Average Jane

Average Jane Says, "Order My Friend's Book!"

I have known Rita Arens since we worked together at a failed dotcom (was there any other kind?) in 1999. We've been friends ever since.

She is one of the most driven and determined people I have ever met - exactly the sort of person who gets an idea and makes it happen through hard work and sheer force of will.

She started blogging a few months after I did, and was my roommate at the 2006 BlogHer Conference. (In fact, she'll be my roommate again this year.)

Early in 2006, she started getting in touch with other moms who blogged to see if they'd be interested in contributing to a mommy blogger anthology.  I'll drop out here and let you read what happened over the next two years from Rita's perspective.

How's that for grit and determination?

Best of all, the book includes the writers of some of my favorite blogs:
Amalah
Binkytown
Birdie's New Mexico Time Machine
CityMama
Finslippy
Friday Playdate
Fussy
IzzyMom
Laid-Off Dad
Mom-101
Mommy Needs Coffee
Mommytrack'd
Motherhood Uncensored
Not Calm (dot com)
Paper Napkin
Rancid Raves
State of Grace
Surfette
Surrender, Dorothy
Sweetney
The Modernity Ward
The Naked Ovary
Three Kid Circus
Woulda Coulda Shoulda

So I'm here to report that I just pre-ordered three copies (one for me, two to give as gifts) at Amazon. It's also available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble and BookSense.

Mommy or not, if you like good writing and personal stories, you'll want to add this book to your collection.

Way to go, Rita!

An Average Jane Update

I know you're all waiting with bated breath to see how the minor civic and domestic issues I mentioned earlier this week have been resolved. In brief:

Neighborhood Parking
All of the neighbors gathered on Monday evening to find out the results of the parking survey. Everyone said that they don't want the entire street to have restricted parking; however, they wished that the guy on the corner would stop parking so close to the intersection. City officials plan to start by asking him nicely and proceed to put up "No Parking" signs on his block if that doesn't help. My husband and I were the youngest people at the meeting by at least 15 years in his case, 25 in mine.

Drooping Cable
Believe it or not, I actually got an e-mail back from Time-Warner Cable. It said to call the same number I'd called yesterday. D'oh! However, I pressed a few dishonest menu keys and managed to make my way to an actual person. They're not coming out until next week to fix the problem, but it's not that big of a deal.

Band Auditions
Yesterday we auditioned a keyboard player (who basically talked his way into an audition, as we weren't actually looking for a keyboardist), and another lead guitarist. It was kind of nice to have keyboards to fill in the sound on certain songs, but I'm not convinced that it's worth dividing our paltry earnings by 6 rather than 5. The guitarist impressed us by - gasp! - actually having learned the songs he told us he wanted to play. His tone was a little Dokken-y on everything, but perhaps that's fixable. No decisions have been made yet.

Aren't you glad for that thrilling report? I think I need to work on having more interesting adventures.

So how's your week going?

Average Jane Is Irritated

It might be spring, it might just be my mood, but this week feels like a great time for me to address things I've been procrastinating about. In the past few days, I've canceled my old cell phone, written a press release for my community service organization, renewed my magazine subscriptions, and paid all my bills.

All I had left on my list was a call to Time-Warner Cable to let them know that their cable that leads to my house has come loose from the pole and is sagging uncomfortably close to my driveway. It's low enough that I could probably hop up and touch it.

You'd think it would be a simple matter to call them up and speak to someone. Ha! Hahaha! Instead, it's Voicemail Hell. I went through the menu over and over, entering my phone number four or five times. Once I was given the tantalizing option of speaking to a customer service representative, but when I selected it the system swung me back into the menu loop and never offered that option again.

I finally sent an e-mail. I'm not holding my breath until I receive a reply.

What's Average Jane Up To?

Cooking played a fairly significant role in my weekend. I made cheesecake and Asian cabbage salad for a dinner with friends on Sunday. I also prepared a batch of pickled jalapeños that I can't wait to try tonight.

On Saturday, my husband and I met up with some bloggers to see "Iron Man," which was AWESOME! I think XO's review says it all.

