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.

Just spent the last eight days riding in a car. Oh, wait. We stopped for a bit here and there. But I definitely spent the last 13 hours in a car. Glad to be home. What’d I miss?

Some grandpa stories to share from the journey:

I learned that Grandpa (who is home from the hospital and doing better — thanks for asking) was 4-F in WWII and right out of high school, made nitroglycerin in a factory. Grandma worked there, too, making some kind of acid. One night, there was an explosion and four guys were obliterated. All that was left was a shoe.

My dad’s dad picked him up and brought him home for lunch when he was in high school all the time. Why? Because he wanted to spend quality time with his tenth child! Isn’t that AMAZING? I wondered how that was even possible but my dad explained that his dad (who died seven years before I was born) worked nights so he was available to have lunch with my dad. I remembered my dad boosting me from school to take me out to lunch several times when I was growing up and now, that has even more significance — although I’ve always cherished the memory of those lunches out.

Got any good grandpa stories?

My mother-in-law and father-in-law have been scurrying around, shuttling grandma to and from the hospital to see grandpa, who has been hanging out flirting with nurses since my last update. He’s doing better and we hope to bring him home today, but it’s hard to say whether that will happen (doctors schedules on Christmas Eve are anybody’s guess).

I just overheard my MIL telling my husband that she’s not worried that I’ll take care of her when she’s old. We’d just been talking about friends they have who aren’t sure whether their kids will take care of them; or who have no children and who wonder who will be there for them when they become so dependent. It’s a scary thought.

This conversation comes at an interesting time, as I spent the time in the car (13 hours — whoo hoo!) on the way to St. Louis reading Water For Elephants — a warm, wonderful book about a man who is 90, or 93 (he can’t remember) reminiscing about his years as a veternarian with a circus. He’s in an assisted living facility, this era’s euphemism for “nursing home.” In the book, he is forgotten, or visited by family members who take turns, visiting out of duty. The cycle of their visits is so spread out that by the time the same visitors return, he’s forgotten who they are. He’s stunned when a nurse talks to him as a real person, not a turnip. You’ll have to read the book (and I highly recommend it) to find out the delightful ending.

The timing of this glimpse into this man’s life and recollections could not have come at a better time, as I sat across from grandpa in his hospital gown, watching him dance in his chair as we played the kids’ videos from their winter concerts.

I hope he gets to come home today. It just won’t be the same without him.

Wow! What great singing!
(Except Christopher Walken)
Travolta in drag!

It’s a fun movie
Liked it better than the first
I laughed right out loud

What did you think?

With the writers’ strike, our 3x Netflix contract will be in heavy rotation. Expect more haikus (is that EVEN the plural?) in the near future.

Petey Green, DJ
James Brown was a bad, bad man
Did ALL DJ’s smoke?

Good acting all ’round
It’s a cool snapshot in time
Not a lot of laughs

I’ve been sans grands since 1997. My dad’s dad died seven years before I was born; his mom when I was five. My mom’s mom died when I was in college, and my grandad (from whom I was estranged, with most of my family until I was a pre-teen) passed away when I was 26 or so. Christmas, though, will forever bring memories of my beloved Granny Hig. As we prepared for the holidays, I heard from my friend Rob, who just laid to rest his grandmother at the age of 90. He shared via e-mail how much his grandmother meant to him, and how difficult it would be to not have her part of their lives, especially during Christmas. I get grands. I know exactly how he feels.

My husband has been blessed to have all four of his grandparents into his adult years. His paternal grandparents passed away in the last few years. He’s very lucky to have his maternal grandparents into his late thirties!

Grandpa is not doing well tonight; he’s spending the evening in the ER with breathing problems and chest pains. We’re hoping for the best, of course, that it’s nothing serious and he’ll be up and flirting with the nurses in no time.

Hug those grandparents close. We don’t get them for long, but they’re often what makes the holidays special.