Blogging about Blogging « Artificially Sweetened

You got here how?

December 28, 2006 at 4:31 pm | In Blogging about Blogging | 9 Comments

Some of the better search strings through which people have found this blog. And my snarky responses.

The “Go Back to School” Awards

a sad song about a kids abused – I don’t know why you were looking for this, but you might have more luck if you corrected your grammar.
how long does a female butterfly stay pregnant? – I think butterflies lay eggs. See mammals vs. insects for more help.
Name of the month of Winter holidays – December.
how i gone spend my winter holidays - I don’t know.

The “I’m So Sorry” Awards

my retainer keeps giving me sores
i ate too much carp

The “Smell Me” Awards

why does insulin smell like band aids
diabetes smells like alcohol
diabetics smell sweet
stella smells diabetic

The “I Can’t Even Begin to Imagine” Awards

fat baby’s pride BBQ
automatic transmission sweet juice
“Lichen Planus” vegan – huh?
police trouble wearing diapers diaper plastic
picture penis elephantitis – ewwwwwww
martial arts dojo boobs – This one’s for Jen, Cait, and Mel
picture of a biscuit penis – ??????

The “This Blog Will Not Give You Satisfaction” Awards

britney spears forgets her underwear – ugh, ugh, ugh.
britney spears tax returns – Not here, sorry.
Groundhog ailments – The only ailment my groundhogs had was inhabiting my yard. And I cured that.
“donor insemination” OR “donor sperm” depression – Your question exactly?
ban diabetes marriage – Of course. Because there are no greater problems in the world than diabetics getting married.
farting after frozen embryo

The “Did You Really Need to Ask The Internet?” Awards

do I need bra under wedding dress? – Well, what kind of dress is it?
Are Friday weddings tacky? – Do I look like Emily Post?
“I want to have a child with you” – Perhaps we can go out for coffee first?
what holiday gift can I give my jewish boss – I’d recommend a giant light-up creche myself.
should there be carpet in nurse’s office – Damned if I know.
its good to chew gum when playing basketball – Is this a question or a statement?
what does a pili look like?

And.. the “I Totally Agree” Award

oh he’s a gorgeous little boy

Stealth Blogging & Family Venting

December 25, 2006 at 12:34 am | In AdoptThis!, Blogging about Blogging, mishpocheh | 8 Comments

Before I start blathering on: Merry Christmas to all my friends who celebrate Christmas and happy mandatory day off to the rest of us!

I am at my parents’ apt. and every time I get on the computer and start looking at blogs or even thinking about blogging one of them pops up behind me. It’s crazy.

I feel like I’m trying to look at pictures of nekkid ladies when really all I want to do is check in with my bloggy friends without letting my family in on my on-line existence. Not that I have anything big to hide, I just like having some illusion of privacy as I spill my guts to the internet. Yes, I see the irony. But then I got even more freaked out when I went to comment on a blog and discovered that my mother has a blogger login. I almost left a comment as my mom. Eek.

(yes, I am a 31 year old woman, not a squealing teenager, despite the tone of the above)

I am hoping to get some new Guatebaby pictures any day now… hopefully they will not add to my frustration that Nothing. Is. Happening. on our case. Our agency has not yet been able to make it through the line at the U.S. Embassy to get authorization for the DNA test. Apparently, the line is supposed to start at 6am, but since they only take 40 people a day, it actually starts the night before. But if the embassy staff sees that the agency reps have been in line overnight, they won’t let them file the paperwork. Yes, these are our tax dollars at work, my friends.

My parents are so excited about GB, which is fantastic, but also puts more pressure on me to have answers or timelines that I just don’t have. My mother says things like, well I hope he’s home before he’s six months old. As if he will turn into a pumpkin if that’s not the case, which it likely won’t be. She apologized, repeatedly, but her words bring up this old and barely banked anger that deserves a post of its own and that I can’t quite seem to put down again.

