Suburban Oblivion

First off, big thanks to Plain Jane Mom for the link yesterday! Making her Go Read It lists are like being noticed by a celebrity, so I always feel all warm and tingly afterwards. If you aren’t reading her daily yet, you should be!

Second, thanks so much for the comments on my last topic, who knew people would have so much to say about mommy boards? LOL! I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who’s had these kinds of experiences with them. I do tend to be very straightforward, and I certainly have my opinions, and while some people are fine with that, others freak out and consider you to be too abrasive for happy-fluffy-fairy land. I truly do wonder how these people function in real life, because my life certainly isn’t all roses and kittens! Too funny others have been banned as well, here I thought I was special! Makes you wonder how many bloggers started out on mommy boards before turning to this medium? Many I’d bet. Perfect lives make for very boring blogs, so if rejects rule the blogosphere, all the better.

Sorry I wasn’t around yesterday, hubby had a conference down in Perdido Key so after it wrapped up I brought the kids down and we took them to the beach. The younger two had never been, and what an experience that was! Damian is usually my daredevil in the pool, but was TERRIFIED of the waves. Wanted NO part of it, and was much happier playing in the sand. Brendan is always so cautious around the water, but LOVED it, and had no problem playing in the shallow water! Silly kids! All in all it was a great time, and I steadfastly maintain the Gulf Coast has the most beautiful beaches anywhere. We had lunch at Lambert’s Cafe, always a good time there. There is something great about eating at a place where they literally throw food at you! If you are lucky enough to live or travel near one, GO. The food isn’t fancy, it’s homestyle cooking at it’s best. Mmmmmmmmm.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend as well. What did you do with this gorgeous weather?

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Way back when I was pregnant with my oldest, I joined my first online message board for parents. The chats, the easy access to other moms; I was hooked from day one. It seemed natural to join another when I got pregnant with my second. Overall it was another good experience, not without a few bumps along the way, but worth the trouble in the end.

Then I got pregnant with my third. By this point I was 6 1/2 years older than when I started my message board journey, and considerably more experienced and dare I say, opinionated? While this was accepted as me being me in the other two communities, the third one was all about nothing but happiness to the point of being expected to have sunshine and rainbows beaming from your ass while sitting on a cloud of puffy hearts and fairy sparkles. Ummmm, yeah. Not me. After daring to disagree on some benign subject, I was promptly banned. And thus began my downward spiral.

For a long time I gave up on finding any new online boards. Everything I joined was either slow-moving or full of sunshine-blowers, and I’d get bored and move on. Pointless. So now recently as I am working on promoting my blog, I got the brilliant idea to join a couple new communities and meet new people. My only excuse is that having birthed three children, my brain is now slowly disintegrating and leaking out of any number of suspect orifices. Either that or previous experience has taught me nothing.

I had forgotten how utterly stupid people in internet land can be. I’m not talking like ‘lack of education stupid’, I don’t have a college degree myself. I’m talking about ‘why did they not sterilize you at birth???’ stupid. People who could convince even the most emphatic of pro-lifers that there should be a test of some sort required to reproduce. Last night in chatting with a couple of friends we got to discussing who we do and don’t like there, and this was my response. A litmus test if you will, to know if I like you or not.

*If you have ever posted asking if it is ok to let your 8 week old baby scream himself to sleep, I probably don’t like you.

*If you have ever posted complaining that your baby won’t hold his own bottle, I probably don’t like you. (When you are responsible for them for the next 18 years, you can take 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to feed them, asswipe.)

*If you truly believe it is ok to drug your dog, spank your dog, or lock it in a closet, I probably don’t like you.

*If you have ever used the words “YOU DON’T KNOW ME!!!!!” as a response to any post, I probably don’t like you.

*If you post talking about some stupid thing you did, yet start the post with “Don’t judge me, but…”, I probably don’t like you.

*If your ‘baby daddy’ has another child within a month of having one with you, and you are still with him(and likely bitching about the other mother), I probably don’t like you.

*If you gush and rave about how much you “love how we all get along here without any drama!!”, I probably don’t like you. In fact, I know I don’t, because the blinding glare of the sunshine rays shooting out of your butt is annoying.

Judgmental as heck? Yes, I am. I admit it. No worries, karma will get me. I’ll likely have a permanent scar from beating my head against the wall from reading all this drivel.

In my quest to rule the world

I got a call the other day from the PTA president. Seems I have managed to snag a spot on the PTA board! Official title is Vice President of Volunteers, though since every spot but president is a ‘VP’ title, it doesn’t mean much. It’s just the volunteer coordinator, but hey, I’m all about the fancy titles. I was room mom for my daughters class this year, and in this position I will be in charge of overseeing all the room moms and rounding up people to work the things like the book fairs, field day, etc. I like working with people, not so keen on all the mounds of paperwork I know I will have to keep up with. (On the bright side it will force me to finally keep that New Years resolution of becoming more organized.)

The only thing that worries me is I keep reading about the politics that go along with it, and I’m afraid the horror stories are likely true. I already got a taste of this when one of the board members called me, and in passing mentioned how she and a few others were annoyed at the current president because he worked full time, and was not able to take off to come to every daytime event. This was said in a tone that suggested they highly disapproved, and I’d bet money that was not their only gripe. Seems you can’t get a bunch of women together in any capacity without there being some kind of drama. *sigh* On the other hand, with two years of playgroup politics under my belt, I’m not sure there’s much they could throw at me that could be worse! Bring it on!

If nothing else, I should get some really good blog material out of it!