My old high school friend, Shannon, wrote a thoughtful post today and it has stuck with me. You should go read it. Also say hi to her – she’s awesome.

And she’s right. For all the great things social media and this digital age brings there is a side that can feel defeating. Isn’t it easy to see who’s traveling the world, holding the dream job, saving lives, making policy, making people laugh and building a second home?

There’s the girl who became beautiful long after you lost touch. The quiet boy who is now smart and handsome. The technology innovator you never knew. The stay at home mom who looks like she has it all together. The one who had a book published. The one who is working with rock bands.

It can be unnerving, our friends’ success. The second guessing of choices. The “what ifs” that creep in at the weaker moments.

There is a movement going around many blogs asking people to write a letter to their 20 year old selves. It’s an interesting exercise, isn’t it? In many cases sites like Facebook bring you virtually face to face with your life as a 20 year old. How does it look 20 years later?

I think it’s that mirror effect of Facebook that’s so hard sometimes. I don’t begrudge other people their success – and I know that for all the openness and rawness that makes the Internet so compelling and interesting we’re all still putting a measured picture of ourselves out there. It’s the daily exercise of facing old decisions – good, bad or never made – that can wear on you.

Living in the present is hard. Hell, there are times where living in the moment is damn near impossible. But trying to integrate that “life as a 20 year old” with “a life today” – well, it’s still a work in progress.

You guys! Want to help me cross off a life list item?

OF COURSE YOU DO.

While at BlogHer ’10 in New York City, I want to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s not only a Life List item for me, but also right before I turn 40 and, really? I think celebrating in NYC is the way to go. Also? What better time to accomplish it than at BlogHer! The lovely Amber is going to join the fun because helping someone complete a Life List item is on HER Life List. See how this just gets cooler every sentence?

OF COURSE YOU DO.

I’m thinking the weekend is jam packed with exciting things already, but perhaps all who are interested can gather that Sunday morning (August 8th) for the stroll before heading out of town? If you want to join the party which may include other fun things yet to be determined, leave me a comment or find me on Twitter and we’ll see what kind of hungover brave group we get for the event.

(I’m looking at you, ladies of 1970!)

This is gonna be awesome. Join me!

I am going to usurp this little piece of the internet to pimp out my friend April’s genius idea to combine Twitter and Ebay into a TwagSale this Saturday, June 5th.

Go HERE and read all about how my alter ego, The Accessory Whore, will be participating as well as links to the instructions for the sale. I hope you’ll join the fun and end up with fantastically clean closets and a few new finds for yourself!

(That sort of cheesy alliteration can only be pulled off with copious amounts of Bloody Mary on the morning of Memorial Day.)

Ahem.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the whole MommyBlogging thing is a waste of time. They lie. If it were not for this little red piece of the internet, the Mom2Summit and Twitter, I’d have never met Ellie who is now squarely on my list of Most Awesome People in the History of Ever. Her husband and kids, too.

Because we continued to crack ourselves up on Twitter every day and “me, too” the hell out of things, we decided to meet “in real life”. Most amazing for two women is that we decided to meet in real life IN OUR BATHING SUITS WITH LITTLE TO NO MAKEUP ON. (The chicks understand that statement.)

So we met at a public splash park near her house. Benjamin and Leah were convinced it was like going to Disneyworld. Buckets that dump water! Spraying water fountains! Snow cones! Water slides!

Let’s talk about the water slides. There were three to choose from. A small kiddie frog slide, a medium sized tunnel side and a big, two-story one. My kids would go on NONE of them. Well, not entirely true. LEAH would go on only the kiddie frog slide. Benjamin WANTED to go on the huge one, but they wouldn’t let him because he wasn’t tall enough, much to his dismay.

But the mommies did. Oh, YES WE DID. And I’ve got the pictures to prove it.

Top of the slide tower

Ellie’s slide

My slide!

After the splash park we headed over to Ellie’s home for more kiddo playing, some killer margaritas and some equally badass thai shrimp pasta. Not surprisingly the Husbands had some fun hazing us about our prolific internet and iPhone usage and have now decided to form a Non-Blogging Husbands of Mommybloggers Support Group. There may be shirts involved. And maybe a hunting trip. The details are a little sketchy, but Ellie and I may or may not be looking for that URL as we speak.

You should also know that Ellie is a masterful face painter and Leah wanted to sleep in her fairy makeup forever and ever and ever. Benjamin’s Thomas the Tank Engine was a highlight in his little life…until he hung out with Ellie’s oldest daughter who he now has a crush on. He digs the older chicks.

Best Memorial Day weekend in many, many years. It’s hard to beat new friends, good food and a water slide.

I am honored to be pimped out by my funny friend, Kim, today and wanted to take a quick sec to say hi to those that have been directed her through her blog. I still say she’s nuts for allowing me to participate, but that’s part of her charm.