It’s anger from when I was a child. Anger that I had diabetes. Anger that I always had to be okay and couldn’t be angry. Anger that I supressed unconsciously, feeling the weight of her need for me to be okay. Feeling like my own emotions had to be smothered in order to protect her fragile equilibrium. Anger at being told – when I said that it scared me when she got depressed, that it reminded me of the very scary times when she was depressed before – that she was fine now and I had no right to be afraid based on those times. Anger, that until a few years and a few million therapy sessions ago, I would have told you I didn’t feel.

And then she says something like this, asks for something I know I am powerless to do, and I feel all that unfelt rage surface like a deep sea diver, gasping for air.

I will post this and then delete the browser history posthaste.

But I need to post this.

p.s. Thank you so so so much for all the kind wishes on finishing! I haven’t heard anything from them saying that they are going to reject it for being three days late… so perhaps all is well?

In which I gaze at my widening virtual navel (& photo friday on sunday)

November 26, 2006 at 2:03 pm | In Blogging about Blogging, Photo Friday, Ya Gotta Eat, mishpocheh | 9 Comments

For me thanksgiving is all about the Food and the Family (F is for… ) We go to my cousin’s house, have a delicious meal (eat way too much – I wish I could do a 48 hour square bolus for thanksgiving) and enjoy seeing relatives I don’t get to see often enough. When I was younger, I found the whole family thing overwhelming and stifling, but I think I’ve mellowed and my family has mellowed as well.

I made a baked brie (world’s simplest appetizer: take frozen puff pastry sheets, defrost. I was supposed to roll them out but I forgot and it turned out fine. Place wheel of brie in center of frozen puff pastry sheet. Top with canned organic whole berry cranberry sauce or the preserves of your choice. Fold puff pastry sheet around brie. Top with second puff pastry sheet. Brush with egg yolk and milk. Bake on cookie sheet at 400 for 10 minutes and 350 for 30-40 minutes until brown. Listen to your family admire you.)

I also baked two really kick ass pies, which I forgot to photograph before my family demolished them. The pecan pie recipe in particular is mind-blowing. I upped the pecans a bit (two cups) and toasted them lightly. Oh, and I used the Pâte brisée recipe from Joy of Cooking for the crust. Make sure to freeze the butter beforehand, and use ice water and crust-making is Not That Hard.

The F is for Family pictures are friends-only on flickr. Make me a flickr-friend and I will surely reciprocate, unless you’re George Bush.

I hope everyone who celebrates it had a lovely thanksgiving. I enjoy the idea of a holiday for giving thanks. I try to avoid thinking about its nasty imperialist origins and stay away from the pilgrim hats and cartoon native americans. I’m thankful for Pili and for the family we are making together. I’m thankful for my family of origin, who love and support us, and for my family of choice, who sustain us. And, I’m thankful for the internet and for the virtual communities I’ve found on it. Which brings me to my virtual navel gazing (widening thanks to those thanksgiving pies)…

When I first started my blogroll, I thought a fair bit about how I was going to set it up. I deliberately didn’t want to differentiate between people who were coming to parenting through adoption and people who were trying to get pregnant, or who were pregnant.

I didn’t want to differentiate between queer families trying to conceive and non-queer folks who were also trying to get themselves knocked up. I didn’t want to draw a line between new moms (plural) getting frustrated that their kid wasn’t interested in the boob and new moms (singular) getting similarly frustrated. I wanted you to click on a link and maybe have it take you somewhere you wouldn’t go intentionally – but where you might discover an ally you wouldn’t have expected to have. Along the same lines, I haven’t separated out people with type 1 vs. people with type 2 vs. parents of kids with diabetes. By not putting people in boxes, I hoped, as grandiose as it sounds, and it sounds plenty grandiose to me, to help break down the edges of some of those boxes a bit. I’m not sure if that’s worked.

On the other hand, sharing categories has helped me to see what I share with people whom I might otherwise, honestly, have a) never gotten to know, and b) never given a chance, without the shared fact of diabetes or adoption or both to bring us together. And I am (once again) thankful for that.

Oh, and by the way, Andrea has had a bunch of really interesting posts about breaking down boundaries in the blogworld. Read them and realize that she is a far more thoughtful human being and a better writer than I am. Also, I’m linking to every single post because, there doesn’t seem to be a category for these posts. And there should be!

