Rita Arens's Blog, page 23
March 14, 2014
The Grammar Police Are Coming to BlogHer '14
If you'll be at BlogHer '14 in San Jose, please come visit the Writing Lab. On Friday, July 24 from 2:30-4 pm, you'll find the following people there:
Writing Lab | Be Your Own Editor
Writing is hard. This lab will help make it a little easier for you by making those rough drafts a little smoother, that copy a bit tighter, and those headlines a little more zingy. Like any good cook will tell you, it's much easier at the end if you clean as you go. Tidy up your work as you write it with the...
March 12, 2014
I'm Back
Buried my father-in-law. Buried some grief. Ready to move on.
March 3, 2014
Rest in Peace, Robert Joseph Arens
The funeral is today. I don't know what to say, so I'm just going to quote my sister-in-law, Lynn.
I am ONE LUCKY GIRL to have had the best father-in-law in the world. This evening, Leon's dad Bob passed away peacefully after a long, brave battle against COPD. Bob never missed a chance to give his advice or share his outlook on life, make us laugh with his awesomely smart ass comments and fatten us up with his homemade chili, caramels and shakes. He was a great husband, dad and grandpa. I am...
February 25, 2014
Putting on the Hits
There was a show that started in 1984, when I was my daughter's age, called Puttin' On the Hits. I still remember when Alan Fawcett would announce how many points had been given for originality, appearance and lip synch.
Yes, in the eighties we didn't even require actual singing talent on our competition shows.
My daughter made us watch the premiere of The Voice last night. I actually looked up the bios of some of the singers and was surprised to see how hard they had already worked, how fa...
February 23, 2014
So I Just Happened to Be Thinking
This weekend I cashed in a Christmas gift from my husband: two wonderful tickets to the Indigo Girls with the Kansas City symphony. I took my sister, of course. I heard The Wood Song, which I had hoped to hear. The Indigo Girls with their layered two-part harmony is the perfect accompaniment to a multi-layered symphony, and really I wish for every singer to have such an opportunity to be accompanied by classically trained musicians. It must truly be amazing.
But beyond their talent, I was str...
February 19, 2014
February 14, 2014
What We Share Online
Today I read a really interesting post on BlogHer by a blogger with spina bifida regarding what she shares or doesn't share on Facebook. She said people often tell her they wish they had her life because of what she shares on Facebook, but there is so much she doesn't share about her disease. She writes:
Because,God forbidI should choose the joyful family Christmas dinner in Puerto Rico as the venue for disclosing how I’ve totally slacked off on my neurosurgery stuff and am now desperate to...
February 11, 2014
What to Do
I saw one of those reality shows recently that my daughter likes. What Would You Do? And it was a show where a couple fought publicly with a young girl who had supposedly promised a baby that she was now deciding to keep.
They showed the scenario many different ways, with the pregnant girl left, or the adoptive husband or the adoptive wife. In one scenario, the adoptive wife was left, and two women came out of nowhere in this restaurant and prayed with her, an actress who wasn't actually look...
February 5, 2014
#BIRTHDAYFAIL
Not totally. Not really. Because today, I made it to forty. And my daughter made me toast on the red plate and sang to me. And my friends called and texted and joked and welcomed me to this decade of my life. And my sister and my best friend sang to me on the phone. And even though Beloved is out of town, I opened my presents via Facetime.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way.
1) No matter how much you want to embrace 40, it's 40. It's like 30's older sister. These birthdays that end in z...
January 28, 2014
A Man of a Certain Age
Beloved and I got gift cards for Christmas from my parents. I dragged Beloved and the little angel into Old Navy at the mall last weekend to see if I could get a pair of skinny jeans that didn't make me look like sausage links (found some, thank you sweetheart cut). Beloved was shocked I would even try to put something from Old Navy on my body because y'all, we are old. Then Beloved insisted we go mall-walking, because the only time we go in the mall is to take the little angel to blow all he...
