On a roll

I decided that if I'm going to start writing here again, and maybe I am, I should update what's in the blogroll for the first time in one million years. I've cleaned it up some already. A few of my old favorites are less interesting to me than they were, and a lot of them have gone quiet — especially, sadly, a lot of the social-justice based ones. I've added some to the list, as well, but there's room for more.

So, what are you reading? Where are you writing on the internet? What should I add to the list? What of the new stuff I've added are you so excited to read now?

Good

Oh, look! It's November again. And one reader loooooooves the Month of Gratitude, so I'm doing it again.

Here's a thing about me that many people who know me well do not know about me: I am terrified, like, total-panic-level terrified, of Doing It Wrong.

That is true for almost any It I do over the course of a day or a lifetime:

• doing my job
• getting dressed
• accessorizing
• being a friend
• being a girlfriend
• dancing
• singing
• stage management
• staying in touch
• eating
• dental hygiene
• feminism
• antiracism
• telling a joke
• cooking for people
• playing pool
• coordinating an event
• having people over
• blogging

Some of you will want to reassure me that I don't do at least some of those Its wrong, because you like the way I do them. That is sweet, but not really the point.

Of course I'm good at some (many) of those things. I don't do a lot of them unless I'm nearly certain I can do them right. And even still, I screw up sometimes.

The most liberating thing a former colleague ever said to me was, "Sometimes, done is good." I don't put that advice into practice very often, but when I do, it is always, always a relief.

All of that by way of saying, some of why you don't get very many blog posts from me is that I am really really, often, afraid of Doing It Wrong — of not being funny or clever enough, of offending someone or making space for someone else to offend someone. And here is where I should say, "but I'm over all that. If people get offended, that's their problem. Maybe they needed to be offended." But I won't, because actually, I think concern for that kind of thing is one of my pretty good qualities, even if it is the flip side of one of the qualities that gets in my way most.

Day 1 of our month of gratitude: I am thankful for friends and readers who are not usually as hard on me as I am on myself. I'd also be super, super thankful if any of those friends or readers wanted to write a guest post this month, à la last year.

Note: Lest any of you start worrying that I apply the same standards to others that I do to myself, I don't. First, I am too busy worrying about me to worry about you. Mostly. Second, if you're in my life, it's probably because you do at least one thing very well that I wish I could do so well. Nearly all of my friends share that. 

Good to the last drop

Lisa's not the only one who can take a picture of a mug. Mug provided by bzh.

Welcome, Polka Dot Cottage readers! There should be some new stuff here soon, but it'll be about Plattsburgh, NY, so if you want to get up to speed around here, may I recommend you start with The Plattsburgh Saga from nearly three years ago? (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) To get a feel for the rest of what I write, click around on the labels over there in the left rail, according to your interests.

Regular readers, hey there! A much more popular blogger than I (who is also my old friend) featured me on her blog this morning! She writes all kinds of useful/interesting/fun things, and today, she posted an interview with me! Grab a cup of coffee and get to know your blogger better. I will be drinking iced tea. Or lemonade. Probably an Arnold Palmer, because I'm indecisive like that. But I don't drink coffee. That was a bonus fact for those of you who actually read CMC, whether newly today or all the time.

(Also, today is RI's birthday. Happy birthday, RI!)

Unplanned

Someone recently asked me how blogging fit into my daily life, and I responded with something like, "I WISH blogging fit into my daily life."

And you all know that's true, that for me blogging is mostly a way of staying in touch (though I love all my internet-only buddies here, too), and that I love staying in touch.

But also? I am just filled with gratitude for my life right now. Like, people ask how my weekend was, and I say, "busy," while rolling my eyes and almost out of breath, but the fact of the matter is, I choose my busy, because my life is filled to brimming with fun stuff and I don't want to miss out on any of it.

I've had this problem before; in college, I'd stay up late and get up early (sometimes), just because I didn't want to miss latenight conversations or shenanigans in the hallway of my dorm, and if I could get myself up in time, I didn't want to miss breakfast with a different group of amazing people.