Right now I have blogs on my blogroll that are marked private. This is not because I am deliberately keeping things from you, but mostly because listing them as public would make my blogroll very long and unwieldy – whenever I find a blog that looks interesting, that I might someday want to come back to, I try to subscribe to it. And I also have a number of blogs that I don’t know how to categorize – firstmoms writing about their experiences, friends in real life, cooking blogs, etc. etc. There are um, over 500 blogs on my bloglines account. And no, I don’t read them all every day. I just collect blogs the way some people collect pets or precious moments figurines or shot glasses… Yes, I feel a little sheepish about this.

And by the way, if your blog gives you the option to publish an rss feed – please, please do it. I am just too damn lazy to go in and update my html every time I find a new blog. Much easier to let bloglines do it for me. This is why the wonderful ladies at babycakes are not on my blogroll, damnit.

So the question: should I reorganize? do you want more categories? fewer categories? what do I do with people who fall into multiple categories?

I’m back!

September 30, 2006 at 7:03 pm | In AdoptThis!, Blogging about Blogging | 16 Comments

I’ve been scurrying around the blogosphere, commenting up a storm and trying to catch up with all your various goings-ons.

The retreat was wonderful. It was with other people in my field, but not with my co-workers. There were fantastic presenters, very tasty food, and a beautiful, peaceful setting.

And now I’m home, with my lovely blogosphere and my lovely purring cats and my lovely Pili although she’s grading grading grading at the moment.

Oh yes, and I also have a lovely lovely re-notarized homestudy. On Monday morning I will take a break from Yom Kippuring to take ALL the documents to the county clerk and get them certified.

Cold Turkey

September 25, 2006 at 9:52 pm | In AdoptThis!, Blogging about Blogging | 7 Comments

I am going to a work-related retreat in the mountains for four days.

Cell-phones don’t work, and there is no internet access.

If you hear loud shrieking coming from the north woods, it’s me, detoxing.

p.s. If anything dramatic happens, like Vaseline Teeth actually returning our phone calls, I have given Pili guest-posting privileges. Unfortunately, I doubt she will have cause to use them.

I just can’t seem to escape this meme

September 13, 2006 at 10:20 pm | In AdoptThis!, Blogging about Blogging, Linky Love, Pass it On (Memes) | 11 Comments

In response to my interview question, my Anonymous High School Boy Friend (AHSBF), also known as the significant other of the guy (SH) whose diabetes I had the joyous opportunity to confirm, updated us on his sweetie’s diabetes status. He writes:

SH is doing great. Ten days ago after our ER visit (facilited by stepmom-who-works-there; awesome), he went to his new dr here in NY (who he loves), got a relatively small second prescription, and a meter. He was told to test his sugar 3x/day before meals for two weeks and record it, so that the doc can get some data to work with. That, and some diet vigilance, has been working great. His sugar #s keep getting lower (we had a 115 yesterday!), and he *feels* so much better. We’ll see what happens once the doctor gets some numbers…

You asked if I have questions: I do, and it’s pretty, well, mundane. I’m the one who cooks in our household – a task I love. I’m thrilled to be cooking for two since it makes it much easier to movitate yourself to actually make something yummy. Problem is: we’re negotiating both the T2 diabetes, SH’s high blood pressure meaning i’m trying to limit salt intake, and we’re trying to limit our food expenditures somewhat. It’s proving to be a challenging balancing act (thank g-d we aren’t veggie — we’d be hammered). It seems like SH’s basic modus operandi is just kinda atkins-lite — seriously watching carb intake. Cool, but it puts a crimp on some of my tried-and-true food tricks, like making a roast chicken and stretching the meat out for a few dinners by mixing with pasta and veggies. To top it all off, we’ve got the compounding issue: I’m something of a foodie and SH is a compulsive nosher, so if he’s bored or hungry or has a taste for something, he’s going to eat it. (To be fair, he has been showing tremendous restraint over the past ten days). So, the rambly question is: any advice on recipes/cookbooks/etc to help negotiate? Steaks and spinach for dinner will get old really really quick; I’m going to have to change my repertoire a whole bunch. Any advice appreciated!

