Wishlist for the 12 Days of Christmas

 

**********************

.

 

As my regular readers know I have been assaulted by the shambling hordes of The Walking Dead in recent weeks following my blog statement “I’m Not Crazy, but my Zombie Crew may be” …

So I was a little shocked – but delighted — when @kysilka came at me with the idea to host a Twelve Days of Christmas blogathon! It was, I thought, a chance to escape the rotting flesh for a few moments and bring my readers back to the days when my freak flag wasn’t flying full mast.

Ummm, yeah,…. about that.

Like everything else in recent weeks, it didn’t turn out exactly like I planned…because as soon as I sat down to think about what I would want my true love to bring me, welllllll, you’ll see ….

.

 

How it works: Participating bloggers are putting up their personal version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” on their blogs and leaving their post URLs in the comment section below this post.

.

 

So here it is and try not to cry …. Juliette’s Twelve Days of Christmas dedicated to my TBFF Pauline, a.k.a. @AspiringMama without whom I literally could not have done this …

.

 

**********************

 

 

 

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,

A zombie lurkin’ in a hashtag

.

 

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,

Two shiny crossbows,

And a zombie lurkin’ in a hashtag.

.

 

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,

Three Walking Dead,

Two shiny crossbows,

And a zombie lurkin’ in a hashtag.

Continue reading Wishlist for the 12 Days of Christmas

Happy Birthday to me … and a present for you!

I turn 40 today ….!

Or to be more precise, I turned 40 at 4:17 a.m. (East Coast U.S. time) this morning.

 

There is a part of me that’s upset about the whole thing …

40? Really?!?! Wasn’t I just 14 not that long ago? You know, back when 40 was “old” …

 

But a wise friend, or ten, recently reminded me that “Life begins at 40”

…. Ummm, right. I’ll let ya know in another decade.

Continue reading Happy Birthday to me … and a present for you!

The Answers ARE Here

Every once in a while one of those tag-every-blogger-you-know-and-hope-they-respond challenges floats through my inbox. While they are always amusing and sometimes intriguing, the requests usually fall into the Internet void of my overcrowded inbox – left to languish until some faraway day when, during a spell of frenzied cleaning I happen upon them and… “oh yeahhhhhh.”

Well, not this time!

I got the ole tag-a-roo from my good Twal @kysilka, author of the ever-delightful It’s All Good If You Can Laugh.

The Challenge?

Answer one of the following: Why do you write? Or 10 reasons why should people read your blog.

I chose “10 Reasons” because I thought if I cannot come up with a solid answer, then I need to rethink the why, what and how of my personal blog-ventures.

And here is where I landed:

  1. Global Citizen, my little contribution to the blogosphere, will keep you informed on issues that are important to all of us as members of the global family – and provide information and action items you can use on the issues that matter most to you.
  2.  Who is Luis Moreno-Ocampo? What does UDHR stand for? And, where in the world you can find Goma? Most normal people probably have no idea. Well, for good or ill, I do without looking to Google for a single second and I can tell you why it all matters.
  3.  I spent 12 years living “overseas” working in war zones in the Balkans, South Asia and the Middle East. So many of the places, people, cultures I write about, I write from having experienced them first hand.
  4.  I can relate zombies and vampires to anything. Don’t believe me? Try this one on for size. Still not convinced? Challenge me, go ahead …. Just remember the stakes (see reason below)
  5.  I am a woman with a plan. Not for global domination. Oh no, no, no. Something far more important. I am the unofficial leader of the #zombiesurvivalcrew and as such am fully prepared with a battle plan for the zombie apocalypse.  I also – on occasion – will divulge strategic planning tips (like these) on my blog.
  6.  I stand for free speech, the protection of rights for us all, and a kinder, gentler world…oh! And, of course, the assault of furry monsters!
  7.  I am, according to TBFF @AspiringMama, THE AWESOME. And because I first laughed – then loved – the moniker, I’m going to run with it.
  8.  Write not for numbers but to make a difference, which (again) according to @AspiringMama brings us back to the previous answer ….a-hem. *pause for dramatic effect*
  9.  You can say you “knew me when.” What does that mean? I’m not sure, but it sounds good!
  10.  I listen … so let me know why you read my blog, what you like, what you don’t like and whether or not you think I have lost my mind …

Blog(h)er Smackdown – Take 2

 

What’s that old saying? People who live in glass houses really shouldn’t look in the mirror?!? … well, something like that …

No matter how realistically you think you view yourself, there are certain aspects of our individual nature or personality that we all like to ignore or hide away from the general public.

