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Moving 1 Response »
Nov 212008

I *might* find the time to make one more post before getting on the road, but don’t hold your breath.

And I tried to figure out how to make blog posts from a site called Twitter (half of you are twitter addicts and half of you have never heard of it), but my blog software won’t cooperate.

For the half of you who have never heard of it, Twitter lets you post very short updates on what you are doing, and reply to those from other people. And you can send them from your phone, if you have text messaging capability on your cell phone.

I promise not to text while driving, but I will be texting updates to Twitter when I can on the trip.

So.

If you want to know what and how I’m doing on the road with Noah and Josie, you’ll have to pop over to Twitter and follow me.

Posted by Liza at 9:14 am

A New Level of Crazy

Moving, Personal 2 Responses »
Nov 172008

I think we’re achieving a new level of crazy this week.

Jill and I both have “to do” lists that are 80 miles long, replete with checklists, sub-lists, packing lists, things that have to be done in a certain order and all sorts of other insane-making activity.

At least the Home Study went well today. The Studier was very nice, and although Noah was shy at first, eventually he turned on the charm.

I have the feeling that Friday and Saturday are going to be exhausting and involve lots of feeling high strung. I’m tired just thinking about it, and Jill clearly had the same feeling since she went to bed shortly after 9 pm.

Noah continues to tell us every day that he wants to move to his new house. I think it’s because we’ve promised that the toys that are in storage will be coming back.

Of course, he also wants us to go to the store and buy him an Obama and something called Meyer Glasses. I asked what he’d use the Meyer Glasses for today, and he said that he’d use them to look at the monkey, so that helped in no way with interpreting what on earth he wants.

He’s also in a mostly entertaining argumentative phase: Noah, do you like to argue? NO, I not like to argue! Noah, do you want dinner? NO, I not want dinner! I want breakfast! Noah, are you contrary? NO, I not ‘trary!

Eyes on the prize: We will be in Milwaukee before Thanksgiving, and reasonably settled in by the end of the year.

Posted by Liza at 10:35 pm

Opposing Prop 8 and Supporting GLBT Families In Georgia

Current Affairs, Opinion 3 Responses »
Nov 152008

EDITED TO ADD: READ MINDY’S COMMENT IN THE COMMENTS. If you know her, you already know how brilliant she is. And she is.

About half an hour before I was planning to leave for the Anti Prop 8 protest here in Atlanta, it started to rain. It was already cold (for Georgia), windy, and gray.

I decided not to take the kids.

Cold is one thing, cold and wet exponentially worse. More than exponentially. I’d already taken them out for a walk, during which Josie was mostly hysterical and clearly cold.

So I left them with Jill and went by myself. I parked in the sneaky day care/church spot that was amazingly convenient and only half occupied.
By the time I arrived, it was well underway. There were a handful of young children, a modest number of older kids and young teens, a lot of college students, and a plethora of we indisputable adult types.

The sound left a lot to be desired, and gave me a sincere appreciation for the fact that seminaries teach ministerial candidates how to preach, including enunciation, projecting and not talking over laugh or applause lines.

Having said all that, it was awesome.

There were about 1000 people there, and speakers like Kathy Kelly, Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer, and Georgia’s only openly GLBT State Representative, Karla Drenner, got the crowd impassioned and excited to extend the fight to protect our families.

There doesn’t seem to be much media coverage yet, but my former work bud DJ Certified was on hand recording, and will doubtlessly podcast on the subject soon. Check out the crowd before my camera battery died:

100_4117 100_4116

I have 2 last thoughts on the nationwide protests against Prop 8.

First, I commend most of the protesters for keeping the message positive and invigorating. When we get ugly, we just make ourselves look bad.

I was appalled by the signs I saw that said things like, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!” On the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre, that made my stomach churn, and I only hope that none of the survivors or people who lost loved ones didn’t see those signs.

I also think we need to take care in how we express our anger and frustration with the role that religious institutions played in passing Prop 8.