Since I know ass-all about type II eating plans, or type I eating plans for that matter (empty container of good n’ plentys in my glove compartment, you are my witness), I’m turning this one over to the comment friends. Can anyone give the boy some good food suggestions or ideas for places to find them?

Also as a result of the interview meme: Diabetifriends, go check out Journeywoman’s advice for partners of diabetics. Or better yet, have your partner check it out.

I eager anticipate the remaining answers from AHSBF and Journeywoman and hereby serve notice to Pithydithy (you think being a pregnant academic is any excuse? you are wrong!) and Erin to get in gear and answer already. And the blue ribbon for fast answers goes to Susan.

Oh, and some good news: Ms. Gal finally gave us feedback on the homestudy. Now the ball, otherwise known as my impatient heart, is back in Vaseline Teeth’s court. Tick Tock, Tick Tock.

In which I try not to be a stereotype and fail miserably

August 28, 2006 at 3:31 pm | In AdoptThis!, Blogging about Blogging, PiliPiliPili | 4 Comments

I really didn’t intend that last post to be the blog equivalent of “does this dress make my butt look fat?” (mandatory answer: no, of course not) but I am delighted to hear from so many of you and to hear about what motivates you to read this. I’ve never been able to keep a diary, it bores me to tears. Which is perilessly close to saying “I bore me to tears.” But this, this blogging thing – it’s fun. And I am tickled pink that people like to read this, or at least that your mothers raised you with the manners and good sense to tell polite untruths. So thank you. Thank you very much.

The reason I haven’t posted much about adoption related business lately is that there hasn’t been anything much to write about. We faxed our documents to the little agency that could, and they promptly looked them over, and told us that even if my boss has known Pili for 2.5 years and thinks she is of good manners, honorable character and never goes to bed without brushing her teeth (she doesn’t, it’s one of many ways in which she is far better than I), the witness statement, notarized by the gnome in accounting, must be redone to read either two or three years, and renotarized by the gnome in accounting.

Braving the gnome in accounting again is big news for me, but not terribly exciting to write about. The Big Thing for which we still wait is the homestudy from her evilness, Mrs. Vaseline Teeth. She called last week after being absent for two weeks, and told us cheerily that she’d had a great vacation and promised it would be done by Friday. It’s 4pm on monday and I have seen nary hair nor tail of said homestudy. She also didn’t answer our question about the police report which was supposedly being mailed to her.

I think MVT prefers Pili to me. This makes sense. Pili is so much catching flies with honey. I am so much, for g-d’s sake would you just do your $(#@# job already? Pili leaves discreet several day-long pauses between phone messages. I begin to pester people when they do not call me back after several days. In which pester means call them at least once a day and ask with barely veiled hatred, whether someone in their family has died? Because otherwise? There is No. Excuse. For not returning my phone call and if you are on vacation have the courtesy to say so on your out-going message.

I think in some ways, MVT responds to me and my decidely Big City South of Here ways in much the same way I respond to tail-gaters. If you and your gas guzzling substitute for viagara are riding my butt on the interstate when I am going 75, I am going to go 70. And then 65. And then 60. Until you and your Napoleon Complex that is single-handly destroying the ozone layer give up and move over a lane. And then I will be sorely tempted to follow you and return the favor in my peppy little tin can. But I will not, because I have gone to Driving School and I know that Road Rage is Bad. And also because you and your ~~car~~ truck named after the things it is destroying (Denali? Tundra? Yukon? Sequoia?) could smush me into so much art-sweet road jelly.

But I digress. Me nagging MVT does not work. So now I am nagging Pili to nag MVT. Because Pili drives a cute little ~~subaru~~ mandatory lesbian vehicle and would not run me over.

In which I once again ask for your opinion

August 27, 2006 at 2:58 am | In Blogging about Blogging, Linky Love, The Sweet Life | 31 Comments

Andrea recently wrote very eloquently (as she always does) about the awkward balancing act involved in having a blog with multiple audiences. Whenever I write, I’m aware that it’s going to be read (hopefully) by people with a diverse group of interests. There’s my diabetes friends – my TTC/infertility friends – my adopting friends – my queer family friends – a handful of in-real-life friends – not to mention the crazy people who have nothing easily describable in common with me but have stumbled across this blog and just like to read my writing, for some reason.

