STLWorkingMom

Did you like Dan Fogelberg? I did. I mean, I was a kid in his heyday but every year I waited to hear Same Old Lang Syne on the radio around Christmas. That’s why I loved this story my dad clipped and saved from the paper for me. (That’s how we did it before hyperlinks, kids.) Turns out, Dan’s old lover is a teacher in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.

I think that’s kinda sweet.

Happy New Year, everyone!

In no particular order:

1. My own lovely oak (maple?) sleigh bed
2. The guest bed at my in-laws
3. On an air mattress in my parents’ livingroom
4. On a couch in my parents’ livingroom
5. On a bed in my parents’ house (I got upgraded!)
6. The futon in the basement of my in-laws (I was lower on the guest chain than the guests they already had)
7. A king-sized bed in a condo in Williamsburg, Va.
8. A full-sized bed in my Aunt Joan’s basement
9. At a Embassy Suites in downtown Orlando
10. At a Country Inn and Suites in uptown Orlando
11. In a hotel room at Bally’s, Las Vegas
12. At the Drury Inn on Olive in St. Louis
13. At a Doubletree hotel in Elizabeth, New Jersey

Goal for 2008: Less sleeping around!

Where did you sleep in 2007?

Where was I? Ah, yes, pitching myself to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

I wanted to do a consumer column. Something where I reviewed the crappy customer service at retail establishments all over the St. Louis Metropolitan area. I started with an article about car washes. What’s the difference between the $4 wash and the $6? Is it worth it? Fortunately, I guess the bit showed some kind of promise, because I started with an experiment the Post was trying, writing roundups of what was going on in town and other little pieces for the online version of the paper. All of that work resulted, finally in Shop Talk, the shopping column, then blog, that I wrote for a few years.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’d been writing the weekly Shop Talk for about a year when my editor said, “I think this would work better as a blog.” It being 2003 or so, I knew what a blog WAS, I just didn’t know HOW to blog. So I went home and figured it out, diving in headfirst and setting up STL Working Mom on Blogger (I’m now using Wordpress). I remember sitting at my desk thinking, well, now, who the heck AM I? And what do I want to do with this thing? I decided, if nothing else, I would use my blog to capture the silly stuff my kids did and said — just so I would remember later. I thought maybe I could share some wisdom with working moms struggling to successfully balance work and kids. AS IF I HAVE ANY.

The STL for those of you having trouble with that part, is the airport code for Lambert St. Louis International Airport. Many St. Louis Web sites use this as a prefix, such as the most popular St. Louis Web site, STLToday.com. Since I was writing for that Web site at the time, and very accustomed to typing STL, STLWorkingMom seemed like the way to go — a blog for St. Louis working moms. It wasn’t until last summer in Chicago at BlogHer when I realized, as people from all over the country glanced at my nametag and asked, “Still Working Mom?” that outside of St. Louis, the URL is kind of a problem.

Two years ago, after having established myself pretty thoroughly as the St. Louis Working Mom in STL, we picked up and moved 800 miles to Charlottesville, Va.  

To be continued . . .

I’ve added three new blogs to the Moms section of my blogroll.

1. My Heart’s in Dixie is written by one of my colleagues, Mistie. Her posts are hilarious and poignant as she shares her life raising two little princesses — all with a Southern drawl. Let her explain to you the difference between naked and nekkid.

2. Zuzu’s Petals is another St. Louis mom and an in-person friend of mine. She’s calling herself my blog spawn, as I have encouraged her to start one. She’s new to blogging but the stories she tells, the e-mails she writes — she’s been a blogger all along, she just didn’t know it. One of the funniest people I’ve ever met, Zuzu will always offer up a good read.

3. LittleBitsBlog – a third St. Louis mom and a new blog friend. Kid stories, cute kids — darling photos. I heart St. Louis bloggers. Kim commented and said she “loves and learns from my blog.” Well that just did it because that is why I’m here.

Now, where are the Charlottesville mom bloggers I haven’t discovered?

No, I don’t have cancer. Let’s start there because a friend of mine e-mailed awhile back with some health news and at the start of the e-mail I thought, “Oh no, not another person with cancer,” and she does NOT have it (thank God) but when I pointed out to her that was my FIRST thought she wondered whether she should have begun with I DO NOT HAVE CANCER.

But SO many other people do.

We found out that the day after Christmas a young man at our church passed away after a long battle with cancer. His funeral is Sunday.

My friend M. received bad news about her metastatic breast cancer; also the day after Christmas.

In uplifting news, the charming and beautiful Carmela donated her hair to Locks of Love in a heartfelt gesture.

Cute hair, Mel!

M. opened gifts this year that included pajamas, pillows, a bed table and movies. Depressing, right?

She’s going to start round three of chemo soon and can’t seem to get warm. I’m going to shop for some warm clothes for her. Any other ideas of what she might like? We need to send her a big ol’ bucket of cheer.