For example, this weekend was the first in a long time that RI and I didn't have any plans — and we have a lot of heavily planned weekends coming up. In this unplanned weekend, I:

• Went to a lecture on "The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity"
• Visited with my parents and some old family friends
• Went yardsaling
• Hit the farmer's market
• Took a nap
• Started a new book (reading, not writing)
• Watched a documentary
• Had a date night out at our favorite Latin American restaurant
• Played a new game
• Set up a screen tent and a queen-sized airbed on the deck and fell asleep watching the fireflies (and woke up hearing birdsongs and the neighbor kid practicing violin)
• Went to church and heard my dad preach a really excellent sermon on the child refugees
• Took another nap
• Had a spontaneous ice cream double date with some friends
• Went to the supermarket
• Played with my niece and nephew
• Saw the very end of the World Cup final
• Read with my niece and nephew
• Had dinner with the family

I did not:

• Go to bed as early as I planned
• Get the laundry done
• Do a little writing for work
• Blog

...but I wouldn't have missed any of it. I mean, right?

What you read here

Of the top-ten most-read posts this blog has ever had, five were in 2013.

Of those five, four were month-of-gratitude posts.

And of those four, three were written by people other than me.

Just thought you might be curious, and plus, it's an easy post to pull together. Here's to a 2014 of posts written by other people (as well as me), to first-time visitors and old friends, to words worth sharing with everyone you know.

Those top-five 2013 posts:

1. >
2. Thanks for the lift
3. Spinning
4. Devil is in the detailing
5. Lessons of Gratitude from my First Year of Marriage

Which were your favorites from CMC this year?

Hey, thanks

Longtime readers will know that November is traditionally my month of gratitude, in which I share a post a day on what I'm thankful for.

Longtime readers may also remember that last year, I made noise about how maybe I wouldn't do it quite the same way anymore.

At the time, what I was thinking was that maybe I'd do a month of gratitude every 13 (or 11) months, so that it wouldn't always be November — at least that might lend some diversity to my nature- or weather-based gratitudes. And I reserve the right to do that in the future.

But for this year, I just had an even better idea.

Guest posters.

Any of you want to do just one post in November for CMC on the subject of something for which you are thankful?* I'll take volunteers here in the comments. Every day I don't have a guest post to share, I'll post myself, just the way I have the last few years. Won't that be the funnest?

If you have questions, you can drop those right into the comments, too.

*Guidelines: Volunteers should be prepared to write a guest post on the subject of something for which they are thankful. Posts can be of any length. Deadlines will be mutually agreed-upon. Guest posters who have their own blogs will obviously be free to link to their own blogs. Guest posters who prefer to remain anonymous will be assigned a name to distinguish them from other guest posters or commenters. Potential volunteers who prefer to blog on a different topic are encouraged to look at my old month-of-gratitude posts and observe a long and proud history of writing whatever I want and twisting it to vaguely connect to gratitude.

And then (almost) a whole month went by

Today, one of my very favorite readers (and, you know, real-life friend), sent me this e-mail:

You there?

Hadn’t seen anything on the blog in a while. Just wanted to see how you were doing and check in on an old friend. And by old I mean, longtime. Not chronologically.

Never mind.

...which was perfect, in that it let me say to him what I have been planning to say to you all regarding my absence:

Ha! I have half a dozen posts in my head. I'm doing great, actually, thanks for checking in, just busy: away for a weekend with high school friends, college reunion, bananas at work (in mostly good/ok ways), trying to fit in time with the romantic interest. I will try to start getting some of those posts out of my head and onto CMC soon.

How are you?

No, seriously, how are you?

Ramblin', man

Friday night, I went to the Amos Fortune Forum with my folks. I think I've talked about this cool little lecture series here before, but in case not: Once a week in the summer, there's a lecture on some topic of interest, often by a renowned scholar or author, for which the speaker is compensated one jug of maple syrup. It happens in the meeting house of my parents' tiny town, about half an hour east of where I live. It's amazing. You should go, if you're in the area on a summer Friday.

Last night's talk was by a woman whose dad was a spy, about what it's like when your dad's a spy. It was cool, if a little strange that more of the talk was dedicated to bowling in her bathrobe than to spy stuff, but still, you know I'm a sucker for a good bowling story. And this was a good one. It's in her book.