There are substantial allegations that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormons) may have violated IRS regulations on political activity by non-profit religious organizations, and the allegations should be investigated.

But vandalizing or threatening individual Mormon temples and Mormon people is flat out wrong.

It also reflects badly on our community, and makes people more committed in their belief that we don’t deserve to be treated with full equality. We are rightfully disappointed and angry, but we need to keep this fight in the political realm.

We also need to remember that not all members of that church necessarily agree with what the institution did. I’ve been a member of dozens, probably hundreds of organizations in my lifetime, and I feel quite confident that I could find something that I disagree with in each and every one of them. Affiliation is not mindless endorsement.

If you don’t believe me, check out my second-favorite Mormon blogger, Moosh in Indy, and her post on the subject — which was written while she was visiting California and sitting in the living room of her “cousin who has been with his partner for over 10 years.”

Posted by Liza at 11:29 pm

Short and Sweet

Current Affairs, Personal 2 Responses »
Nov 132008

While that phrase does describe my lovely wife and both Noah and Josie, it’s also intended to describe this post. (Stop laughing! I can be brief! OK, not often, but … ok, I guess laughter actually is an appropriate response.)

  • Yesterday in the car, Noah explained to me that monster trucks are the largest trucks ever to have roamed the earth. And tiny cars have to hide from them. Guess who has been reading Tiny Dinosaurs?
  • As a baby, Noah made noises, but he never made the “goo goo gaa gaa” noises of storybook babies. I thought it was a myth. Josie smiles at me and says “goo, goo” several times every day.
  • We had an awesome playdate on Saturday, and have plans for a great dinner/fun tonight.
  • This Saturday, I think we’re going to take the kids to the Atlanta version of the nationwide Eliminate Prop 8 protest. 1:30 pm at the State Capitol. You are invited!!! 
Posted by Liza at 9:56 am

I Love BlogHer

Opinion, Vroom-vroom, Web/Tech No Responses »
Nov 122008

BlogHer rocks my socks.

For one thing, those ads over there on the right hand side mean that my blogging habit is paid for. I don’t think I’ll be getting rich, but at least web hosting costs are covered, and I aspire to having my whole Internet connectivity costs covered.

But far more importantly, they are an amazing organization with a deep commitment to empowering a diverse community of women, and helping us to help one another figure out this whole blogging universe, and how we can work and play here.

Earlier this week, I got an email from Elisa Camahort Page, one of the co-founders and the COO of BlogHer. It was addressed to me, to Dana from Mombian, and to Polly from LesbianDad. BlogHer had just put out a call for ideas for their annual conference, to be held in Chicago July 23-25.

In that email, Elisa said:

As I hope you may have noticed, BlogHer is passionate about delivering the most inclusive and diverse experience to our conference-goers that we possibly can, including (and particularly) on our speaking roster. Not only do we look for diverse speakers, but we have a commitment to bring new speakers to BlogHer.

…

[W]e thought you each might be able to help us get the word out to the LGBT community, particularly lesbian moms. I should emphasize that we don’t necessarily want to have speakers to talk about being lesbian moms only, but rather simply to incorporate their voices and perspectives into any panels dealing with parenting blogging in general.

To my mind, that’s the real goal of diversity and inclusion. And kudos to BlogHer for understanding that in spite of our wonderful, historic Presidential election, and the good intentions of many, many, many people, that kind of inclusion doesn’t “just happen.” It requires outreach to many different communities, and thoughtful attention.

And it’s easy to slip up, no matter how feminist, how liberal or progressive, or how well intentioned you are.

For example, back in the day, when I was a young DC lobbyist working for a non-profit Internet civil liberties group, I spent considerable time advocating for certain corporate and non-profit Internet leaders to be appointed to the Children’s Online Protection Act Commission.

