So. The other day my innocent little Morningside Mom blog got hacked. It didn’t last long because I freaked out, switched on the Internet bat-call and the wonderful Shannon Entin came through for me once again.
She (thanks be to all that is good on the internets) fixed it.
And as someone who writes, but is woefully unskilled in web techie stuff – Shannon’s skills are so beyond just simply appreciated. I mean she may as well have been standing in front of my laptop, posed in tights and with cape flying in the wind out behind her, one foot propped on whichever toy lay closest. She is smarter than a speeding bullet and rescues non techies in a single bound. My hero. For reals.
Thankfully it wasn’t a hard core hack. Just someone hacking me because they just could.
(Bastards. I hope karma gets you good and you have a complete zit explosion before school next week and you totally get your ass grounded somehow.)
Lesson of the day? Keep your updates updated, change your passwords, keep your passwords (duh, but seriously) and back up your work.
Anyway, so the whole hacking business was timely. Why? Because I’ve been in kind of a strange place with online stuff recently. I think maybe it started last December when I saw some online ugliness rear its head. And then there was lots of chatter about moms being online so much. If we “digital moms” are getting so much done online, what kind of mothers could we be anyway?
(…because mothers can’t possibly multi-task THAT well. Because mothers wouldn’t work on weekends and late into evenings to get something done just because she loves it. Because mothers shouldn’t be doing JACK except stare at their kids playing, eating and pooping all day. Because any stay at home mom who might just happen to have some multi-dimensionality, some other interests, some drive and push in her life along side her love for her children COULDN’T POSSIBLY be a good mother.
I hate that crap. WITH A PASSION.)
So while those conversations were happening online and on cable news networks, it was only natural that I started evaluating how much time I spend blogging. It’s a lot of time.
However. I will staunchly defend myself on this. Like most of the amazing “digital moms” I know, I can assure you that my kids “tricycle riding, playground playing, snuggle and a book reading, homework sitting, ass wiping, coming home from school tripping, feeding, feeding and feeding” time is not compromised. I do those things and I do them well.
But that just started feeding into another issue I’ve been questioning. One most bloggers I know struggle with regularly. I suddenly started feeling that for ALL the work I pour into writing online and for almost nothing in return financially while being questioned about my capabilities as a parent for blogging in the first place…
(Note the daggers shooting out of my eyes for questioning my mommy skillz. Don’t even.)
All the work and time and effort I do put into writing online for not a ton in return other than the pure satisfaction of writing…
Well.
Is it really worth my time?
Is all of this worth anything?
Ok, I feel like I must sound so crazily unappreciative. I know blogging has brought me adventures and friendships and experiences I would never EVER have had otherwise. There would be no way any of it would have happened without this blog.
So maybe this whole post is just a whiney waste of my reader’s time.
But.
Still. I can’t help but question all of this sometimes.
And when my blog suddenly got hacked, all of it, all of this, seemed suddenly so vulnerable. One day, one decent hacker, and *POOF* all this is gone, all that hard work down the drain.
This online stuff is just in a computer after all. It’s not an organic, living, breathing thing. Its just vague internetty beeps, codes, whatever. One wrong delete button gets pushed or some system crashes somewhere and… its nothing.
Ok, I’m being dramatic. I know I am. If its backed up well enough, I should be ok. (I can hear tech-inclined folks telling me its so. And probably giving me a very eye-rolling “oh please” look when I question the real-ness of the internets.)
And you know what else is real, organic, living and breathing? The fabulousfriendships and connections I’ve made. THOSE are very real.
And something else which is extraordinarily valuable, very real and wholly alive is, well, my sanity.
Because while I do all that mothering stuff well (and enjoy doing it very much), there are days when I don’t see another adult until late in the evening, when the kids are fast asleep. I am not simply an ass wiping entity. I need to think. And use grown up language about grown up topics. And blogging offers me this. If nothing else, my sanity is handed over to me daily, like carefully prescribed doses of xanax in its own little while paper cup. Be a good mom, take your meds, nice job, back to your corner in your bathrobe where you rock and hum to yourself while parenting your children. Good girl.
Ok. Again with the dramatics.
I’m just trying to make my point.
I bust my ass online everyday but… when I shut my laptop… I can’t help but have the feeling that some hologram-like world around me has suddenly disintegrated and I am left standing alone in my kitchen again. The friendships are wonderful and important (I love you guys!) – but they aren’t right here, right now, for laughs and drinks and hugs, now, IRL. The experiences are fabulous, but they are fleeting and don’t pay the mortgage.
