Essay published in Exhale

The July issue of Exhale: A Literary Magazine for Intelligent People Who Have Lost a Baby, or Have Trouble Making Babies in the First Place includes a fabulous (and award-winning!) piece by my colleague and friend, Kim O'Connell. "A Feast for What Was Lost" is a must-read. My essay appears as this issue's featured story. "Attemptus Interruptus" describes the stalling I had to do to address my health issues before I could even try to get pregnant.

Not only is editor Monica LeMoine a great editor in the general sense of putting together a fabulous collection of writing. She is also a really great editor for her help with my piece. Thanks for all your work, Monica!

THE DC writer mama says goodbye

Ouch! I just read in my DC Baby Newsletter that DC Baby author Sarah Masterson is leaving town to return to Austin, Texas. I probably should have known this long ago if I'd been paying attention to anything besides my impending move and the havoc it's wreaking on my son. But I didn't know Sarah was packing up and am sad to hear it.

Sarah, I hope to compose a thoughtful goodbye letter to you soon. Until then, thank you for all the great information you've shared with DC mamas! You've made such a difference in so many lives (including mine!). And you have been such a source of inspiration to me.

You will be missed! Big time!

Best wishes!

How much more annoying could we sound?

At first it was kind of cute, my son inserting "actually" into his sentences. And then he started doing it all the time. It has been one of the first verbal habits I've started to find pretty annoying, actually.

Damn, there it is.

At first I thought it was annoying because he was using it inconsistently -- accurately at times, and, at others, just as a placeholder. And then, as I'm sure anyone else might have already figured out, I realized he's just parroting his mama who does it apparently all the time.

And so to my parents, my siblings, even my mother-in-law, I discovered this past weekend. What is it with all of us, trying to differentiate some of what we're saying from all the worthless fluff we're usually blabbing about?

No vacation for mama

I wanted a weekend in my house to myself to write, do yoga, prepare food only for myself. But hubby just never made those plans to take Junior on his first overnight away from mom.

So then I decided I could pack up and spend 9 a.m. Saturday to 4 p.m. Sunday at coffeshops and in a hotel room on the other side of town for a mini mom getaway.

But then the laptop got jiggy and our other car needed to go to the shop. So I got 4 hours on Saturday until the laptop froze and then lost two of those hours when we failed to properly back everything up before reformatting the machine. And we can't find the USB cable to the desktop so I can't get to the stuff we backed up before we reformatted that machine a few months back.

So the project of going through files is partly moot forever (disappeared on laptop) and partly moot for now (until we find the USB cable, maybe when we pack up to move in two weeks). Perhaps this is the universe helping me declutter. Thanks.

So, instead of spending the day gloriously alone to dive into half-finished projects (that are now out of reach or only on paper somewhere), I ate chocolate (after a week of juicing and food purity), took my son on a jog and then went with the whole fam to Home Depot to pick up paint chips. Oh, and to Whole Foods for father's day dinner and grocery shopping.

When the husband touched my leg and said, "I want you to feel good." I smiled and cracked, "Then get out of town with our boy."

"Okay."

One can hope.

"Let me focus"

After I washed my son's boo-boo and rubbed some tea tree oil on the wound, I offered a zebra bandaid, which was not acceptable to His Highness. He wanted a red one and insisted on getting it out himself. I tried to help him open it, but he brushed me away with a most serious request: "Let me focus."

There's that audio mirror again!

Joining the profession

Once I got the piece published in the Post, I felt like I could call myself a serious enough writer to join what used to be Washington Independent Writers (now gone national to be "American" I.W.). Though I didn't register in time to go to any agent pitch sessions (which frankly was a relief after my aborted attempt at agent speed-dating in April), I did get myself to the annual conference this weekend. I learned a lot!

There is still just not enough time to execute on everything in starting this new career with only a few hours of child-free time, a house to pack up and a new house to organize (including an office!), a non-profit group to run... and a child to raise. And healthy food to cook so I can stay happy and maybe eventually get knocked up again, if I think I can get my act together enough first to remain something of a WAHM with baby #2.

Tonight I also attended a meetup on using WordPress. I'm thinking of migrating over there for all three of the blogs eventually and using it for a true writer's site with clips. We'll see!

Mother/Daughter stories

Arena Stage has posted my mother/daughter story and my friend Kim's story on its blog, Stage Banter.