The Silent "I"

Water, Water, Everywhere...And Now I Need a Drink

Ten day ago, I was taking a shower when I noticed that there was no hot water. I didn't think much of it, other than I should probably check out the waterheater.  I walked into the closet, and noticed that the carpet was soaking wet. I looked up, thinking that we must have a ceiling leak from all the rain the week before.  Somehow, 2 + 2 was not equaling 4 in this equation, and I didn't think the two things were connected.

Later, I was in the laundry room, and thought I heard water running inside our garage, so I went out to investigate.  What I found was a river running through our garage, winding its way through a canyon of boxes, old  furniture, and debris collected over the twelve years we've lived in the house.  The water was traveling through the garage and out onto the driveway.  I dug my way through the clutter in the garage to the mouth of the river: our decrepit, antique waterheater. I felt like Lewis & Clark forging their way to the Missouri River headwaters.

Frank was out of town, so I called a plumber, and after three tries, finally hit upon one with an emergency answering service.  I really think that Joe the Plumber should have stayed in his line of work and gotten a license. People need plumbers.  Pundits? Not so much. I've never heard anyone say, "If I don't see George Will or Arianna Huffington right this minute, I will certainly keel over dead."  They might, however, say, "There's a river running through my garage, and if I don't find a plumber soon, I may need a sailboat to get out of the house."

Mom 2.0 Summit Recap

 

I spent last weekend in Houston with a group of about 300 mombloggers and marketing professionals at the Mom 2.0 Summit.  It was a great mix of socializing, practical advice, and networking.  I got to catch up with some bloggers I love, meet some new friends, and find out more about the world of advertising in a 2.0 world.

I decided about a month ago to take down my BlogHer ads, (though I adore BlogHer as an organization and the women who run it are superhero(in)es in my book).  The reason was that I had lost my will to blog, having left it all on the road during the election.  I decided to check out this conference to see if it would be worth it to blog in earnest again, whether I should monetize this blog or not, and what types of opportunities might be out there for my other blog-passion, MOMocrats. 

It seemed as though every time I sat down, I was sitting next to the most brilliant, fascinating, friendly person in the world.  Much is written and discussed about the mean-spiritedness and competitiveness in the blogosphere, but really, not enough can be said about the way that we can come together and form communities, over coffee or martinis or blogs or Twitter and bond over our commonalities as women.