columbus, Ohio that it's likely to ever get. I really really really want to go, meet famous and little-known bloggers like myself (well, at least the little-known ones would be), hear all sorts of great speakers, and, of course, party. I'll admit that part doesn't sound half bad.

But it's gonna be pretty tough. I'm still the only family member working, while my husband is going to school to try and get a job that pays more than minimum wage. I make just over minimum wage myself (I mean, I work in a daycare, and it might be the most expensive daycare in the area, and the best place to send your kids, but it still pays crap). We're on food stamps and Medicaid, and that helps a bit, but it's not enough. We try to pay our rent, car insurance, and my student loan on time every month, but sometimes it's late, and other than those three imperative payments, we have to choose which other bills to pay. This month we're paying the gas bill so it doesn't get shut off. And you all know about the higher cost of living now (especially diapers and cat food -- at least gas isn't as expensive now).

Sometimes it's hard. We haven't gone on a date since my birthday, before I started writing this blog. We basically have to avoid fast food of all kinds, limit our road trips to Cincinnati to see the in-laws, decide what we really need and what we can wait on -- sometimes I ask my mom for diapers and wipes, and she buys all my son's clothes. He wouldn't have anything to wear otherwise. And we still don't have a pack 'n' play, second carseat, or even a baby gate. He's thirteen months old, and we don't have a gate for our stairs (we live on the second floor and the stairs are on the inside).

But we know this is temporary. As soon as my husband finishes his certificate, he's qualified to teach high school English. We hope and pray every day that he will get a job offer upon his receipt of the certificate. Or at least by August. As soon as he gets a job, things will get much, much easier. We'll move into a bigger place, buy those things we need that we just can't afford right now, even think about the possibility of a second child.

Unfortunately, we just don't know. So, as much as I want to go to the BlogHer Conference this summer, we may not be able to. We're trying to save any way we can: carpooling with Christina, splitting a hotel room, trying to finagle a way to get that student discount on admission. Since our daycare/preschool is NAEYC accredited, I have to do training each year. I'm hoping to find out that the training sessions I have to attend count as classes so that I can get in as a student -- a steep discount.

My best chance at going? Would be to win the Queen of Spain's giveaway. We'd still have to figure out our half of lodging and gas, but I have a feeling it would all be downhill once the registration is paid for. She's giving away one full registration on her blog.

There's still time! If you have been wishing you could go to the BlogHer Conference '09 if only you could afford the registration fee, this is your best chance too. All you have to do is write a blog post, link the post to her giveaway post, and leave her a comment. Click that link for full details.

What a beautiful, generous person. May we all be so generous (or as much as our personal situations allow) in 2009. And to those of you who are entering at the last minute like me, good luck!

Blog Tag

Stole this from Caitlyn McFarland Hair. So weird to write that, even though she's been married longer than I have. You know how it is. To play along, just answer each question and type the answer into Google image search and post the first picture that comes up.

First Name: Melissa
(This, according to the caption, is R&B singer Melissa Lujan.)

Middle Name: Marie, Nash (yes, I have two)
(Holly Marie Combs of Charmed)


(Basketball pro Steve Nash)


Last Name: Keller
(Kasey Keller, pro soccer player footballer)


Age: 24
(This is a still from the show.)


Place I'd like to visit someday: Ireland


Favorite Vacation Spot: Ft. Myers, FL


Past Celebrity Crush: Michael Vartan
(Does it have to be in the past? This guy is seriously
yummy -- you've seen him in Alias and Big Shots.)


College Major: Linguistics


Place(s) I grew up: Pickerington, OH


First Job: Bob Evans


Favorite Treat: dark chocolate


Favorite Food: Icelandic chicken
(Um, it's called "Icelandic chicken" because of the way it's prepared, not where the animal is from.... But I guess that's the fun of the game.) :)


Favortie Color: indigo


Somewhere I've gone today: my mom's house
(Not really my mom's house, but again, that's the fun.)