Afterward, I decided I'd rather sleep on my parents' sleeping porch than drive home, even knowing that I don't usually sleep well there, and even knowing that I had a hair appointment at 9 in the morning about half an hour west of where I live, which is to say an hour west of where I spent Friday night.

But I got up in plenty of time and rolled up my sleeping bag and drove home to have a few minutes to putter around before I continued on to my hair appointment.

And once I got there, I realized I'd left my purse at my parents' house.

It's an easy mistake to make, because I almost never carry a purse.

But still, my purse had both my wallet and my checkbook in it, so I was not going to a) have means to pay for this haircut without making an extra hourlong roundtrip to my parents' place, or b) have time to make said roundtrip and still get to the hair appointment.

SO, I called my parents and then called the hairdresser to reschedule for later in the afternoon, and crashed on the couch for a bit (not having slept well the night before) and drove to my parents' house, grabbed my purse, drove back to my town, ran a few errands, went to the hairdresser, got a lovely new haircut which I paid for by check, and then drove another half hour south to cook dinner for RI (gazpacho and salmon, if you were wondering). We had a very nice time.

Sunday morning, RI had to be at work at 7, so we got up together and had the breakfast casserole I'd put in the Crock Pot the night before, and I slept for about three more hours, got up, did the dishes, and headed out for the hourlong drive home.

And once I got there, I realized I'd left my laptop at RI's. And rather than burst into tears, I crashed on the couch for about five more hours before deciding I just couldn't bear driving another hour back down there, only to have to drive an hour back, either last night or this morning before work.

All by way of explaining why you didn't get a blog post Sunday.

How was your weekend?

(Oh, and then I woke up this morning sick. You know how I love being sick.)

Blockheaded

I committed to writing at least one new post for every draft post I revive, and waiting no more than three days between them.

So today is an enforced-new-post day, but I am uninspired. I have used a lot of words for un-blog-related purposes lately, and the well is maybe a little dry.

Was uninspired, I should say. The well was maybe a little dry.

Because I sent this query out to four regular readers:

hey, i'm committed to writing a new blog post today (three days after the last old one)
but writer's block
anything in particular you want to hear about?

And got these suggestions back:

• Friends. 
• New friends. 
• How you stay in touch with people who don't live in your area code. 
• or Kristin Wiig 
• the return of acid washed everything 
• How amazing I am? 
• How much you want the universe to provide you with a satisfying means of income?
• how about something summer camp-y? 
• An important experience as a camp counselor or with someone who was a camp counselor to you?
• yer mom

And I could literally write a blog post on each of those, and so I will. Thanks, friends, for the food for thought.

Wait, you didn't think I was going to write one of them now, did you? Hahahahahahaha why would I do that when I just wrote an excellent post on writer's block and making your friends solve it for you?

Writing tips from a professional writer/editor (and oversensitive former resident of a certain Boston suburb)

Here are two reasons clichés are generally bad for journalists:

• One is that they are clichés, and you can do better than that. You want to write, write.
• The other is that words actually have meanings and implications.

Let's focus on the second one, shall we?

When journalists (or anyone) use common turns of phrase, they (we) have likely lost sight of at least some of the meaning and implication. At least some readers will not.

Now, I use clichés all the time. I'm the worst. Catchphrases, too. But also, I write a blog that specifies part of its mission is funny stories at my expense. As such, I have two advantages over the journalists who once were my colleagues:

• It's all about me, so I examine me a lot. You haven't got time for that stuff, because you're writing about other people.
• I have a readership consisting of people who are already ready to make fun of me in a basically kind way, and to call me on my crap directly and readably. Seriously, look at the comments. I encourage it. Probably 20 percent of the folks who read this blog are or used to be copy editors, and probably 50 percent or more have been directly involved in some kind of social justice work — and those are not discrete categories.*

All this is by way of saying, both to the reporter at CNN and to her editor, when one describes the town I went to high school in, which has recently experienced a tragedy in which a young woman was murdered, thusly:

"It's the kind of idyllic American suburb where 'things like this aren't supposed to happen.'"

... a reader has to wonder, in what kind of place, exactly, are things like this "supposed to happen"?

What, exactly, are you saying or implying — and why would you do that?