For those of you new to this little purple part of the digital world, you can read about my daughter, Leah, under The Swimmy, my son, Benjamin, under The Mighty Mighty Benjamite, my very badass mom under The Battle, and the most embarassing gynecological appointment in the history of ever here.

That’ll just about get ya started. Thanks for stopping by – we’re happy to have ya! Leave a note so I can find you, too — I’m very share-y that way.

Everyone needs a little inspiration to get through the end of a week. So each Thursday I’ll showcase something that brings me a little bit of joy. Welcome to the first installment of Favorite Thursday Things!

I was introduced to this wine about five years ago through a favorite work colleague, friend and, at the time, boss. We spent WAY too many hours after work (or sometimes during work, depending on the client issue du jour) at the fantastic hotel restaurant down the street from our office. Occasionally we decided to stop with the work talk and enjoy NOT work talk – and one late afternoon the conversation turned to wine on the walk over. He said I needed to try this one. I agreed at the time because on that day I needed a glass of wine more than I needed my next breath.

Through the years it has become a favorite, inexpensive merlot that I cook with and drink. I love it on crisp, cold fall or winter days and I recently found this one on sale at my local grocer for $7. I can’t drink this wine without remembering some very fun times. We worked hard and laughed harder and there are stories and lessons from that job and that team that I will carry with me always.

A local high school girls basketball coach died last week from complications treating acute leukemia. His students did what most high school kids do in this situation, they spelled out “We Love You Coach [Name]” in styrofoam cups stuffed in the chainlink fench and went about trying to make sense of their own grief and how they will deal with the rest of the sport season.

Normally, I would simply feel sad, send a silent prayer out to the family and keep going. But something was different this time. Something bothered me about this more than usual, so I decided to look up this coach’s obituary in the paper to see if I could make sense of this.

As it turns out, I had met him. And his wife. And his entire family though I never knew their name. His oldest daughter (5) was in dance class with The Swimmy. I began to realize that he left behind daughters ages 5, 3 and a little boy named his junior who is only 2 months old. The mom is a teacher, they have enormous extended friends and family.

But the thought of this mom having to lose her husband, deal with two grieving daughters so young and a little boy who will never know his dad is crushing to me. Intrinsically I know that, if that were me, as a mom I would have to rise to the occassion and deal with the awful situation to help my kids. But as I allow myself to consider that position there is a huge part of me that thinks I never could. And that is so utterly unnerving that I have no words to describe it.

Hey, look at me. No words.

Well, this weekend brought a wonderful visit from BestFriendWendy and her family all the way from Chicago. There was sharing and no sharing, laughing and no laughing, crying and no crying, Strawberry Shortcake, arts & crafts, and many, many Princess stories.

While the kiddos navigated through diplomatic and developmental minefields, we grown ups enjoyed massive amounts of food and drink, oh, and conversation. Here’s list of things that were consumed this weekend:

Asian-glazed, grilled salmon

Caesar salad (made the most rockin’ tofu based dressing I never thought I’d ever eat let alone make)

Asian-marinated, grilled portabella mushrooms

Drunken shrimp (Grilled. Think margarita and you’ll get the idea.)

Feta, tomato, green onion and cucumber orzo salad

Tons of ice cream. Tons.

Garlic dip

Hummus

Salsa fresca

Cheese. Jesus, the cheese.

The freshest strawberries and blueberries G-d ever made

Chocolate chip cookies

…And anything the kids didn’t finish

It was awesome. Just like the company.

This morning brought a carpool ride to the airport with the first stop being the Swimmy’s first day of camp. Oy.

She was very excited to start camp. Much like her Mommy and Daddy, her favorite part of the morning was deciding what in the world to pack for lunch today!

Because she is now in camp with some of the older kids, she gets to swim twice a day: instructional and just for fun. The parents’ manual said we should send two bathing suits and two towels for this. And a change of clothes. Perhaps two. Uh, do you have any idea how big a bag she’d have to take to accommodate all this shit? Right. Here are two bathing suits and one towel. Deal with it. I’ll be ecstatic if they both come home.

And she ran right in, which is so awesome. But, I keep thinking, “I hope she’s made a little friend. I hope her counselors don’t suck. I hope she actually SWIMS today.” And? I kinda miss her (eventhough she’s never home during the day because of school) – and wish I could go over to her camp and just peek around a corner to see what she’s doing.

I think I’ll go find those chocolate chip cookies.

And finally, news from Little Rock. After a horrible stretch up there, it appears the sun is beginning to shine and my folks may actually get to come home shortly. Dad is hoping they’ll get sprung by Saturday. This time the treatment was an awful stretch. The kind of awful where you don’t think you could possibly do that again (which she is supposed to do). But, The Battle continues.

Luckily, once they’re released, they get to come home for two whole months. An eternity! And this stretch of home includes meeting their newest grandchild next month (holy shit). Not a bad “reward”. And the Swimmy is ready to see them again as well. Hell we all are.

Well, how’s that for four days? Sorry for the break in posting – more to come later today!

Hope your weekend was fantastic.