Dear Bobbi Kristina,

I’m so sorry you lost your mom.

love,

nancy

ps — I appreciated this report by Lee Hawkins, I thought it was good.

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Author Blog, by moi.

New post from Steve.

Reading, reading, reading…

happy birthday, blog :) seven years today.

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

I was at my girlfriend A’s house. I brought my coffee cup with me and banged it down on her counter. We needed to talk PTA stuff — I think we were planning a carnival. She told me later that the way I put down my mug convinced her that we were meant to be friends. (i miss her — moved across town and never see anyone anymore.) She threw out the old coffee, made a fresh pot, poured me a cup and then said Oh-you-have-to-see-this! She took me back into her office, and there on her screen was Amalah Not Too Sweet, with pictures of cherries for the header. (When I think back to my early days of blogging, Not Too Sweet often pops into my head, with images of Chocolate Volcano Cake, cute babies, funny stories, advice columns…)

Such a funny girl, Amalah. And my friend A. She knew I was staying home with the kids and a little restless. I told Steve I wanted to start writing a blog, so he built this one. Then he built one for himself, and another one, and another one, and then, why the hell not? This one.

Then I read (not in this order), Rockstar Mommy, Yvonne, Zoot, Mir, Heather, and later, Jon. (A sample “daily affirmation” from Jon: “Learn from your detractors. And then block their negativity. And their IP address.”) Later on, I added Laura (i love that post, by the way), Vixen and Nan, and… Koreen.

Now we’re all getting a little discouraged about blogging. No one reads The Blogs that much anymore (see: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr). They’re alright, and I know a lot of people liked the “closed garden” aspect, but I don’t find them as satisfying as I do blogging. But I’m also writing fiction and non-fiction, as always, and doing marketing for those projects, so that is where I throw my angst, not at blogging.

Also it’s a little weird out in the Internet waters, nowadays. Everyone’s figuring out how to handle it, with the kids getting bigger and wanting privacy. (Many of us had little kids when we started this out — my daughter was 5 and my son was 2, how is that possible? They’re 12 and 9 now, whoa.) Jon and Dooce are legally separated. Still blogging. One of my favorite blogs belongs to the ex-wife of one of the best bosses I ever worked for. Connections. Go figure.

So de-lurk, already. I still get a fair amount of traffic but hardly any comments. Go anon if you’d like, I don’t mind ;) I’d like to know who’s out there still, or finding the blog for the first time.

Happy Valentine’s Day! And happy birthday, blog. here’s to many years ahead.

xo

wm

Fed up with Lewis & Clark and Thomas Jefferson — it’s all my kids have learned about American history at school so far (grades 4 and 7). So we’re watching Roots.

all power to the people,

wm

But her dad is. #blesshisheart. She’s just stressed out and slowly going broke. I have never read such a painfully funny article in my life.

Ouch.

And no, I’m not saying that in an “elderschadenfreude” way, ‘k? ‘K.

How ’bout you go buy a copy of my novel to entertain you, in the meantime? Righteous.

xo,

nancy

“Never cut what you can untie.” — Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

(Photo by Steve Rawley)