Mabel's Labels, makers of the ab-fab Mama Card, is having a contest. They're giving away a trip to BlogHer 09 in Chicago and the amazing opportunity to be their correspondent for the event.
This was my entry.
*****EDITED*****
The finalists have been chosen, and they're fab! Check them out here.
In April of 2007, I gave birth to the most amazing person I have ever met. He was small and sweet and he drove me out of my ever-loving mind.
When they tell you that having children changes everything, it is the understatement of the century. What they should do is sit you down in a chair, slap you across the face, and yell it at you until you get it.
Really get it.
Monkey was a pretty mild baby, by all accounts. He was giggly and had personality to spare. He also had jaundice, mixed up days and nights, a major latching issue, a witching hour that happened every day around 6pm, and he spit up regularly until he was over a year old.
For no reason at all.
As a well versed modern mommy, I was already a member of an “Expecting Club” on a well known women’s site. If, of course, by member you mean lurking and not posting because the boobnazis I met on that particular board would not take kindly to my surrender to formula.
Nevermind the fact that I exclusively pumped for almost 4 months, and only fed him half formula mixed with half expressed milk for another 2. I was weak. WEAK, I TELL YOU! And not worthy of posting my weak mommy thoughts lest I poison the rest of the
village…
So lurk I did, until one day I came across an article containing a new word in a old blog post. A wonderful word. A word that told me I was not alone.
Sanctimommy.
It said it all. Actually,
she said it all.
She was a mom, but not just any mom. She pulled no punches and told it like it was. She was funny, she was real, she spoke my native tongue.
Sarcasm.
Intrigued, I dug deeper.
What I found was a secret world of moms who were not afraid of speaking their minds. They were not about impressing the crowd at the PTA. They were in it for
survival.
With a side of snark where appropriate, of course.
The summer of 2008 was a life changing time. Fueled by a handfull of well-rounded blogrolls I began blog hopping. I lurked for quite a while. Then, slowly at first, I tested the waters. I started my own blog and joined
NaBloPoMo. I wrote anonymously, still wary of the potential reaction I would garner. Then I got my first comment.
In the beginning, I felt like I was shouting into the Grand Canyon and not even getting the satisfaction of my own echo. My first comment changed that forever. I had spoken and someone spoke back.
If you have never blogged, a word of caution: comments are a gateway drug. They lead you deep into a world of carnivals and giveaways and conferences with hundreds of strangers who can quote your writing to you, but could not pick you out of a police lineup.
For several months, I blogged
on the DL. Only Hubby knew. Then Little Sister, followed rapidly by then newly pregnant BFF. Wonder of wonders, I had readers! I even had a small handful of regular commenters, and while I enjoyed blogging for blogging’s sake, I knew there was so much more out there.
A crafty girl to my core, I wanted to try my hand at
Etsy. I also knew several women that I wanted to share this amazing secret with. Plus, not having to stop myself mid-sentence at family parties to avoid giving myself away would do wonders for my nerves. When
BlogHer announced the reach out tour was coming to Boston, I knew it was time.
I began the transition from an anonymous blog to one I could actually tell people about. I worked for weeks on a name and created my own logos. I started learning a new craft that I would use to launch the shop. I migrated my blogroll to the new email address and disabled all links between the two. Finally, I shut down the blog that had been my home for so long.
Goodbye anonymity, hello
every member of my extended family with internet access.
As I clock in at 10 straight months of blogging, I am amazed at all that I have personally experienced. I have “met” so many wonderful people out here among the pixels. I started a business. I have learned to use words like
widget and
html and
analytics without Hubby checking me for delirium. I have stepped way out of my own comfort zone. Sure I was hyperventilating at certain points, but I did it anyway.
What I have witnessed has also been nothing short of amazing. I have watched
strangers become friends. I have seen hundreds of people reach out to a
family in need. I witnessed the awesome power of a
grass roots movement to save a cottage industry.
I have seen the power of one person finding their voice, and the astonishing results when someone listens.
And though Monkey is almost two years old now, and the whole spit-up thing has resolved itself, he remains a
constant source of
blogging material.
Over the last year blogging has come to mean more to me than I would ever thought possible. It has been a haven and, I will freely admit, at times a curse. Oh2122 has become my creative outlet and soapbox to the world. Each day brings new voices and new experiences. I am learning more about myself and this incredible world with every word I type and every post I read.
And I sincerely thank you from the very bottom of my sarcastic little heart for sharing it with me.
They're amethyst and sterling hung on hand embellished sterling earwires.
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