You KNOW You Want To

I really want to make sure you see this, in case you missed it:

Can BlogHer Feature You and Your Recipe?
Calling all cooks! BlogHer is working on a holiday guide that includes recipes. We’d like your help with one in particular: Green bean casserole. Does your family have a special twist on this dish? Please blog, leave a comment on this newsletter with a link or vlog. If we like your idea, we’ll promote your blog! Questions? Email lisa@blogher.com.

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Especially the part about BlogHer “working on a holiday guide” **COUGH COUGH COUGH***

Get talking green beans people. I SWEAR you won’t regret it. You trust me, don’t you???

The Next Alex P. Keaton

I don’t know where he gets it. Count Waffles the Terrible, who is all of 4 and a half years old is a quick study. After suffering yet another sibling indignity (his sister stole a car out of his hands) he declares, “Mom, can we just have a ‘no hot wheels for Hala’ policy in the house?”

Actually, I just posted this because it’s exactly the kind of thing I’m sure would drive Bill Maher crazy. Mommy drivel. I just might talk about potty training next. Lord knows if you’re not talking about Iraq or fill-in-the-blank political scandal you can’t possibly be making a difference in the world or understand satire.

Bitter much?

Well, that and my kid is cute as hell.

Bill Maher Can Suck My Tits

Dear Bill,

I have a great rack. Seriously. You would love them. I can tell you are a man that likes a good set of tits and let me tell you, mine deliver.

I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you though. They’re just tits, and they are not there to get you hard, they are there to feed my kid.

I’m writing you tonight because you’ve got all my girlfriends in a little woman tizzy. The hens, they are circling…twitter, blogs, they are all aflutter with remarks you made tonight on your little HBO show.

Indulge me, Huffington Post blogger to Huffington Post blogger, and let’s just review your view on *gasp* public breastfeeding (now don’t freak out, we might be lactivists, but we’re no PETA…I’m not going to throw anything on you…just listen)-

“Narcisist,” “Petty” – just a few of the words you threw out there at us breeders. You went on about how breastfeeding was an intimate act, not unlike masturbation, and why we crazy women and our causes need to shut it so real issues can be addressed. You know, because real issues don’t include the health of American’s children (I guess that means you’re ok with the me feeding the kid a french fry to shut it up?) or the warped idea we Americans have about sex and body image and what is “obscene” or “acceptable.”

My gal pal in arms over at Suburban Oblivion covers it better than I could,

“I’ve always considered Bill Maher incredibly progressive, but this type of rhetoric makes me wonder if he isn’t a little more backwards than he’d like us to think.

Mr. Maher, let’s look at a fact or three shall we?

Breastfeeding can in NO way be compared to masturbation. Last I checked, masturbating is not necessary to survive, whereas feeding the infant when they are hungry IS.

How about the fact that by repeatedly asking the woman to cover herself, the Applebee’s employees were breaking the law??? In 2006 Kentucky passed a law specifically protecting the right to breastfeed in public, and specifically exempting breastfeeding from public indecency laws.(Unlike spanking your monkey.)

For someone who professes to be a huge fan of Hugh Hefner and Playboy, you certainly have one ass-backwards view of using the breast for it’s intended function. Boobs for show? Awesome! Boobs for food? Bad! Put those away! Sorry, it doesn’t lend much to your credibility.

So why do people worry themselves with something you deem so unimportant? To those of us who care about the future health of our children, this IS an important issue. Breastfeeding is proven to reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and a multitude of other problems. Given the out-of-control state of these things in the US today, one would think anything we could do to help curb this trend would not only be supported, but embraced.

The declining health of the population may not be as high on your radar as global warming Mr. Maher, but to those of us entrusted to raise the next generation, it’s our number one priority. “

Let’s face it. If families stopped supporting the American Service Economy, which we’d have to do if we were never allowed to feed our children in Applebees, then disposable income would dry up. If that happened, no one would be able to afford to pay for HBO. So you’d be out of a job (…again) and if you weren’t famous, how would you ever see any woman’s boob ever again?

In short Bill, you should know better that we womenfolk don’t take up our causes lightly. Or on a whim. Or because we’re just trying to hog the spotlight. We’re actually trying to accomplish something a little bit more profound and large than can be summed up in a “new rules” segment that ends in “Hooters.”

