This week (May 21 – May 25) is National Swimsuit Confidence Week, and Curvy Girl Guide has teamed up with Land’s End to make women of all shapes, sizes, and statures feel beautiful…in their bathing suits!!
Check me out, along with all of my fellow Curvy Girl writers, in our HOT Land’s End bathing suits. Feel free to “Ooh” and “Ahh,” maybe even do a little cat-calling, and DEFINITELY leave comments. Of course, we also want to see YOU rocking a hot swimsuit of your own, so don’t hesitate to share your photos as well!
Also, we’re having a Twitter Party to celebrate!
Join Lands’ End and SELF Magazine each day May 21 – 25, 2012 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CDST and participate in a series of National Swimsuit Confidence Week events on Twitter. The weeklong movement was created to celebrate women of all shapes and sizes as well as educate and inspire them to embrace their swimsuit beauty and have fun this summer. Each day Lands’ End will give away 6 – $50 Lands’ End gift cards each day!
Hashtag “CONFIDENCE” and follow/respond to Tweets from the following to be eligible to win:
(And me, even though I can’t give you anything…@_partoftheplan)
I’m so, so proud and blessed to be a part of such an AMAZING team of beautiful, confident, intelligent, and often hilarious women, who are spreading the message that it’s okay to love your body, no matter what size you are!
We are unbelievably nervous and excited. I am very early in this whole gestation thing – only four and a half weeks.
I have a lot, lot, lot to talk about (especially why I’m announcing this so early, after the losses I’ve had…I feel like I owe some people an explanation), and I would have told you all about it today, but it’s Mother’s Day and my amazing husband has surprises for me that we need to get to.
I have other, writing-related news as well. But I need the go-ahead from certain powers that be on when I can spill those particular beans.
Husbandbot 5000 is chomping at the bit to get out the door.
I know, way more boring. That’s why I put the fun one first.
Also, this post was largely inspired by this post, except I don’t know anything about maybe half of the stuff she’s talking about. Unions? No clue how they work. Even a little. At all. So I won’t talk about them, because I am not informed enough. I feel like that’s fair.
I’m going to put a bunch of disclaimers on this. Because I can. It’s my right as an American.
First disclaimer: These are my opinions, and my opinions only. I cannot speak for anyone at all except myself.
Second disclaimer: I don’t know how politics work. I don’t know how legislation passes through the Senate or Congress or whatever. I don’t know the procedures. I know basically NOTHING about the way the economy actually works. Andy tries to explain it to me, but it’s absolutely beyond me. So…there’s not a ton I can say about the economy or how to fix it. I know more about ethics than politics, and I’m okay with that.
Third disclaimer: Refer to my “About” page on the left about how I would like political posts of mine to be handled. Mostly just don’t be a dill hole and insult my views; be respectful. Please.
Fourth disclaimer: There may be a subject or two I will avoid. Okay, there WILL be a subject or two I avoid. If you ask me about them in a comment, I will not answer. Again – it’s my right.
And finally, if you think I’m being too serious and junk, just picture me dancing to this, all white-girl-like…just like I did at my wedding:
In fact, just keep it playing the whole time you’re reading/commenting. It’ll keep the mood about where I think it should be.
My mom used to tell me that she never imagined she’d have a daughter more conservative than her…but I was. I really, really was. But then I went from the world where I’d never had to worry about money (we weren’t rich, or poor…my parents were very responsible with money and we were always comfortable within our means), to a world where finding a job is beyond difficult, and there is nothing that’s affordable anymore, from our health to our food to our transportation.
Why the heck not? Nobody has every overdosed on THC, but people overdose on alcohol every single day. Also, you cannot become physically addicted to pot, but, again, you DEFINITELY can to alcohol. You can feel psychologically dependent on the effects of marijuana, but quitting cold turkey can’t kill you; quitting alcohol cold turkey CAN. I don’t know how it would affect the economy or drug cartels or whatever, but I think it’s a good idea. I think a lot of people would be more calm. Heck, I KNOW people would be more calm. I’ve been to college. I’ve seen things (meaning I worked with a lot of pot heads at a certain job I had a while back, and they were all totally awesome, chill people).
I know there are a boatload of carcinogens and whatnot, but seriously, what isn’t carcinogenic these days? Plus, vaporizers can take out a good portion of the carcinogens, if I’ve been informed correctly.
Choice:
I’m pro-life, and that’s that. That doesn’t mean I’m anti-contraception or that I’m going to rally at abortion clinics or hold up signs or hate on, yell at, judge, or otherwise disrespect anyone who feels differently.