Also, who does it benefit? And how?







*Example: I looked up "discrete" to be sure I had the right one, because I was sure I did, but what if I'd been wrong? Some of the commenters would have been chuckling about it over drinks for years.

Happy Blogiversary Part 2: Favorites

So, I asked for your favorite posts when I asked for questions, and got two great responses.

First, April's:

I did not find the one I was looking for and would like to request (I think it was written for Pride day/week maybe last year and is advice for straight parents).
However, I did find a shocking number of posts that I somehow missed, including a new favorite, "From," which you should also re-post.

And Joe's:

Your odyssey to upstate NY and the car troubles you encountered almost brought a tear to my eye. It's like they say, you can't make this stuff up. [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4]
But, you know me, CMC. I can also be 12 years old sometimes. Which is why my other favorite posts were the ones that contained the word "pally." 

But April also asked what my favorite post is. And yadda yadda they're all my babies yadda couldn't pick just one, but whatever. Of course there are some I like better than others. So you're getting one per year of City Mouse Country.

• From Year One: Sometimes you feel like a nut
• From Year Two: Rick rolling
• From Year Three: Train the Trainer 
• From Year Four: Playing (and Replaying)
• From Year Five: Obviously, the Plattsburgh saga. But since that's already shared, Biden Time will do.

Also, I feel like I should give some love to the post that has garnered by far the most page views (as in, five times as many page views as the post in the #2 slot), Bang, bang. I am the warrior., which is seriously unworth reading but just goes to show you, a lot of people want images of straight-across baby bangs.

So, what am I missing? What were your faves, from any year?

Day 20 of my month of gratitude: As I said earlier, I am thankful for positive feedback. I am double-thankful that some of you keep reading at all. Thanks, friends.

Happy Blogiversary Part 1: Questions and answers

Woohoo! It's Blogiversary #5!

Aren't you so excited?

I know I am.

So, let's start with your questions and my answers.

Genny asks: This may have been covered before, but I'd love to know why you started blogging!

I assume you're asking why I started City Mouse Country. CMC didn't start as a blog. It started as a series of e-mails to my old friends and coworkers in D.C., some of whom had expressed, er, concerns about me, who they'd only known in the city(ish), adapting to country livin'.

Naturally, I adapted gracefully and graciously, but not without a few mishaps that needed documenting. That appears to continue to be true.

CMC is not my first blog, however. Why I started blogging in the very first place was that my boss and close friend went on maternity leave in 2005, and a handful of her friends, ring-led by me, decided we needed a place to share pop-culturey things from the internet, plus stories of our office antics, to entertain her. It had a little resurgence during another friend and colleague's maternity leave in 2007. It's still available online for those who know where to look.

So, pregnancy? I guess. Yes. I started blogging because of pregnancy. But not my own.

Mike asks: Do you ever think (to our detriment) you perhaps shouldn't be giving this material away on a blog, but writing and publishing the old-fashioned way? (Not that they're mutually exclusive... but that some of your stuff is "too good" for this medium?)

I never think that. I don't even think it now that you've put it out there. I do sometimes think the good stuff I write here deserves both more fleshing out and a bigger audience, and I periodically work on doing that, particularly with the queer stuff when it hits a chord with my mostly straight readership. But despite being a professional writer and/or editor for roughly 13 years now (What?! How the hell did that happen?!), I have sort of a block around thinking of my writing as something that can or should or even could make me money.

That is probably something I should discuss with my therapist. Or a career counselor.

Regardless, I love this format, mostly because I love exclusively positive feedback, which is a luxury I have here because so few of you are reading.

Mike asks (elsewhere, but I'm a little bit grasping for content here): "Stromboli" sounds like it should be the plural of something. So is this convenience store hot pocket a strombolus (or, if you prefer, not a strombolus)? 

Apparently, "strombolis" are named for Stromboli, which is named for Stromboli, which, according to Wikipedia, "is a corruption of the Ancient Greek name Strongulē which was given to it because of its round swelling form." Who knew?

Anonymous asks: If you could automatically have any talent at all, like world-class level, what would you like it to be? 