At the end of the process, the staffer responsible for making the appointments accepted our top 3 recommendations. After they were announced, she called me back and gave me a dressing down that I will never forget. Congressman Gephardt (her boss) followed our recommendations, but was very unhappy that this coalition of groups put forth 3 white male commissioners, and it had better not happen again.

Doh.

I immediately pictured women who would have been equally great choices from two of the entities, and a Latino from the third.

That’s not going to happen with the speaker panels at BlogHer.

But HOW that’s not going to happen is this: If you know a blogger who you think would be a great speaker or have an interesting perspective on a panel or topic that you think BlogHer should cover, tell them. Here’s how:

Email both me (elisa@blogher.com) and our new full-time Conference Programming Manager Jes Ferris (jes@blogher.com) and tell us the following:

- Who you are and why you want to speak
- Which of our tracks you’d like to participate in, and your experience/expertise/knowledge/perspective about that subject
- Specific links that highlight that experience/expertise/knowledge/perspective
- Your contact information and a link to your blog(s)
- Who else you think should be contributing

Here’s my last shout out for the day about BlogHer — call this fun & frivolous but cool. Last night, I attended an Atlanta BlogHer-GM/Saturn Meetup. They fed us fancy appetizers and desserts and an extremely shi-shi restaurant, and they had 4 cool cars and car experts for us to test drive.

Josie and I took a spin in the not-yet-available-for-sale Saturn VUE with a V6 engine. It has cool “regenerative” breaking technology that use the energy created while breaking to recharge the battery. And lots of other car-people bells and whistles that I don’t remember. I thought it was comfortable and got good gas milage for the size.

Hopefully we’ll be replacing my car sometime next year. If Jill successfully talks me into staying with an SUV, the VUE is on the list. I’m definitely about the hybrid. Or if we have to wait until 2010, maybe about all electric.

Posted by Liza at 4:46 pm

What a Day. Week. Year.

Personal 1 Response »
Nov 112008

Today was supposed to be our home study for Josie’s adoption. Unfortunately, the home study-er had a family emergency. When we finally tracked her down, at almost 30 minutes late, she was at the hospital with her husband.

Of course we want her to deal with her family emergency and we pray that it turns out well for them.

But.

We are moving in 11 days. And I cannot imagine how exponentially more complicated and expensive it will be to have the home study after next Friday.

Also, after getting un-locked-out of my blog, I discovered that all the comments since 2/2007 were missing. I was pretty sure that what they would have to do is essentially drop my blog back in time to prior to when they unlocked it. Meaning that the more I posted, the more that would disappear. So I kept trying to get it fixed instead of blogging. And that kept not working.

I think it worked now.

So I can share some of the serious cuteness that’s been going on around here:

Kick!

In this picture, Josie is wearing a 3rd “generation” adorable romper, courtesy of Natalie and Malka!

Ok, hungry now. Going to eat some lunch. Then pack and maybe some laundry. Then go get Josie from the sitter’s house.

Posted by Liza at 12:16 pm

Two Months

Letters to Josie No Responses »
Nov 012008

Dear Josie,

On Thursday, you turned two months old. In the last month, you’ve really emerged from being a sleepy, curled up, little lump of person, to being a real live baby.

You started smiling, and now you do it often when people smile at you. You even smile sometimes in your sleep. We love smiling and sticking our tongues out at you. Your brother Noah loves to give you kisses and hugs, and to say, “Look at her!” You love to watch him running around, singing, dancing, and playing.

You’ve outgrown your newborn clothes, and are solidly in the 3-6 month sizes. At our new moms & babies group, you weighed 11 lbs, 14 oz.

Last night, you slept in your own bed in your own room for the very first time. I think you liked it! You slept from 8:30 pm until just before 3 am, and then again until 6, and again until almost 8 am. Tonight you went down a little bit before 8 pm — we’ll see how the rest of the night goes.

This will be another month of big changes. By the time I write your three month letter, we’ll be in Milwaukee. I hope you’re very happy there.

With more love than you can even imagine,

Your Mommies

Posted by Liza at 8:03 pm
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