Education:
PAY OUR TEACHERS WHAT THEY DESERVE!! That’s my first issue. Why should the people educating the future of our nation be stuck so close to, or even BELOW, the poverty line?! HOW IS THAT OKAY?! I know America suuuuucks right now in the worldwide scheme of education, but I don’t know how we change that, besides getting better teachers to teach better material and getting kids to listen, learn, and perform better. I know a lot of people who know a lot more about the education system than I do, so I’m not going to try to go any further. I just don’t know enough.
So…I suppose that’s sort of it for what I actually know enough to have an opinion about. I said quite a bit about government assistance in the Curvy Girl Guide article, though, so you should definitely go check that out. It pretty much captures how I feel about the matter. I was going to write an addendum to it on here, where I could be a little more candid, and less politically correct, and WAY less grammatically correct. But…I ran out of steam, and really, there’s not a whole lot more I could say about it.
Alright, I think I found the point I’m trying to make in all of this:
Forever ago, I hated politics. I hated the rally cry to “get involved.” I thought protesting and making a stand was foolish, and wouldn’t make a difference. I thought political activism was a waste of time.
And then I got pregnant and had a child at nineteen, and things started to change. Slowly but surely, I started realizing that I actually DID have political opinions…I just had had no reason to really explore them yet. But now I do. And I am. Especially in the last six months (OMG I totally forgot – I’ve been here for six months, as of two days ago!! Happy half-birthday, blog!). As I read different opinions on different issues, I realize it just wouldn’t be right for me NOT to get involved. So. I’m still working on the whole opinion part, but I’m definitely into this whole activism thing. Which I realized on SOPA/PIPA Day (Did it have a name? Like, a real one?). Which, if you know me at all, is TOTALLY UNLIKE ME.
I went an entire day without showering or eating, and I never even put on real clothes or a bra…because I spent hours and hours researching, ranting, and writing about POLITICS. That is sooooo not what high-school-me would ever have thought I’d be doing. EVER.
So, there you have it. I feel like I’m meant to do big things in the realm of activism. I feel like there’s something big ahead for me; I just need to figure out what. I plan on just plugging away at it, and getting involved wherever and whenever I can in the future. I want to learn more. I want to use my voice. I want to DO something!
I know that from my total lack of new posts, I look like I’ve been HORRIBLY LAZY lately, but I swear, I haven’t been.
Okay, well that’s a lie. In the twelve days I didn’t work (because when our census is low, the PRN employees get cut first…it’s awesome. I’m poor.), I was way lazy at home. The house got SOOOO messy and I didn’t make our bed ONCE and I didn’t do ANY laundry and I watched a crazy number of movies, and two seasons of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (best show EVER, by the way).
Yeah, I’m a totally awesome wife and mother and housekeeper.
Anyway, so I was lazy that way, but in terms of social media, I’ve been so busy that I’m about to rip my hair out. I have pages and pages of snippets of posts and a whole notepad thing on my phone where I write down ideas that I think will translate into hilarious posts, and I have four different “real articles”…all totally full and ready, and I WILL get to them, and they WILL be awesome.
I’ve been spending all my time getting officially employed at Curvy Girl Guide (I KNOW!!! Holy crap, right?!), and submitting articles to them (one comes out tomorrow, and if I have ANY TIME between work and spending probably an hour on the phone with another totally awesome Kristen [who, I'm sure, will be ready to rip her own hair out as she wades through my utter ignorance as it pertains to techie/computer/HTML/website setup stuff. I'm surprised she hasn't blocked me on Twitter yet. Seriously, she's an astoundingly patient woman, considering how freaking annoying I've been tonight.] to fix me up with a new e-mail address and some Google Analytics nonsense, I will be writing a slightly-less-tactful and politically correct addendum to, on this here site in the evening).
You know, there wasn’t a single thing about that last paragraph that was grammatically correct. I don’t really care.
Anyway, I’ve been doing that, and being a mom (probably not the greatest mom), and working for the last three days in a row (I know, you’re thinking, cry me a river. I have no idea how any mom can work full-time outside the home. I am NOT cut out for it), and Meredith drunk dialed me again, and I’m finding out I’m a ton like her, only a little younger, and a whole lot less successful, and we talked about how stupid “the system” is and about how we both get crazy-angry when people are rude or offensive and we rant and get belligerent and, as Brittany calls it, “four seconds to ghetto.” And now we’re going to try and now blow up on the Internet, and maybe just call each other or something to rant instead…? Maybe. I don’t know what I’m saying right now.