It'd have to be something where talent alone was sufficient for something. Like, I'd hate to be a world-class-level rock singer, because then it'd still be so much work to get recognized, and I might not ever, and I'd know how much better I was than rock stars who were more popular that I was. That would be sad. And even if I was a world-class-level talent at brain surgery, no one would let me practice without a medical degree, and I am too old for that stuff.

Oh! Sales.

I think if I was a world-class-level salesperson, I could do whatever I wanted, kind of, including selling things, which would let me make huge commissions and then do what I want with my free time and money; or fundraising, which would allow me to support things that are important to me; or selling my own secondary talents, which would enable me to make a living writing whatever I wanted... yeah. I pick sales.

That is probably the most boring possible answer to that question. Well, they can't all be stromboli, know what I mean?

Anonymous also asks: What is the difference between gay and queer, and which one is appropriate for those of us who are neither to use?

I know what you want is for me to give an actual answer to this question, and I'm sorry, there isn't one, exactly. I can (and will) give you my answer to this question, but it applies only to me. Sorry.

Gay means, usually, someone who is attracted to or chooses to date only people of the same sex. It's used more for men than for women, but most women who are attracted to or choose to date only women will not object to it.

Queer is an umbrella term. It includes a range of both sexual and gender identities, including certainly gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, trans folks and genderqueer people, but also other people who identify as queer and don't fit entirely into any of those categories. It also sometimes but not necessarily has political connotations. Queer is complicated, because it has been used hurtfully, and continues to be used hurtfully, a lot.

I identify as queer. I like it because if there is another label for what I am, I don't know it. I also like the political connotations. You have permission to describe me as queer. I do not recommend describing other people as queer unless they've told you that they prefer that term and are OK with non-queers using it to describe them.

Really, your best bet if you wonder how people identify is to ask them.


Rebel McLeod asks: Name three passions (or something approximating them). If you followed them with enough zeal, what sort of Muppet would you be?

• Drumming
• Violence
• Shouting

I'd be Animal.

Oh, wait. Three passions of mine?

Funny, Rebel, I believe you and I have discussed that my passions are fleeting. That said, three of my less-fleeting passions seem to be:

• My niece and nephew
• Supporting queer youth through my example
• The letter W

...and I don't think Bert knows my niece and nephew, but everyone who does loves them, so that sounds like Bert. Right?

April asks: What is your favorite post — or one of them — and why?

What a great segue into our next blogiversary spectacular post! I'll get to that there.




Day 19 of my month of gratitude: I am thankful for questions and answers and those who pose them and those who indulge mine. Those of you who know me in real life know I love both asking questions and demanding their answers. Thank you so much for celebrating this milestone with me. Oh, and if this inspires any of you to chime in with questions of your own, ask 'em in the comments. I'll answer any I get by midnight tonight.

Your big chance to boss me around

I am writing this post waaaaay in advance, so I won't chicken out of it come November 13.

November 20 will be the fifth anniversary of City Mouse Country. Here's how we'll celebrate.

1. As I did for my first blogiversary, I'll be answering your questions. Post them in the comments here or on the Facebook page, and I will try to answer every single one on the Big Day. Use your real name, use a fake name, post anonymously. The sky's the limit.
2. If you tell me, here or on the Facebook page, what your favorite "classic" posts from CMC are, I'll refresh everyone's memory by sharing them on the Facebook page between now and then. OK, and for Joe and, um, my parents, I guess, I'll do a compilation post of links to them here in a week, as well.
3. Third, if I can think of one between now (mid-September) and when this post goes live (mid-November), we'll have some form of fabulous prize available. Would that not be tremendous? [Ed. note: I did not yet think of a fabulous prize. But maybe I will in the next week.]

Day 12 of my month of gratitude: Thanks to the handful of you who've been reading here for five years of my country life, and thanks as well to those of you who've joined us along the way. And also thanks to those of you who are just mid-November bandwagon-jumpers because one of your friends liked something I posted to Facebook this week. Stick around. That November 20 post is going to be epic.

Here is the story of the hurricane...

I was going to maybe post some foliage pictures today. I also considered telling you about my great weekend. Instead, Frankenstorm is coming, and I thought it might be fun to liveblog until the power goes out. Right?