What is/was for dinner: barbecue chicken

Lashana Tova! Today was Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year and day of judgement). Since I work at the Jewish Center, I got to leave early yesterday and have today and tomorrow off work. Which is good, because we spent Saturday & Sunday traveling to see my in-laws, so I didn't get much of a weekend.

Can't believe it's already October.

It really is Einstein's work...

If I weren't already married, I would pledge my undying allegiance to the Baby Einstein exersaucer. That, and six months ago, our bouncer/swing combination. They have been the only way for me to get any dishes, laundry, or housecleaning done as the stay-at-home parent for almost nine months. My husband is also a fan, now that I'm back to work, and he has to play the role of both father and student.

The swing and bouncer mostly kept Adam quiet, or put him to sleep -- often faster than I could by sitting down with him and nursing. But I have picture after picture on our digital camera of him just staring up at the hanging animals on the swing's overhead bar, or looking around as if to say, "Where is that music coming from?"

And the Baby Einstein contraption keeps him occupied for (almost) hours now that he's older and needs a little something more to capture those ever-turning wheels in his head. Rattles, things to push and spin, animal pictures and noises, and even a puppet keep him entertained so that we can do homework, housework, and (gasp!) even something fun once in awhile.

So here's my question for you: What modern convenience(s) are you completely in love with? What could you do without? Feel free to comment below.

This is my (first!) post for Parent Bloggers' Network (PBN). This weekend's blog blast is sponsored by Yoplait Kids. Check out the links above for more information.

Whew!

I just have to make the super-quick announcement that finally, three days after the end of August, I have finished visiting every single blog of the people who are listed and/or left a comment on the Blogging the Recession post at Motherhood Uncensored (Note: if you visit this site now and have not done so before, it's really great but it is uncensored). I feel so proud of myself right now... but also a little disappointed in myself that I didn't leave comments for everyone. I didn't try to find those that did not leave a link or url, and I didn't go any further when I ran into a private post of someone I don't already read. But I did visit every single site, some more than once on accident (you'll see what I mean if you see the list -- it's over 170 blogs long before you get to the comments!).

My blog never made it to the list, so I don't think I'll be in the running for any of the prizes, but that's okay. A lot of them were new-baby items, and since Adam's only going to be 9 months on Friday, we're (hopefully) not going to need any of those for awhile yet! :)


On a side note, about that blog design I mentioned. I don't know if I have any return visitors or not, but if you stumbled across my blog a week or two ago and are now back, you may notice that I changed up the look and feel quite a bit. Added a sidebar, completely revamped the overall design and replaced the header. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the change, or if you're just visiting me for the first time, your opinion on the design. Love it, hate it, just be honest (as much as I love having my ego stroked compliments). As a newbie blogger, I welcome any and all opinions. Feel free to leave me a comment there at the bottom or send me an email at momsensical [at] gmail [dot] com.

Haiku Friday #2: Crappy week

Husband is busy
Baby refuses to sleep
These make me grouchy

Bureaucrat bullshit
Three days ago, then next day
A speeding ticket

How can my sister
Cry her way out of one?
It's happened twice now.

Yet another job
That might as well be performed
By ruthless robots

For all the pity
And compassion I receive
From each cop I've met.

Today was better
Until my husband came home
(Just kidding, sweetheart).

Oh, well, at least I got a break while my mom watched the baby today. He took three naps today! But they each lasted 25, 35, then 15 minutes. Look at the time of this post. He literally went down 10 minutes ago. And that after staying up late last night. Grrrr. Argh. (Points if you know what that's from.)

But blogging always makes me feel better after he's gone to sleep (actually, they both are -- Brandon has another sub job in the morning), especially because the kitties take advantage of my empty lap.

Haiku Friday is fun, people! Look how much I saved on therapy this week. :) But really, come and play. Check out more haiku at Christina's blog, leave comments, click around archives, spread the bloggy love!



Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I am looking for a new blog design (not that I don't like this one, but it's a little dull for me). I may be experimenting with these in the next week or so. Be sure to stop by early and often and let me know what you think!

Haiku Friday

Time for something new:
A fresh, fun game on my blog
Called Haiku Friday

From Christina's blog,
An alternative to posts
Long and hard to write.

