Rita Arens's Blog, page 15

Guess What? They're Not Overreacting.

What girls had to say about people who insult them ... and then pretend they didn't really.

We need to let kids know it's okay to be upset. I'm going to show this to my daughter right now.

Representative Dumbass Laughed Out of the Chamber

Idaho Representative Vito Barbieri asks if a camera women can swallow to show the state of their colons after colonoscopy could be used to prevent abortion.

Apparently, he does not understand the differences between the digestive system and the reproductive system.

YOU'RE FIRED, VITO.

 

The Wait

It's been a year and two weeks since the last time our little black cat had a health crisis. He had a urinary blockage last January with two rounds of hospitalization. Then we had a good year in which we fell in love with him even more.

On Friday night, he started acting frantic around the litter box. We took him to the normal vet, where they said his bladder was small so they gave him steroids and antibiotics. We took him home.

On Saturday morning, he was crying in pain. He'd vomited all ove...

I Don't Even Make a Game of It

I drove her to school yesterday, because it was cold.

She hoisted her backpack and saxophone out of the trunk that she didn't used to be able to open by herself. It is a heavy trunk door and the struts to keep it open don't work anymore.

I see her every day, but something about the way she flipped her hair back and blew me a kiss reminded me of the way she looked when I dropped her off in first grade. But this isn't first grade, it's fifth grade, and she's told me next year she will rule the...

Death By a Thousand Paper Cuts: Fixing the Minor Annoyances

I read somewhere that if you want to be happy, take five minutes every day and fix something that bugs the shit out of you. I may be paraphrasing.

This week has been insanely busy. The little angel had a science fair project due Monday, a variety show performance on Tuesday, last night was dedicated to constructing a box for the class Valentine's Day party and nineteen homemade valentines and tonight she has riding lessons. My parents are coming to stay with us for the weekend, and they will...

Because It Matters How Much We Talk About Women

This week, BlogHer's parent company, SheKnows Media, partnered with Public Radio International on the #womenslives media initiative. Basically, we want people talking about women.

We need to do this because only about 24% of all news subjects talk about women in any way, and only six percent of news stories highlight gender in/equality.

So, basically, we're ignoring half the population of the earth. Daily.

You can take a step toward changing that. We're going to talk about gender and womanho...

I Will Be Brave

Respite.

I stepped outside tonight to feel the wind upon my feet. Today, January 28, it was 73 degrees in Kansas City. Winter will return in a few days, with cold and snow, but tonight, tonight! I heard a barn owl amidst the wind rustling through the branches in my backyard. Something small and furry lives under my deck. I heard it turning in its bed.

I remember sitting on my best friend's graduate school balcony in February 1997. It was a miraculous 70 degrees. I was living in Chicago at the...

I, Whiner

I found myself crying today for no good reason. Or maybe it was, in the interest of time. I'd been reading Neil Gaiman short stories on a five-hour drive through ice with ten-year-old feet in my face and sports on the radio so loud I couldn't hear myself think. I had one of those moments where you just want everyone to go away so you can remember what you were trying to do in the first place.

I couldn't remember. So I cried. It was awful and embarrassing, and my daughter reminded me of the ti...

I Interviewed Author Margaret Dilloway!

I met author Margaret Dilloway when I was managing the BlogHer Book Club. We discussed and reviewed her first book, HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE, and her second book, THE CARE AND HANDLING OF ROSES WITH THORNS. Since then, we've grown friendly and I even got to have dinner with her at last year's BlogHer conference. When author Angélique Jamail gave me the opportunity to interview another author for Women Writer Wednesdays on her blog, I picked Margaret. I hope you enjoy the interview! We...

Interesting, But Not Necessarily Conclusive

I had a teacher in fifth grade. She told us this story:

I had a cat when I was a child. Someone told me that cats always land on their feet.

I took my cat to the second-floor balcony and dropped it. The cat landed on its feet.

"Interesting," I said, "but not necessarily conclusive."

I took the cat to the first-floor balcony and dropped it. It landed on its feet.

"Interesting," I said, "but not necessarily conclusive."

I took the cat one step up from the ground and dropped it.

It landed on its he...