So whenever I have a few posts in a row that deal with one particular subject, be it diabetes, adoption, or politics, I worry that I’m going to lose some of the other “one issue voters.”

Should I worry about this?

Do you just skip the posts that aren’t relevant to you? Do you read them and maybe learn something new? Do you get bored and stop reading?

This is such a strange virtual world. I recently noticed that I seemed to have fallen off someone’s blogroll, someone with whom I frequently exchange comments. Has she gotten sick of me? Was it an accident? Should I say something?

I’m pondering all this because I have another question I’d like to throw out to the diabetes community and yet I feel like lately I’ve been very diabetes focused here and I don’t want my other blog-friends to dump me because I haven’t had much to say related to queer-family-building of late. I promise there’s news coming down the pike… That said:

Have you ever had to tell someone that they were diabetic? Maybe tested a friend’s blood sugar, or a friend of a friend’s blood sugar, and had the meter come back with a number that made you gasp? A number that would throw off the averages on your meter for weeks to come?

It’s funny, because I used to fantasize about this when I was a kid. I would imagine testing my best friend’s blood sugar, and finding out that she was diabetic too. Then not only would I have saved her life, but we would be best buddies who would take our shots together and understand each other more than ever.

Today, it happened. With someone I don’t yet know well, but hope to have an ongoing friendship with. The significant other of a very good friend. And I didn’t know what to say, what to do. We came up with reasons why the number might be wrong. Sugary fingers. Recently ate. Forgot to take his “pre-diabetic” pill. He didn’t want to test again, and respecting the boundaries of my relationship with him, I didn’t push it, just urged him to get to a doctor soon. Very soon. Possibly tomorrow. Could I should I have done more?

ETA: After consulting with some people who are actual medical professionals and don’t just play one on the internet, my friend and his SO went to the ER last night and will go to a doctor to get on top of things today or tomorrow. I feel a little obligated, especially since said friend reads this blog (Hi honey! Love you both!) to step in and defend his sweetie from the stereotype of the neglectful T2 diabetic. which I hear peeking up a bit in the comments. Without having more of the details than I felt comfortable posting, I can totally understand why people went there. But while this was definitely a wake up call for him, in his defense, he had not aggressively been hitting snooze for the past ten years…

And P.S. – I still don’t think insulin smells like band aids. Rubbing alcohol crossed with sweaty metal subway hand smell is the best I can come up with.

Photo Friday: The Very Clean House in Which I Blog

July 17, 2006 at 2:26 pm | In Blogging about Blogging, Home, Sweet Home?, Meows, Photo Friday | 5 Comments

Very clean house, because Mrs. Vaseline Teeth came over today and did the home visit! She seemed very pleased with the house, with my peppermint ice tea and zucchini bread, and with the cats, and was her general agreeable non-questioning self.

Thanks to the wonders of laptops and wireless internet, I blog all over the house.

I blog in bed. With (from L to R) the laptop, the fan (because it’s damn hot), Bart, Pili’s knees, and Idli.

I blog in my office. Pili and I share an office; I have this cute little alcove at the south end of the room. Go to flickr to see all the commentary on this one.

And in the winter I can frequently be found blogging in front of the fire.

Note the happy hanukkah lights!

Until later…

June 30, 2006 at 7:57 pm | In AdoptThis!, Blogging about Blogging | 3 Comments

Off to spend the long weekend visiting the outlaws.

I have lots of long thoughtful posts brewing in the pipeline, but I am semi-forbidden to blog until I finish my autobiography. In the meantime I will leave you with this bit of snark.

Don’t get me wrong.

I heart my pregnant friends.

And I understand that sometimes pregnant ladies have achey bellies, and this leads to public belly rubbing.

But pregnant lady ahead of me in the airport security line: was it really strictly necessary to crop your t-shirt to expose your little bump, which you were so considerately rubbing?

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