Tonight we're going to a meeting at City Hall to discuss parking on our street. Apparently someone's been complaining. The city sent out a survey and now we're having a meeting to decide if our street should be bedecked with No Parking signs. As my husband and I are on the "Hell, no!" side of the issue, we are very keen to go to the meeting and make sure that we're not going to have a daily hassle on our hands where studio clients and friends who overflow the driveway suddenly have nowhere else to park.

So that's my exciting weekend and Monday night. How'd your weekend go?

Average Jane Remembers Mama Voting

I received this from Suzanne and thought it sounded like a good post for Mother's Day.

First, take a look at I Remember Mama Voting, then think about your own mother or mother figure and how she may or may not have influenced your political views and your attitudes about voting and civic participation.  Next, write about how you remember this important woman in your life in relation to politics.

Please share the I Remember Mama Voting link in your post about your mom and politics, http://acorn.org/moms.

If you've got blogger friends who you'd like to also try this meme, then please do so.  Please tell your readers about this meme.

* * * * *

My great-grandmother ran her town's newspaper along with her husband, and was one of the first women in that town to drive a car. My grandmother was also in the newspaper business and struggled with editors who said that it was okay that her male co-workers made more money than she did because she had a husband who worked.

Thus, it's no surprise that my mother ended up being an important role model for me when it came to being engaged with politics and social justice.

I have lots of early memories of accompanying my mother to the voting booth on election day and watching her pull the levers for the candidates of her choice. She always said it was important to do your homework and make choices based on everything you could find out. (However, I also remember her saying that it was too difficult to research all of the judges, so she always voted not to retain any of them.)

My mother and I both ended up registering as Democrats. She once told me that she only did so to annoy her father. I took the choice much more seriously than that and registered the way my 18-year-old conscience led me. More than 20 years later, that decision continues to reflect my political attitudes.

Thanks to the influence of my parents, I vote every time I get the opportunity. This year, I caucused for the first time - and I'm sure it won't be the last.

I may have some doubts about the power of a single voice in our electoral system, as did my mother and grandmothers before me, but I share their belief that it's still important to make yourself heard. They taught me that it's up to all of us to try to make this country work for everyone.

I can't wait until November.

Interview With Average Jane

A couple of nights ago, I was interviewed via Google Chat by Logtar as part of his project to interview all of the bloggers he knows.

It was fairly late, so I didn't get back to him with all of the links I should have. In case anyone's curious, the orchid-growing blogger in Iowa that I mention is Blondie.

Oh, and here's the American Copywriter blog. I'm kind of glad I re-read that part or I might have forgotten that today is Coffee Morning. Incidentally, Coffee Morning is now organized via a Facebook group and not on that blog.

The dinner meetup mentioned at the end of the post was great. I'd never had Colombian food before, but my arroz con pollo with fried plantains was delicious, as was the empanada I had as an appetizer.

As you can probably tell by my stilted writing this morning, I'm tired, brain-fried and thankful that it's Friday. I have a Mother's Day post in the hopper for ACORN's I Remember Mama Voting project. Until then, have a speedy Friday and a restful weekend.

Just How Nerdy Is Average Jane?

Nerdy enough to have been the kind of teenager who embroiders the Dr. Who logo on a pillowcase.

Embroidery + science fiction fandom = years of datelessness.

Average Jane Doesn't Want To Hear About Your Guitar Amp

For me, the most tiresome part of our endless search for a new lead guitarist is having to listen to all of the guys in the band geek out about guitar amps and guitars...over and over and over. After every audition, they all stand around and talk about their musical equipment for hours.

You'd think that since my husband is a drummer, he wouldn't be a part of such a conversation. However, he's also a recording engineer, so he's made a special point of learning everything there is to know about guitars and basses, their amps, strings, pickups, etc., ad nauseum. That means he, too, can say things like, "Oh yes, I had a couple of Mesa Boogies, but I preferred the tone of the Marshall, so I sold them."

My eyes started glazing over just trying to think of that example sentence.

I own music gear myself, but nobody wants to hear about my AKG microphone, my Crown power amps and my JBL PA speakers. I am fully aware of this, which is why this is the first time I've ever brought them up by brand name.

