Jenny On the Spot: Caffeinated mom, lover of dancing, glitter and glitter.

I decided to give up giving up.

What?

Aaanywho.

I took the kids to the grocery store with me because I love taking my kids into public spaces. Let’s face it, I am a self-punisher. It builds character, and MAN, have I earned my fair share of character in these 10+ years of mothering.

Fortunately, during this particular outing, no character-building happened.

However, it was Fat Tuesday… and all of my fun pallies that work over there at the Central Market were wearing Mardi Gras bead on account of the fact that it was Fat Tuesday.

Being the “with it” kind of gal that I am, I asked my girl Debbie, “Why the beads, yo I love the bling!?” She was all, “FAT TUESDAY” … yadda, yadda, yadda …Mardi Gras!

“I knew that.”

As we walked away, the questions came a-firin’ from the kids squad: “What’s Fat Tuesday? What’s Mardi Gras?”

I said something about Lent.

“What’s Lent?”

BAH! What’s with the inquisition?

I held them off until we got into the car. The public did need to hear my stammering. I mean I KNOW what those things are, but knowing and explaining are two very different beasts.

Ya know? Please don’t make me explain, m’kay? Thankyouverymuch.

I was able to boil down to: on Fat Tuesday people get to indulge (then I had to explain THAT word – jeese!) the day before giving up something you love for 40 days.

Then I went straight into telling them their chores for the day.

What did I get back?

Joel (10): Can we work really hard all day today? Then we can give up working for Lent!

Mom (noneofyourbusiness): You have to give up something you LOVE, dude.

From the back seat, I heard the sweet 7 year-old voice of my daughter…

I love work.

Stinkers.

I am sooooo out-numbered.

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JD, may I use that phrase? I know you own the whole, “I *insert action here* so you don’t have to” concept. And it’s true! She does it ALL so we don’t have to. She’s a giver like that. She even ate sardines! I would NEVER do that for you… but mostly because my tummy is so full of Oreos and coffee all the time.

Aaaanywho. I digress.

I want to re-post my story about a cleanse I did a little over a year ago, in case you missed it. We are embarking on a season of resolutions. A time when we feel motivated to eat our veggies or purge our inboxes… or colons. Depends on the individual.

Here’s a picture. Totally unrelated. I’m getting too wordy. *eyes cross* Lucy got “polka bot” jammies for Christamas this year… I got my own last year. She made us wear them together the night she got hers. We took pics. I love how she puts on her best face for pictures:

Continue reading ‘In Which I Save Your 2010: I Did A Cleanse So You Don’t Have To’

But first, a video:

Crazy, ehh?

This is a different world for us. For our children. How do we navigate this new social world?

I recently went on a bit of a social media fast. I am still processing what changed for me. Some quick thoughts:

• I feel like I lost ground… in the social media world. I lost some of my grip on the fast moving train, but I don’t feel like I fell off. I am still not back to Twitter like I had been. That could simply be due to the fact that life demands things of me where I simply cannot tend to that area of my interest… of my life.
• I feel like I gained ground. But not much. The laundry was never completely done, the kitchen was never completely cleaned, the kids were never completely satisfied.
• It was not a complete fast. I still had paid gigs to tend to and I simply could not abandon email. Not that I NEED email, but my circle of contacts and friends have come to expect email is as reliable as a phone message. I cannot ignore email.
• I found I missed Facebook. “No kidding” was your first thought, right? I find I missed it for a reason I didn’t expect. I felt left out. Like the kid who was grounded. I felt like I missed out on news and happenings… good news, sad news, writing birthday wishes on walls, jokes, banter… I learned Facebook has become a tool I really rely on to feel connected. That seems obvious, but  this “fast” showed me the extent it has affected my feeling of connectedness.
• Email is still my nemesis.
• It is hard to read all the blogs I desire to read. During this time my passion to try to keep up on other blogs was realized. Now the struggle is finding a system.

But what got me thinking about writing this was a post at Mashable, Facebook Quitters: Find Out When Someone De-Friends You.
Continue reading ‘Personal Thoughts on Using Facebook & Twitter’

…ucuz I’m classy like that.

Before I expound on my my wordage skillzesses… perhaps I will start from the beginning. OR… as a word creator such as my self might say… the beginnitives.

*dramatic pause*

My friend Carrie of the highly acclaimed Stop Screaming I’m Driving! put a little call-out on her Facebook for FB addicted moms, or whathaveyou. I was all, “I’m not addicted. I want to teach the world how I am not addicted, but rather an efficient and frequent user of social media!” And whatnot.

*dramatic pause*

Carrie had the privilege of, of… experiencing her first-time radioness (I am on a flippin’ new word roll!!!). The podcast of her smooth talkin’ can be found here. And as a result of her gig, she was asked by the producers if she knew anyone who’d be willing to make themselves vunerable.

Enter Jennyonthespot… a.k.a. “will do anything to get more people to hear her… giving no thought to reputation or consequence” or WDATGMPTHH…GNTTROC,  for short.

Prior to my interview on the the local station KUOW 94.9 FM…

…I had to give my kids the “what for”. Basically, if you interrupt my one shot at infamy, I will lose it… dear offspring. You owe me this, you OWE me!!!

*pops chill pill*

I took all three of my lovelies and told them,
Continue reading ‘I used the “word” MODERATIVE on a radio interview…’

This is yet another post about the search phrases that introduce the unsuspecting to my little spot here on the interwebz. It seems the most popular traffic-driving search phrase was “Julia Roberts“. Yes, my celebrity twin…

In past search keyphrase posts I list a bevy of phrases. I am going to be more picky here. Maybe. We’ll see. I have no set number, I am fueled by emotion, I have to read through over 800 phrases, and I am not skilled in the art of “deciding”. So. I am going to try to leave out the obvious: mail whale tail fail, marathon, triathlon, Jenny, butt, and the like. Rather, I will focus on… *screech* Did somebody just write “focus”. Heh. THAT’S funny.