Get your laughs. Tell your jokes. Oogle my breasts. Just use next week’s show to join our lactivist cause.

XOXOXO,

Erin Kotecki Vest

Thyroidectomy

Back in January I had a full body. All my parts were present and accounted for. The baby was over a year old and the weight was nearly gone.

Life was good.

By the end of January I was wrapped in gauze and patched together with stitches and glue. A gland I was told I could do without was gone, and recovery was underway.

My chart from UCLA says I was 148lbs and in good health. Today my doctor tells me synthetic hormone replacement isn’t working well and experts need to be consulted. I have 0 metabolism, 0 cancer, of course, 0 thryoid.

The 0 cancer part is an obvious plus. The 0 metabolism is making me wish I chanced the cancer. Terrible. I know. But going up a few pant sizes will make you a bit crazy in the head.

176lbs and counting and I’m miserable. Beyond miserable. Gym 3 days a week and 1200 calories a day. Still counting the pounds. Not down, but up.

Lab work says my meds aren’t working (no shit) and might be a long road to figure out what might work.

In the meantime I get to be tired and gain weight, with a really, super attractive scar on my neck. Its enough to make me lose it. And not just lose it…like I’m having a bad day…lose it..but REALLY LOSE IT.

I’m going to expose myself in a new project very soon, and lay all that is me out there for the world to view. Yes, VIEW. I’m expecting critics. Comes with the territory. What I’m not ready to handle is the Britney-esq remarks.

I’m not looking for a “oh but you look great” comment. Just humor me in my moment of weakness today, and when this new project rolls out in a few months, tell me you’ve got my back. It is NOT often I feel vulnerable or hold myself to the same asinine standards as what the media portrays of women. Its not often I even admit to feeling self conscience. In fact, I may deny I ever wrote this post come tomorrow.

Just tell me you’ll have my back. I’m qualified. I’m capable. I won’t be photoshopped or use fuzzy lighting. Real women. Real bodies. Real Me.

To Iraq With Love

“Dear Uncle C. Be careful and have a good time. Get all those guys that are bad. Helps your friends. I love you.” -Count Waffles the Terrible, age 4.

Going Gray

I found my first gray hair.

On my va jay-jay.

Not on my HEAD like a normal person. No, Queen goes gray down there. Fantastic.

Just call me grandma crotch.

Admittedly I noticed this awhile ago, but i thought it was a fluke. I thought one, odd hair sprouted up in between waxing sessions and it would never be seen again.

I’m due for a wax and I now have THREE gray crotch hairs. THREE. 1.2.3.

What if my vag goes gray and my hair stays normal? I mean, totally dying my hair on my head anyway…but NOT the point.

I’m really unsure how I feel about this. Getting a gray hair is supposed to be a little unsettling, sure. I’m 32. Gray hairs will occur.

I just wasn’t expecting it to be on my vagina.

Does this mean I have an old crotch? What does this say about me?

All I know is all three of those puppies are coming out on Friday and with any luck, and many, many waxing sessions, they will be never seen again. Ever. Ever. Never. Ever.

If I didn’t wax, what would I do? Grow OLD IN THE CROTCH gracefully?

Just going to get waxed and try not to think about it.

Or going to melt down and have a midlife crisis. Can you have a midlife crisis at 32?? Over a graying crotch?

Guess we’ll find out.

From The Blogosphere to Iraq, with xoxo

On September 11th, 2007 the kids and I will be at a local park. They won’t be on the slide and the won’t be digging in the sand. They will be in a tiny rec room coloring pictures for their uncle and other soldiers stationed in Iraq.

I want you to join us.

I’d like to show my brother-in-law how cool you and your kids are…and that we think of him, and his colleagues. He won’t be home for another year. That’s a long time to be away from your two little ones, your pregnant wife, and your friends.

Leave me a comment or send me an email (queenofspainblog@yahoo.com) and I will provide you with his address. If your kids are back in school, maybe just send the artwork they made on Tuesday. Have your older kids write a letter. You can use a regular stamp and you can drop it in the mail. Its really not much to ask.

Spend September 11th in a constructive way. Please.

Queen

Pouting

I want another baby.

I’m sure this feeling will go away in about 10 seconds when someone is crying, or whining, or reminding me why I’m 30lbs heavier than I used to be and 300 times grumpier. But right now, at this very second, looking at these very photos…my womb aches.