Do people in other professions talk endlessly about their equipment? I can't imagine farmers getting together to debate the merits of Pequea Fluffer Tedders. (Yes, that's a real piece of farm equipment. I did a Google search.)

Average Jane Goes Flea Market Shopping

On Saturday, we met up with another couple and spent an exhausting day at the flea markets in White Cloud and Sparks, Kansas. (Seriously, click the link. It's the web page equivalent of the flea market itself.) We had fresh-squeezed lemonade and gyros, but forewent the Indian tacos and funnel cakes. Naturally, we bought an enormous bag of kettle corn on the way out.

Here are a few of the treasures we chose not to purchase:

This figurine gave me the creeps, so I had to take a photo. Don't look too long - she might steal your soul.

Here's my husband and my friend, Robert, posing with a mannequin that I was really tempted to buy, but not for $125. The mannequin was disturbingly thin, with visible collar bones, ribs and vertebrae. If I'd taken her home, I'd have bought a box of Twinkies for her to hold on her lap with her one arm.

Do you ever think to yourself, "Boy, I wish I'd bought some collectible pins from the movie, 'Dick Tracy,' back in 1990!" Well, at White Cloud they had a whole box full of them.

By the end of the day, I had a killer headache. I think it had a lot to do with the amount of mold I was exposed to throughout the day. Cool vintage wallpaper, though.

More antique doll creepiness. I should have taken a photo of the entire doll because her arms, legs and body were weirdly elongated. You could picture her creeping up on you while you slept and strangling you with her long limbs.

This is the one thing I did buy: an interesting old hat. Once I remove the daisies, I think it'll make a cool stage hat, despite the fact that it's a bit too small for me.

Once we got back into town, we had a huge dinner and beers at Granite City Brewery. I was so beat that I was asleep by 9:45 p.m. It was a blast, though, and I'm sure we'll go again next year. You should come with us!

Average Jane Is Back Online!

We had a huge storm on Thursday night that fried one of our two incoming power lines at the pole around 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. My husband said that the winds sounded like a freight train roaring past the house. I slept right through it.

If I needed any proof that I'm an Internet addict, it came yesterday in the form of the power outage, which affected our modem, my office, the TV, the stove, our garage and studio, etc. It also knocked out power to our refrigerator, but our house is wired so weirdly that I only needed to run an extension cord about three feet away to get it running again.

I had already taken the day off from work on Friday and was planning to go to Coffee Morning, get my oil changed, etc. Thanks to the power outage, my car was trapped in the garage, so I didn't get make it to any of my planned appointments. The lack of Internet access practically drove me insane. I don't know what I would have done without my mobile phone.

I called the power company at around 5:00 a.m. and they were supposed to get the outage taken care of by 8:30 a.m. They didn't show, so I hauled my laptop more than a mile on foot to Einstein Bros. Bagels, only to discover that they didn't have wifi. What kind of coffee shop doesn't have wifi!?!

The only silver lining in that whole scenario is that I had fun taking photos on the walk back. It's really hard to photograph a squirrel, did you know that?

There was always the option of pulling the garage door opener emergency release cords, but every time I've ever done that, I've had to have an expensive service call to reconnect it, so I was hesitating in the hope that the power company would eventually arrive. Around 2:00 p.m. I gave up and freed my car.

When I got home from my evening activities around 8:00 p.m., I was getting seriously irritated about the lack of repair, so I called the automated system again. I got a message back saying something to the effect of, "We see that your meter is running, so you're good. KTHXBYE!" Aaaagggghhh! That's why I reported a partial outage!

I called again to try to clarify via the robot system. They finally came and fixed our power at 12:30 a.m. after my husband and I had already gone to sleep out of pure boredom. I went out in my frumpy pink robe to make sure the workmen knew what the problem was, but they'd identified it already on their own.

So now I'm back, folks! Today I'm spending the day in White Cloud, Kansas and its neighboring town, Sparks, at their giant annual flea markets. I may not buy much, but I'm planning on taking lots of pictures.

What do you have planned this weekend? If you're local, did you make it through the storm okay?