2:44 Here's where things stand:

• Frankenstorm (Hurricane Sandy plus a cold front) is headed this way.
• In anticipation, the college I work at has been closed for the day.
• The worst of the storm is supposed to be 2-9 p.m.
• So far, we're getting what would in other circumstances be described as a light shower.
• A year ago, Hurricane Irene was also predicted to be devastating. It was, about 20 miles west. Horrible. Here in my town, we only ever got showers.
• I am attempting neither to over- nor under-react. So: 
• My phone is charged.
• My bathtub is filled with water.
• I know where at least one lantern and at least one candle are located.
• The windows are closed, and so is the garage door.
• I have perhaps naively put some of Beth's Salsa Chicken in the crock pot, which will either mean I have delicious food later or a bunch of half-cooked spicy bacteria I have to throw away because the power went out.

Now I should be cleaning house before I lose the lights, because it's a mess and I'm home and who knows who'll have to come stay in my hillside haven.

Instead, I am starting to watch a movie I initially attempted to explain to you but am now so appalled that I'm about to watch that I'll only tell you about it if I think you should watch it. Sorry, everyone.

3:02 p.m. Oh, also, Joe Biden was supposed to come to the college today. So really, we've just traded one liveblogging opportunity for another. Stay safe, Brett. No pics, Alexis — there's nothing interesting enough to take pics of yet.

3:27 p.m. Still no real wind to speak of. It is raining harder. This movie is terrible. How often do you want updates, and concerning storm, or household activities, or both?It is possible I have bowling tonight, but for now, we're playing it by ear.

3:34 p.m. Raining even a little harder. I'm turning this movie off. If you would also like to avoid it, it's Albert Fish, about a real-life Depression-era child murderer and cannibal. It's at least as bad as that sounds.

3:42 p.m. Movie's off. Extreme Couponing is on. I'm not saying I have great taste in movies and TV; I'm just saying if I'm going to watch crap, I'd prefer it not to make me sick to my stomach. Possibly related: That salsa chicken smells amazing.

3:55 p.m. My mechanic friend just called to ask if he could park his limo and possibly some other cars in my higher-elevation-than-his-shop driveway. hells yes, I say. Also: It is possible that the reason it seems unwindy to me is that the window I am looking out its the one on the side of my house least likely to get wind. When my craving for a Pepsi Throwback gets so bad I need to indulge it, I'll get up and look out a different window and let you know.

4:06 p.m. Pepsi Throwback obtained, but not without incident: I might have spilled a bunch of ice on the floor. Not a lot of wind on any side of the house. I'm considering a fire in the fireplace. Also, a person whose day can be in part described with "she calls the store manager for a routine check on coupon policies" have different routines than mine.

4:25 p.m. Here's the thing about bowling: Even if it's OK when I leave the house at 6:15, if it's not OK when I'm done bowling at 8:30 or 9, I'm stuck at the bowling alley for who knows how long. We should just not go, right? But I love my queer bowling. Sigh.

4:36 p.m. I got bored with Extreme Couponing and also discovered that there was a whole season of Important Things with Demetri Martin I hadn't seen. Everyone should always be watching that show. Unrelated but potentially useful: If you need to find an emergency shelter from the storm, you can text FEMA.

4:57 p.m. Commenter Emily (fun side note: many many of my friends are named Emily. I a little bit wonder which one that is) has requested the recipe for salsa chicken. I assume and hope it's OK to share, but I'd rather check with Beth first. Another fun side note: If you are my IRL persona's Facebook friend (that doesn't sound healthy), you can look at my "notes" and find a whole long one full of awesome Crock Pot recipes.

5:06 p.m. Permission granted! Also, the wind's picking up.

4 boneless chicken breasts
large jar of salsa
can black beans
corn (frozen or canned), however much you want
Put the boneless chicken breasts in your crockpot. Even frozen.
Dump in one large jar of salsa.
Drain and rinse one can of black beans and dump in crockpot.
Turn your crockpot on and leave it there all day. Come back 10 hours later and open the crockpot. Shred up the chicken. Add the corn. Stir it up good.
Serve in bowls with sides of shredded Mexican cheeses and sour cream. Eat with tortillas or tortilla chips. (You could eat it in taco shells, too.)

