Rita Arens's Blog, page 43

Let's Look At Some Beautiful Things

(This thing? Goes into the Chateau Travolta Banish the Linoleum Fund. Ooh-rah, VTech. Plus I like their phones. Actual post is below this big box.)

 

 

I don't know if you do Twitter or Facebook, but if you are friends with me there, or read my tweets or status updates, you know that I like to spend a few minutes a few mornings a week on StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a site where people tag cool or funny or beautiful things and you just hit the button like a rodent and it rewards you...

Stopping the Bad Dreams From Forming

[Editor's Note: This is political. I understand if you don't want to read it. My politics have always been very clear here -- someone once tried to get me fired from my job because of them. But I have to write this, because to say nothing might be interpreted as disinterest or agreement.]

The little angel appeared before my side of the bed. I didn't look at the clock.

"Mommy, I'm trying to stop a bad dream from forming," she said.

This has happened several times in the past few weeks.

I cli...

The Disarming Adventures of Vicki

I have a habit of hitting the wrong button on Vicki the Convertible's key fob. It's because she's a 1997 and the pictures have been rubbed off the fob. I know, I know, righty tighty, lefty loosey, but sometimes my brain hurts after a day of work and I want there to be simple pictures, dammit. I've also been known to set off the car alarm, but never more than seven times in one day.

Last Thursday, I set it off in the parking lot of the little angel's new gymnastics studio. I have McKenna the n...

Cedar Fair Review: What We Won at Worlds of Fun

I’ve loved amusement parks pretty much my whole life. I was very cautious as a child, so I don’t remember riding roller coasters until young adulthood, and I think I’ve been making up for it ever since. When BlogHer and Cedar Fair offered me the opportunity to review Kansas City’s Worlds of Fun for free plus some money to spend in the park, I was all in. (And my family was pleased, as well.)

I grew up in Iowa, and thus I’ve been spending summer Saturdays at Kansas City’s Worlds of Fun and...

The Summer Without Lawnmowers

Kansas City is in a stage D4 exceptional draught. I've never seen anything like it. The ground has cracked, just like in my daughter's picture book about Africa. The grass has gone dormant, the color of straw, prickly. This grass hurts bare feet. For the first time in my life, I've been watering the birds by leaving out trays of liquid. Some of the trees have gone fuck it and dropped dead leaves on the hay-grass, lending August the appearance of October even as the heat still shimmers on the...

An Unappealing Realization

Last Saturday, I spent six hours removing a layer of July from my house. I put Killz on the ceiling where I had *thought* I'd shut the bathroom sink off after hand-washing the swimming suits. I scrubbed Okie dust off the windows. I attempted to open the door that's stuck shut because our house has settled due to lack of rainwater on the foundation. I scrubbed the floors.

Then, because Beloved had taken the little angel to one place I have absolutely zero desire to visit -- the Missouri State...

The Halfway Point

Halfway.

The average lifespan in the United States is 78.2 years. I will be 39 on my next birthday.

Halfway.

There is a part of me that feels as though I could go tomorrow having lived a full life.

There is a part of me that prays every night I will live to be the little angel's mother for a long, long time.

I have so many friends who have already lost parents. I have not lost mine.

I have so many friends who have lost children. I have not lost mine.

The average number of close friends peopl...

(Sponsored Post) Experimenting With Proctor & Gamble

So ... if you don't like sponsored posts, which I totally get, come back tomorrow because I have something more normal for me planned then.

Most people who visit Surrender, Dorothy already know that I work for BlogHer. And so, of course, any time my colleagues in the publishing network want to try something new, I always volunteer. I say YES WE SHOULD ALL MAKE MORE MONEY. It's not always a popular opinion in the blogosphere, but I think art + commerce = novels, so why not have art + commerc...

BlogHer 2012 Abbreviated Recap

I've been gone! All week! To BlogHer 2012! Here are my thoughts as they fly through my head.

So honored and proud to work for BlogHer. The conference just gets more amazing every year in terms of programming, which is my favorite part.
Very excited this year there were at least as many women of color speaking as white women, maybe more -- Polly didn't have the final numbers. This is hugely important, and might perhaps be the biggest win of the conference for many reasons.
Martha Stewart, Kat...

Gone Fishing

Hi everyone! I'm at BlogHer '12. I'll post when I get back!