Trouble is, sometimes life forces you to look in the mirror and find an ugly truth. *sigh*

Sometimes the knowledge comes courtesy of a friend. Sometimes it comes courtesy of a life event.

And sometimes, just sometimes, it comes compliments of a 6-foot tall red furry monster that is supposed to be teaching babies and toddlers, not 30-something year olds, about the world.

Continue reading Blog(h)er Smackdown – Take 2

Blog(h)er Smackdown, Take 1

Before the post-BlogHer10 glow fades and I feel duty-bound to return to my usual offerings of political and human rights pop culture babble (which, incidentally, is very likely to keep me off the invite lists for the really cool soirees for years to come) I want to share some lessons I learned during my New York adventure.

For those not in the know (in other words, me 5 months ago) the BlogHer annual conference is a gathering of (predominantly) female bloggers from around the United States and Canada. There are mommy bloggers, fashion bloggers, coupon clipping bloggers, funny bloggers, special needs bloggers and pretty much every possible kind of “blogger” you can think of.  The conference is a place to learn and schmooze and wear your feet down to bloody stumps.

And this is what I learned ….

1Reaffirmation!

Hands down, the BEST part of the BlogHer experience is discovering the people you meet online are as sweet, caring, beautiful and smart in real life as they are on the Internet. It’s a real relief if, like me, you find yourself often wondering if these beings you tweet, chat or otherwise “connect” with online are actually real, live people and not just some Terminator-esque machine playing a sick joke.

Continue reading Blog(h)er Smackdown, Take 1

Raising a glass for a good cause

Ok, truth time.

The run-up to the BlogHer conference later this week in New York City, and all the pre-conference #dayjob meetings I have after coming off a 6 a.m. flight into JFK airport have got my brain a bit scattered.

Full disclosure? I’m so frazzled I freaked myself out earlier today when talking to #TBFF @AspiringMama when I got it in my head that I am leaving tomorrow.  It is actually @AspiringMama who is leaving tomorrow. With all the packing, the organizing, the regular day job tasks, house cleaning, vet visits, prescription filling and dead camera batteries, can you blame me?

What I find particularly amusing about my current state of mind is that while I am attending a major blogging conference where I have been named a Voices of the Year finalist no less, I am not really blogging this week! How’s that for irony? Or slacking? Or …. Well, you get the picture.

But I always post on Mondays so I didn’t want to leave you all with nothing to show for visiting my little blog. (… and, honestly, with 4 minutes left in the day on the U.S. East Coast I won’t make it … but Central and Pacific time zones can still read this on Monday so that counts. Right. Right?!? Yes, right.)

Continue reading Raising a glass for a good cause

Ten Things that Make Me Happy

I finally lost – and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Since I joined the Twitter revolution in earnest this past January I have been patiently … well, patiently as in drumming fingers on my keyboard and tapping my toes in frustration(!!!) … waiting for someone to “tag me”  for one of those “reveal yourself” blog challenges. I think I can safely say it’s the first time in my life I’ve been so excited to lose a game of tag (well … except for when I was 10 and let Danny *blush, blush* tag me out during a game of hide-n-seek just because I had a pre-teen crush on him).

A robust online and social media presence is a great way to get to know like-minded individuals you might not otherwise have the chance to meet… especially for someone who works from a home office and spends her days buried in research and writing (two lonely but rewarding undertakings). So when I saw that Karin had tagged me on her blog It’s All Good If You Can Laugh I actually let out a “squeeee!” … which led Husband to jump up form couch demanding to know what the cat had dragged into the house THIS time! *snort*

Continue reading Ten Things that Make Me Happy

Marching for Change and a Mexi-fro Shot!

It’s hard to find a reason not to participate in the March of Dimes’ March for Babies. The event is all about working to help give babies a more welcome entry into the world – what could be a more noble cause than that???

As a walker, it’s good for your health. As a sponsor, it’s tax deductible. And if those are not reasons enough – how about a shot at seeing @aspiringmama’s infamous Mexi-fro on display?

Continue reading Marching for Change and a Mexi-fro Shot!