My sanity is priceless however. So hologram world it is. Bring it on.
Ugh.
But before I leave this post on that really pathetic note, I need to take some responsibility here.
The Internet and all of this blogging is only what you make of it. I’m writing all the time, but do I bust my hump to sell myself? Or my writing abilities? Am I all over SEO and Google ranking? Um. Not so much. I’m really sucky PR for myself. There are plenty of online moms who are making much more out of their blogging experience. Why? Because they have their own back. And I need to do that more. Put myself out there. Get more outside gigs. Not just sit here at home, sigh a lot, and wait for it all to drop in my lap.
Yep. So that’s that. All that has been rattling around in my brain about blogging, its hackability, vulnerability and my general purpose outside of parenting.
Back to real life. Or my hologram life. Which one? Or are they the same….
(Oh. Nice, hitchcocky ending.)
I mean Oscar Wilde probably had it right about life imitating art rather than vice versa.
Back to life then. Because it is my life after all.
I love my Wii Fit. I do. I have loved it from the moment I stepped on my brother’s balance board and decided I had to get up early and go wait in a Best Buy line to purchase my own. Yeah, I did that. I rushed in, swiped my bank card and was handed a balance board. I took it home, set it up and have loved it ever since.
Why?
Well, I’m a mom, home with my boys, getting by on one income. I am also the proud owner of a lovely little muffin top that I would like to be rid of. I adore running away from my kids but don’t get a chance to do that as often as I’d like to since my husband works late. A gym membership is out – I won’t pay for one and never have the child care to get to one. So, paying one time for a balance board that I could use at home, even with the kids around, made so much sense.
Granted, you have to make the time to use it. And fight your kids off to get a work out done. But with enough bribing and coaxing (both my kids AND myself), I can get a great work out in. Maybe it’s not quite as aerobic as I’d like but it helps me work on my core. And my core is where my muffin top resides. So, I heart my Wii Fit because it eats my muffin top for dinner, nom nom nom.
And aerobic work outs do happen too. You try 10 minutes of hoola hoops and tell me if it doesn’t kick your ass. No. Try it. I dare you AND your muffin top.
So last weekend, my blogger friend Britt invited me to a Wii Fit Plus party to check out it out in all of its new and improved glory. I was all about it. Because I have now unlocked all the games and work outs in my Wii Fit and am kind of looking for something new. My hopes are high for the Wii Fit Plus.
The party was hosted in a small gallery in downtown Orlando. I searched the street for the right location and knew I had it right when I saw Britt’s gorgeous blonde curls in the window. We were all greeted at the door by beautiful people wearing Wii Fit gear. Balance boards, yoga mats, flat screens and Wiis were lined up against the walls. And we all settled on comfy pillows in the middle of the floor to watch the demonstration.
After hearing from them and trying it out for myself, here are the pluses of the Wii Fit Plus:
More fun games! There are a ton of new balance games. I like the flying one that makes me flap like a crazy woman to soar between targets. My arms were burning – Michelle Obama arms may be in my future yet! And my 6 year old will LOVE the new “Wipeout”-esque obstacle course.
Better ways to chart your progress. There are activity logs and ways to count down how many calories you’ve burned during your work out. I didn’t see the option for “an entire bowl of Halloween candy” however – but I think I could figure out how to chart that too.
Targeted workouts. There are specific workouts that are set up to work on different areas like lifestyle, health or being more youthful.
Individualized workouts. I love the fact that you can cue your workouts up (instead of spending time going in between workouts) and let them run one after the other.
You can add your pet and create a Mii for them. No, I’m not kidding.
Some things I wish they did add:
I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t add aerobics to my indivudualized workouts. Its limited to yoga and strength training.
It would be great if they targeted Wii Fit to children more. The older Wii Fit did not register my 6 year old’s weight of 42 lbs so we had to make him the minimum of 5olbs. Still, the weight doesn’t adjust to the games correctly for him. And certainly some are just developmentally out of his reach. Good health and fitness tips for kids just makes sense. If they added a few kid specific workouts, this would be the perfect interactive family workout experience.
They still don’t have a bell jar accessory. Don’t know what that is? I’m looking for a large protective clear shell I can put over me and my balance board that children are not able to penetrate and push me off. You think I’m kidding too. Get on it Nintendo.