5:37 p.m. We should really make a decision about bowling.

5:57 p.m. The bowling teammates and I have decided not to bowl. It feels like a smart choice. Especially since, as I was on the phone with one of said teammates:

• we realized there were two other opportunities to hang out in the next two days, and
• the wind picked up. It's starting to feel like a hurricane.

Also, are you impressed by how many times I have managed to type "bowling" and not typed "blowing," especially in the middle of a wind-based storm? I sort of am. Off to call Yankee Lanes.

6:26 p.m. Sorry for these long gaps between posts; I am running out of things to say, a little, except to individuals, which is why I seem to have moved somewhat to gchat and Facebook chat. If I say anything hilarious in either of those media, I will try to repost here. Meanwhile, I am finally going to eat some of that salsa chicken. And maybe start a fire in the fireplace. Or make some lemonade. Or make some lemonade and then turn it into whiskey lemonade. And keep it away from the computer.

7:16 p.m. Wind does not seem to have gotten worse and may have died down. Rain seems neither better nor worse. I am drinking lemonade from a cup with a lid. The salsa chicken is fantastic. If you wonder how much corn is "however much you want" from that recipe above, in my case, it's a lot. A whole lot.

7:35 p.m. I have very few regrets in this life; even most of my bad decisions have gotten me other places I want to be, have helped me learn and grow. But I do kind of wish I'd gone bowling.

7:37 p.m. I'm going to challenge myself. I think I can clean the whole sunroom, have it presentable for guests, in 15 minutes. What do you think? Also, I initially wrote "...have it resentable for guests..." Well, you know what? If you're a guest, and you actually resent my cleaning efforts, you can go to hell, buddy. Right to hell. Sometimes blogging is a procrastination tool. OK. Really going to clean for 15 minutes now.

8:07 p.m. Fifteen minutes was not enough, but 25 minutes was enough to clean the sunroom AND talk about the imminent cancellation of someone else's Halloween party to which I was not invited AND go to the bathroom AND put on pajamas. So, not bad.

8:32 p.m. Local schools are closed tomorrow; still no word on whether I have work. But the rain seems to be getting stronger; I'll be surprised if the worst of the storm is really past us by 9. Are any of you still reading? Comment to keep me (and each other) company.

8:41 p.m. I have a special guest star coming!

8:45 p.m. The guest star has arrived. We are now watching Important Things with Demetri Martin together. This promises to be way more entertaining for me than for you, I think. He is the same guest star as we had for the first debate.

8:49 p.m. ... Except now we are out of episodes. We are going back to watching the last episode of the first season. It's on time. Hahahahahaha.

9:03 p.m. The college is closed until noon tomorrow. So, that's cool.

10:24 p.m. OMG you guys. I am so sorry, I didn't forget about you. But Special Guest Star and i started talking about feminism and stuff and then we started watching Hot In Cleveland which you really should be watching. Still have power, still have a few Fritos (though SGS is making a dent in that), and the storm may actually be winding down.

10:57 p.m. SGS and I think but are not sure the rain has stopped.

Blogs I love

It's been a little while since I drew your attention to my blogroll, or since I did anything with it myself, so I'm taking a cue from Genny.

Here's what I'm reading and loving these days. I'm even using (almost) the labels I use in my reader for this post (it gets complicated, because there's overlap, but, well, I do what I can).

The blogs that used to be on my blogroll but aren't anymore are the ones that haven't had any posts in a long time (if by friends) or that I don't really read anymore (if by non-friends). And that's quite enough parentheses for an introduction.

Friends

• Stumbling Towards Career (career by a smart woman and good pal)
• washashore (gorgeous photos)
• People I don't want to date (updated only infrequently, but hilarious when it does get updated)
• my name is hili (a woman named Hili chronicles what the people at Starbucks think her name is)
• Coming Clean (someone cleans her room, which is funnier and more inspiring than it sounds)
• traveldigressions (travel tips from someone who travels a lot)
• 30 Days of Adventures (a country pastor does 30 days of something at a time)
• living dharma (the life of a former Buddhist monk)
• Genny's Journal (fashion and family)
• From Where I Sit (my old boss and current friend's current life, in which she also shares a lot of neat stuff from elsewhere on the internet)
• Happy Living (my former coworker has a fiance and a baby, and she's moving soon)
• Anonykids (a mother of twins tells funny stories)
• Castle Rock Farm (cute pictures of baby animals, among other things)
• I Peed on My Kid! (stay-at-home dadness)
• Polka Dot Cottage (crafts and family)