Some weeks have a theme
Others are purely random
This week is "School Time."

My husband teaches,
Substituting for many
Local school districts.

He also went back
To get his certificate
For high school English

This week was the start
Of both learning and teaching
I think I'll miss him.

Christina over at A Mommy Story started doing Haiku Friday with Jennifer over a year ago as an alternative to spending the first part of the weekend writing a long, detailed blog post. Still going strong, this week's batch had over 40 participants! Although I'm late as usual, I'm participating this week. Of course, I'm sending my husband off to school this week, not my son -- that day will come (not soon enough).

Anyone else who feels so inclined should join in as well. If you have never written haiku before, it's not hard. The only requirements: three lines long, first line is five syllables long, second is seven, third is five. It just takes a few extra minutes (or a good thesaurus -- I recommend Thesaurus.com). Christina explains how you can participate and put one of those cute little buttons on the post or on your sidebar, and you can get added to the list. Come on, it'll be fun, and you might even find some new cool blogs to frequent or get some new traffic to your own (woot!).

Peace out!

Helping Bloggers Everywhere

I am a newbie blogger.

In case I haven't mentioned that yet. I mean, I've done some LiveJournal-ing before, but this is my first "real live blog," per se. A friend of mine does a lot of blogging (she's a really good writer!). I've been checking out her blog, A Mommy Story, and came across this:





Do what now?

So I clicked on it. It took me to Motherhood Uncensored (Note: when she says uncensored, she means it! That said, her blog is also very good, and very funny).

This is Kristen's amazingly brilliant and clever idea:


If you read blogs, then for the month of August, make the "pledge" to click through from your feed reader. No obligation to leave a hilarious comment or send a long stalkerish email (although both, within reason, are always lovely). Just click through to the blog (not on ads unless you are so led) and if you're feeling generous, click around to their older posts.

Just those extra page views can make a big difference for bloggers who could really use the help, or in my case, where page views don't matter so much, a big fat ego boost.


Sure, I'll join in (better late than never, right? and of course, I'm a geek -- I wanna do what all the cool kids are doing). Now that you mention it, this year has not gone so well -- my husband is going back to school for a teaching certificate in the hopes that this time next year, it will make him more employable. I'm looking for work, despite the knowledge that most of that income will go to pay for childcare. And I know everyone out there has similar problems right now. So go ahead and click that button, read some blogs, every click to an older page counts. I mean, you're gonna read them anyway, right? Just take that extra minute to go to the blog itself and help your fellow bloggers out.

And if you like what you see here, feel free to keep reading into September, too. :)

Until next time!

Mission Statement: Part II

I do actually want to write something here about who I am, what I do, and what I want to accomplish here. Last night's post was really just about getting my blog up and running. I was tired, but I wanted to put up anything, even as short and sweet as that was. Figuring out where to start is always the hardest part for me. In fact, when I was in school and writing papers, I would frequently write the middle first and then go back later to put in the introduction.

But I digress.

First up: Who the hell are you?
Hi! I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Melissa (Mel for short), a twenty-something SAHM, SCA participant, gamer, comic book reader, musician of sorts, knitter, sewer, and other crafter, and general all-around nerd. But in a good way, I think. I am also wife to Brandon, a teacher and perpetual student (also a geek), and mother to Adam, an 8-month-old who will most likely end up a geek himself. Poor kid. Hopefully we won't screw him up more than that.

And why should I care?
Well, like many of you (maybe all of you), I'm a mom. It's up to each of us to support one another, and to look to each other for support when we need it. I hope this becomes a source for support, for the give and take of advice, a place to read and anticipate or reminisce. In the short term, maybe just a fun place to visit for a laugh. Kids are usually pretty good at providing comedic material.

So that's a starting place. More to come soon!

Mission Statement

So I’m finally joining the blogosphere, and what better topic than parenthood? It seems like a great way to meet and make virtual friends while venting and just generally collecting my thoughts -- I've noticed that keeping a diary/journaling/blogging leaves me feeling more clear-headed and less grouchy. So tune in to read my "momisms, funny kid stories, and random (over)sharing."