As the event wrapped up and we were walking out the door, the beautiful Wii Fit people (perhaps Miis in real life?) handed us all (drum roll please) brand new Wii Fit Plus games, balance boards and cutie Wii Fit Plus training jackets! Muffin top beware, I’m coming for you.
Thank you to the amazing Britt and the gorgeous people at Nintendo!
p.s. Please excuse the horrid pictures. They’re awful. My camera sucks. But you get the idea.
Ok! Welcome to my first installment of my U2 concert coverage. As I posted before, the One Drop Organization asked me as a local Tampa blogger to cover the U2 concert this Friday. One Drop and U2 will be part of an exciting event that night where 14 cities will come together, along with Guy Laliberte (the founder of Cirque Du Soleil and current clown in space) to promote awareness about our most important resource: water.
So, do you wish you could be a part of this? You can be. You can watch all of it online here on Friday, October 9th. Check out this link and make a date with yourself. (What’s good on TV anyway on Friday nights?)
The entire event will also be shown on DirecTV’s The 101 Network. “The first event of it’s kind to be hosted from the International Space Station.”
Also, just to keep things really interesting, One Drop was also kind enough to send me a fabulous new Flip Video Camera to cover the event. So, without further ado, here is my cringe-worthy first try at the flip camera taken during my children’s bath time. I am at the end of my day, hardly freshened up, with kids in the tub. Don’t expect any miracles – or clean mirrors (ew!) – either.
I finally did it. I got my act together and outfitted this little blog with some big girl clothes. She’s all grown up now – she’s self hosted!
Thanks to the wonderfully talented Shannon at Phat Mommy, I was able to get this girl in her high heels, stick a fab dress on her and have her tromping around the blogosphere like she owns the place.
Well. I dunno. I mean, this blog is not exactly the heels type, I suppose.
This is a mom blog, with suburban peace loving, hippie tendencies. She still loves the wilds of Florida in her backyard and her practical Saturn parked her garage. And she has a living room floor covered in star wars toys and cold mac n cheese in her frig.
But she still gets feisty. She still wants to see change happen. She still speaks her mind. She still calls it like she sees it.
(Even if she really reeeeally hates offending anyone.)
So, here we are. One year older, one year wiser, one year of confidence and a whole lot prettier. Heels or flip flops, Vivienne Tam or Target – this blog is growing up. And I am pretty damn proud of her.
As I’ve mentioned before, my entire NYC Vivienne Tam experience with HP allowed this uber practical, coupon clipping, “never splurges on self” mommy to enjoy the luxury of a few beautiful things. It wasn’t something for my children or my family – it was just for me. Honestly folks, it’s unheard of around the parts. I am still so appreciative.
And now I want to share a small part of this experience with you. HP has graciously given me three Vivienne Tam HP Wireless mice to giveaway here on Morningside Mom. (Did you know they aren’t even available for purchase in the U.S.?) I am thrilled to be able to share a little bit of beautiful with you all.
How do you enter? Simply leave a comment below explaining how everyday working, parenting, budgeting women can take care of themselves when they so often forget to. I will pick three inspiring comments and announce the winners on Friday, March 6th.
And one last bit of trivia about Vivienne Tam before I sign off. The enter key on the VT HP mini has a chinese symbol on it. Do you know what it means? It means “Double Happiness”. And now doesn’t that just make so much sense? I hope this giveaway brings a small bit of happiness to three of you.
Good luck!
**UPDATE – WE HAVE THREE WINNERS!**
Congrats to our three winners: Cami, Chandra and Carol! They wrote inspiring comments and I encourage you all to read them. In fact, I would encourage you to take a moment to read every comment here – what fantastic advice for women to follow. Thank you to everyone who participated, it means so much that you took the time to share this wisdom.
So, you can’t enough of the NYC Vivienne Tam week, huh? Then please go read the posts on my fellow blogger’s sites. They did a great job and its fun to see this experience from several perspectives. Remember that some of us were parent/mom bloggers, some were fashion or accessory bloggers and others were technology bloggers. All were amazing people and I could not have picked a better group to experience this with!
Of course these are not the only bloggers who attended or the only posts about the experience. There were and will be more posts. These are what I grabbed for the time being. (And NYC bloggers, share your posts here if I missed yours!)