All I know is that if I’m going to really make a go of this whole social-media-chick thing, I can’t be my normal, rant-y, totally belligerent, say-anything-I-want-impulsively-all-the-time self. I mean, I can still be myself, but I have to calm down a little. And play nice sometimes, even when I don’t want to.
Which I’m obviously not doing now. But whatever.
I’m so excited about my future in writing. Like, I’m pee-my-pants-in-public excited. I was asked to help contribute to a book on women’s self-image, and I already have a vague outline in mind for my submission. I’m jumping on board (Kristen, I swear, I’m going to start submitting stuff SO SOON) at this FANTASTIC new site called Ten to Twenty Parenting, where I already have my first article thing outlined in my head, and I can probably start scrawling it on scrap paper while I’m on the desk tomorrow, for the last-minute shift I picked up (LOVE my job and the money. HATE the fact that I have to get up at five-thirty.), because that’s how about half my posts get written. And now you know my secret.
Also, as soon as money starts coming in from CGG, the paychecks from all these shifts I’m picking up start coming in, and we just get generally stable in the bank account apocalypse that is the post-Christmas season, I’m going to hire (loosely put, it’s all verbal “contracting” at this point) a good friend from high school to redo my WHOLE SITE because that’s what her degree is in and she is fantastic and I will never stop talking her up, until the end of time, I freaking swear, I am SO THANKFUL that she’s agreeing to help me with this.
So that’s why my site looks so sterile right now. I’m tired of having one of the creative, but somehow still cookie-cutterish, backgrounds. Also, I’m a creature of habit, and I need to transition slowly into the new look.
And Andy’s trying to get me to write a book, which is FOR SURE on my bucket list (and has been since I was about twelve), but I have no effing clue what it would be about. All I know is it’ll be fictional. And probably disjointed, like everything else I ever write.
I may need to have an extensive conversation with Nuala about this, since she’s an actual, published-in-actual-hard-copy-print, knows what she’s doing, has written three (THREE!!!) novels (Nuala, if I’m butchering this, forgive me – it’s late, I need to get up early, and my mind is spiraling out of control).
This is a dream for me, you guys. Like, my actual fantasy, pipe dream job that I’ve had since before I even knew what a real job was.
Of course, when I realized what a real job was, that was when my dream went down the toilet because I thought there was no way I could possibly make enough money at it to support me or my family in any way. But I’ve told that story roughly twenty times already, so I don’t need to go over it again. Suffice it to say that it is BEYOND SURREAL to me that this is actual becoming a real, live possibility. I mean, my writing, by itself, won’t support the whole family (which, to be honest, is the only reason I’m still going to school to be a nurse right now), but it’s something!
Sooooo I probably missed a bunch of stuff that’s still buzzing around in my head that I wanted to tell you, but I have to end with this last thing that I think is particularly hilarious (because I fancy myself quite witty, you know), and then go to bed because five-thirty is going to come WAY too early.
So I talk to Andy a lot about the bloggers I’ve “met” in the last seven months. Some I talk to more than others. A few I follow pretty closely. I’ve had very meaningful exchanges with most of them. You know who you are. All of you are fantastic, and wonderful, and supportive, and just…awesome. You’re all the best. I’m so thankful to know all of you.
But I have been running into a problem: when I start referring to these people in conversation, I don’t know what to call them. I feel like calling them “friends” is getting too familiar, and I don’t want to feel or sound or look like a stalker, calling someone I haven’t met in person a friend. I don’t know, it’s complicated, and it has a lot to do with my TOTAL social ineptitude. It’s like…I always feel like people are fine being acquaintances with me, but I’m way too awkward and weird and annoying to be a true friend.
Oh my gosh, I’m typing this and “hearing” myself sound like such an idiot.
Let’s try again: I feel like people don’t want to be friends with me. They’re fine knowing me and acknowledging me if I’m around, but that’s it. I honestly feel like I’m always bothering everyone if I talk to them, and that nobody genuinely wants to have a conversation with me or be, like, a true friend of mine, and I feel like if they were to hear me refer to them as my “friend,” they’d get offended and think, Um…no. I know who she is, but we’re definitely not FRIENDS.
I’m going to stop myself before I go into the whole “I feel invisible, nobody likes me” pity-party thing (which I’ve been known to do once in a while) , and get to my point.
I need to find a comfortable way to refer to these people.
Blog-friends? Blogger friends? Online-type-friends? That one girl I know from that blog about _______? You know, that one where she _________?