Funny ha ha

• Bitterly Books
• Text from Dog
• Least Helpful
• Lifetime, Wow!
• "Literally Unbelievable"
• Damn You Auto Correct
• Our Valued Customers
• passive-aggressive notes
• xkcd

Race

• I'm not racist, but...
• Jack and Jill Politics
• Microaggressions (this one could go in any of the diversity categories, but since I listed race first, for now it goes here)
• my culture is not a trend.
• Racialicious

Feminism

• Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog
• I Blame the Patriarchy

LGBTQ

• A Radical TransFeminist
• Dorothy Surrenders

Random strangers

• A Black Girl's Guide to Weight Loss
• Single Dad Laughing
• The Bloggess
• Margaret and Helen
• She Just Walks Around With It
• Steam Me Up, Kid...
• The Creamery
• Tyler Coates
• Holy Prepuce!

So, what's missing? What are you reading or writing on the internets that I don't have on my list? What do you think the rest of us would looooove?

Timing is everything

Here's the thing: I have a thing I want to do with the blog, which I was going to announce today, and then decided that today would be the wrong day for it, because if you all thought it was an April Fool thing, and said it was dumb, then I wouldn't be able to do it.

It's like that time my friend had to tell his or her newish significant other they had crabs on April Fools Day, and the S.O. thought it was a joke. That's awkward, right? To have to convince someone you have crabs?*

So I thought I'd do a real April Fool thing here if I could think of a good one, but all I've come up with so far is an apology to you announcing I have to shut down the blog for some reason, except that then if anyone took it seriously, they'd unsubscribe, and then I'd lose readers, which I only have like a dozen of to start with. For real, you guys, I'm not shutting down the blog.

Here's what I am doing, for reals: Not next week, but the week after, is queer week. A bunch of different LGBTQ topics have come up in my life lately, and it occurred to me that my readership, which consists mostly (though by no means exclusively) of supportive straight folks (thanks, by the way), might benefit from my thoughts on some of those topics. Topics will include but are not necessarily limited to:

• Appropriate responses to your child dating people of the same sex, and what it means when parents do it wrong
• Appropriate responses to the insulting use of words like "faggy," "gay," "queer," "dyke," etc., and appropriate responses to being called on inappropriate use of same
• Dealing with "Christians" who think people are damned to hell

In the week between now and then, I'll try to keep it light with some funny stories at my expense. Here's your job: Think of other topics you'd like to see addressed in queer week and comment here. If you're worried about offending me, feel free to comment anonymously.




*None of the people in that story are me, I promise.

Face time

You know what I thought would be cool? If City Mouse Country had a Facebook page.

Just think how much easier that'll make sharing with your friends, while still protecting my pseudoanonymity.

Plus, when there's a new post, you'll know about it right away, even if you've resisted the magic of the RSS feed.

Plus, there will probably be occasional updates visible only to Facebook likers.

What are you waiting for? Go like me! Go really, really like me!

Looking for bangs in all the wrong places

I didn't think I could find the search terms that brought people here. Turns out I can.

I did know that I get more traffic than I'd expect, based on the number of people I know who read regularly and the number of comments I get.

Turns out, that may be because virtually no one who gets here via search is actually looking for this blog. Sorry about that, visitors. Stick around anyway. I'm pretty entertaining.

Search terms that brought people to CMC in the last week:

• images of bangs 
• straight across bangs 
• baby bangs hair styles 
• baby bangs with medium hair 
• city to country blog 
• coty mouse country blog 
• country mouse city mouse have sex with their girlfriends 
• difference between the country mouse and city mouse 
• try to remember the kind of november

31 Days of Secrets and Lies: Day 31

The total secret-to-lie ratio is 15:16. That includes this post.

31 Days of Secrets & Lies: Day 28

I wrote this after skipping Day 28 and writing days 29 and 30, then predated it so it would show up earlier.