Oh and are you STILL wishing you could get a bit of the Vivienne Tam experience for yourself? Well, stay tuned. I may have something to share with you all. Don’t get your panties in a bunch though - its not the HP mini itself. But its still pretty damn cool. You might even see what I’m talking about on some of the sites above. I’ll be posting about this “tech chic” giveaway very soon.
For more information about the HP products I review, please visit my HP Update page.
Do you know that feeling when you watch reality shows like “Extreme Home Makeover” and you see amazing things happen for people and you say out loud “that sort of stuff never happens to me”? Or how about the reality show ”What Not to Wear”. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wear really nice clothes instead of jelly smeared jeans? I know these sorts of shows well. I watch, I smile and I think “not in a million years”.
Well, during my time in NYC, I kind of had an “Extreme Home Makeover / What Not to wear” moment. A real one. I think it would have made a great reality show actually. And it all has to do with Vivienne Tam.
As you know by now, I spent 4 amazing days in New York City for fashion week thanks to the folks at Buzz Corps, HP and Vivienne Tam. The entire experience in itself was “reality show” worthy in that this sort of stuff *SO* does not happen to me. I spent every day thanking everyone around me. I thanked drivers (oh wait I hugged him too), door holders, hotel folks, waiters, even random people I passed on the streets for slightly stepping out of my way. I was so damn grateful to be there. Every crack and crevice I happened upon heard my gratitude, loud and clear.
But then something even more amazing happened to all the bloggers on this trip. “What? MORE?!” I hear you mumble. Yes, more. We were given a gift.
We started out mid morning in our shuttle not exactly knowing where we were headed. When we pulled up to Vivienne Tam’s boutique, it was familiar to us after having been there the night before for her show. So we stepped out of the bus and walked in, curious. The entire space had changed into a “store” with racks of her dresses lined up, mannequins dressed, shoes and bags on display. We all wandered around, happy to see the goods in daylight for better pictures and also excited to see more of her line. We snapped pics, picked out favorites, held them up to each other, laughed at the possibilities and moved along.
And then Alan Wang, the Vivienne Tam boutique manager and all around very nice man, got our attention. He stood at the front of the store and thanked us for being here this week. He told us how much Vivienne Tam truly appreciates our support and that she recognizes the important work we do. And as a symbol of her gratitude, she would like to give us a gift. Each of us were welcome to pick out one dress. To keep.
Blank stares. It dawns on us. Mouths drop. Rushed whispering. Quiet squeals. And then me, “Can I hug you right now?”
I am not sure what he said next (although I remember that he diplomatically ignored my invitation for a hug, smart man), but it had begun to sink in. Kind of. We could pick a dress in that room to take home. To wear. To have. To feel fabulous in.
And we were off. Some spending time carefully considering. Others leaping on the handbags and shoes (understandably). And then there was me who grabbed one dress and dashed for the dressing room. What if they changed their minds? Quick. Let me get this on and out the door before they decide this isn’t such a great idea.
I wound up with the second dress I tried on. I truly felt amazing in it. I ran around the store in it. I teared up. Three times. Shamelessly. My friend Moosh in Indy saw my Hanes her Way and that’s cool by me. This was serious business. I got an amazing dress. A Vivienne Tam dress. Glamorous pieces of clothing like this just don’t exist in my life. But now one does. (And it is laughing at everything else in my closet as I write this.)
So what happened next? Just wait. Yes, there’s more.
That night we were welcome to attend another event back at the Vivienne Tam boutique. This was the official launch of the Vivienne Tam Hp Mini. Another night on the town? What better excuse to don our fab dresses. And that we did.
I also brought my VT HP Mini with me. I just figured it would be good to have it since that evening was all about it.
And so what happens? Vivienne Tam arrives, speaks to her guests and then offers to sign anyone’s computers. So now, under my right hand in the bottom corner of my Mini, is Vivienne Tam’s signature. She signed it for me and you know what she said to me? She said I was so beautiful in her dress.
Wow. This mom with jelly smeared jeans and a leaking sippy cup in her purse could be beautiful.
It was a moment. To be sure.
And that’s what the dress and the computer have come to represent. Women running around managing the insanity of their lives, elbow deep in dirty boy socks and sticky pots of mac and cheese DO deserve nice things. A dress like this, a computer like this – well, they are simply special things. Little bits of fabulous that remind you that you are actually “worthy” – socks and mac n cheese aside.