The following are the ones that really caught my eye. The ones that evoked either an eye-rub, perhaps a mental “stalling”, showed me I am needed, or… no, I will not share the ones that made me gag… I will do my best to answer where appropriate. They came here looking. I am here to help the needy.

cute little leprechauns dancing – Yeah. Because the I am all about leprechauns here. Let the *blinking* begin.

what chocolate does to the body – floods it with purpose?
Continue reading ‘How People Find Me. Poor People.’

Proceed with caution. I have the ladies at Where’s My Damn Answer to thank for the direction of this post. 

Why? Because they asked me to guest-post over there and because I am an attention whore a giver, I said, “Fo Shizzle!” When Jenny sees an opportunity to get more attention need…

No. That’s not me in that box. I’m am human, not animal. OK, but… that’s another post.

Continue reading ‘You Have Questions. I Have Answers.’

Dear Friends,

It is with much excitement and honor I come to you today. I have been given an opportunity… a chance… a place to serve. My dear friend Ricardo Gomez came to me only a few short days ago and asked if I would be the Vice-President to his President over there on the Facebook. 

Continue reading ‘I Approve This Message’

Did you see my recent post… about how I recently baked a cake for the sole purpose of eating it by the row(s)?

My post today is about 180 degrees in the opposite direction. It’s about running. Eeek – exercise! I have had a few friends recently ask me about what music I listen to when I run. I know I often google “running music” to see if there’s a new song or two out there that might help me push harder, or just go a little longer. So, being the giver that I am, I figured… I’ll just put the list of My favorite songs out there on this here interwebz.

Let me preface this with a statement: Music is VERY personal. What moves me may not move you. As I peruse the song lists of other runners, I think I only click with 10% of what is recommended… and I feel I have a fairly diverse taste in music. However… when it comes to running, I consider music to help me with warm-up, hill-tackling, speed, cadence, cool-down… and groove. Of course… groove!

I bet other runners consider these aspects as well, but how does music fit with your specific motivational tastes? That’s key – what sounds and style motivates you to push… sometimes it’s just the lyrics… I like “Stronger” by Kanye West — “… that don’t kill me can only make me stronger…” I am not a HUGE fan of the song, but I find at the end of a run, when I really CAN push, but just don’t WANT to push – I go to this song. I tell myself, “I am not killed… not killed… not killed… gettin’ stronger..” Or stupider… I digress. Here is my list… not my complete list, but my faves… the ones that take me when I can’t take myself:
Continue reading ‘In Which I Share a Few Thoughts on Running and Music’

It’s taken me 4.5 years, but I am creeping curiously close to Post #1000! Whoa Nelly! 285 of which (plus a few) have all been created in 2008… I have Blog 365 to thank for that, as well as the rather unhealthy “bent” in my personality, that professionals refer to as… “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”. Is there “Selective OCD”? Because there are areas of my life I do not obsess over: doing bills, returning phone calls and emails, dusting, vacuuming, or things that may require planning or commitment.

If my math is correct, I could hit post #1000 on January 1st. But I hate math. You do it. 1 post a day through the end of the year – 80 days left… Ouch. Just typing numbers make my head feel like it’s gonna crack wide open. *gagging*

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Hey – how is the market affecting you? Have gas prices gagged your purse strings? I’m curious. Are you making different choices for your family? Cutting back? Will you keep your house colder this winter? Do you make your own lattes? Stocking up on socks, are you? Growing an extra layer of body hair, perhaps??? I hear large sea mammals (such as the walrus) have lots of blubber that keeps them warm…

I find I am tolerating a colder home, working harder to make food at home, drive less, I am thinking harder about purchases, PB&J & refried beans are more and more often a viable option for multiple meals in a row… but the most unfortunate result of this economic crisis is: my roots are horrible! Oh the travesty!!!

I am going to be sporting the grunge look a few weeks longer than is socially acceptable. Keeping up one’s roots, while important, is VERY expensive. Wall Street doesn’t even talk about this kind of stuff. Real sacrifices for real people. We bloggers, we keep it real… we keep it on the level. WE are the social media, and I feel it’s time I said something!!! The economy is affecting my hair, people!

Don’t bother asking a woman how the market is affecting her/her family… just look at her roots…. just look at her roots.

Go ahead. Laugh… but mark my words… Mark. My. Words. The roots… you will find your answer at the roots.

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I know, all my girlfriends saw that title and were all, “Uh! Mah! Gah! I can’t WAIT to read about casual gaming!!!” You said that, right? Right? 

*crickets chirping*

And what is “casual gaming”? It is an experience with a game sans “major ordeal”. You can turn it on without having to commit an hour or all night. There is pleasure and little anxiety… not too complex… just a “Hey, I’m gonna go unwind for a little bit…” kind-of experience. At least, that was my understanding… Like solitaire and sudoku… though there are losts of casual games that require a bit more thumb dexterity or finger tapping speed than those 2 games. In either case – just “casual”, as opposed to the type where you see people descend into a dark basement and morph into a dark persona…

Anyway. Now I feel like I can add another tally-mark on the post-it of tally-marks I keep to track my growing geek-ness. Adding to my technical geek-ness makes me feel cool! “Cool” is so cool. Plus, the other tally-mark post-it poster boards I have keep track of how many times I’ve had wipe up pee accidents over the last 9 years. Not my own accidents, but of my little “potty trainers” over the years. Yeah, that one does not evoke similar feelings of coolness. 

I know, I keep getting off-track. Continue reading ‘I went to GameHouse and learned a new term, “casual gaming”.’