So I had that “What not to Wear” moment. And staying true to the thanking theme of my week, I thanked Vivienne Tam that night. I thanked her for making me feel more beautiful and special than I had in years.
My gratitude is endless, my heart is full and my sense of beautiful is in check.
For that (just one more time) I say: Thank you.
For more information about the HP products I review, please visit my HP Update page.
After an evening trying to whip myself together into some sort of presentable look for fashion week, myself and the 20 other bloggers tromped out into the rain to go see the Vivienne Tam show.
What did I expect? Some very beautiful, thin, doe eyed girls trooping around in fabulous outfits and a crew of fashionistas getting it so much more than I am, and eyeing everyone up and down. I doubted I’d see VT herself, but what do I know about how these events go down…
And what happened?
Well, we arrived, were escorted right in and handed glasses of champagne. And there was Vivienne Tam standing with all the models in front of a row of Touchsmart HP screens! After many pictures, the models moved on and the crowd mingled. The wonderful DWJ from the Art of Accessories grabbed my hand (I love this woman, by the way) and managed to get us in for a picture with Vivienne Tam herself!
Um. Is this my life? Here we are. (I have no idea what happened with my hair. I am clearly channeling “A Flock of Seagulls”. Whatever. I’m standing next to her!)
And then a few minutes later, they lined up all the bloggers with Vivienne Tam and took endless pictures. This sounds silly but I totally had a red carpet moment all of the sudden. Little ol’ me. Whoda thunk. I don’t have a big group shot now but will post one when I do.
Anyway, we saw the amazing collection. Its absolutely gorgeous. I fell in love with a beautiful leather dress of hers and was amazed by the beauty of the detail in her dresses.
A Mom in Red High Heels and I checked out the Touchsmart PCs. We pulled up our sites and took pics of ourselves at the event.
We talked to interesting people, learned more about the inspiration of her collection (which I hope to post more about in the future) and just generally had an amazing time.
I think what impressed me most was Vivienne herself. She was so taken aback that we were all women bloggers there to support her show. She said it meant so much to have women supporting her this way and was extremely appreciative of us being there. I said to her that women bloggers absolutely adore this mini and all want one. Her face absolutely lit up. She spun around to some very nice man behind her. “Did you hear that?? The bloggers love the Mini!!!” She was genuine, she was warm, she was truly grateful to have us there.
Grateful. Yes. My words exactly.
What an amazing evening.
For more information about the HP products I review, please visit my HP Update page.
I’m here and this suburbia bumpkin is amazed. It is hard to get perspective on how utterly awesome Time Square really is. Like trying to capture the depth and size of Grand Canyon, two dimensional pictures are frustrating and minimizing. But offI go, stumbling along, taking pictures of everything around me and moving along in a stream of people, voices, languages, cultures.
Today I head out for a tour of the city and tonight we are going to see the Vivienne Tam show. Its fashion week so its very fabulous around here.
I’ll leave you with a pic of my room. This is where I sit and post and tweet and annoy all with my “I’M IN NYC!!” updates. I’ll be back with more but the tour bus is waiting.
That’s right, the day has come. Morningside Mom is finally heading to the City. My parents have flown in to help take over all of that stay at home, groundhog day, going around in circles, cat corralling that I do on a daily basis. Today I fly away from the “oh so predictable” kid schedule of my life and drop into the land of fabulousness, cosmos, culture, no bedtime routines… hell, I’m about to go spend 4 days at the center of the universe.
Bring it on.
And I am going all for the sake of the Vivienne Tam HP Mini Netbook. See mine sitting there? All ready to go? And the new uncomfortable looking but actually very comfortable shoes I bought for the trip? (Target, by the way. Don’t tell anyone.)
And check out that bag. My mom brought it back for me from Vietnam. The fabulous part is that the silk lining of that bag almost exactly matches the silk handbag that comes with the Vivienne Tam Netbook. Cool, huh?
Well. I think so.
So. Ok. Here I go then. I am going to try and blog as regularly as I can. I’ll be twittering it all too and uploading pics and video when I have something cool to share. And of course, I’ll be doing everything from my VT Netbook.
So here I go, leaving the mommy gig at the door. Off to be… um… fabulous.
I hope I don’t look as clueless as I feel. See you on the flip side.
So last weekend, my blogger friend 
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