CityMama™

Guest Post by Twizzle of Baboon of Magnesia: I've Come a Long Way, Baby

I'm taking a little blog break for the next couple of weeks but not to worry, you are in very good hands. I've lined up some of my favorite bloggers to mind the store. They'll be showing off their mad writing skillz while I'm away. Their assignment (because I'm a sentimental person and I've been feeling nostalgic lately): Write about the 80's. Anything goes.

Next up up is Twizzle, my Kimchi Mama Seoul Sister and fellow San Francisco Bay Area dweller. The Esprit outfir she describes? I know I wearing that in the 80's.

I've Come a Long Way Baby

In the 1980s, my idea of tasteful décor involved Miami Vice glass blocks; stand-up halogen lamps in brushed stainless steel; and anything colored light grey, cobalt blue, light pink, or sea foam green. If you ever saw the film Dead Ringers (starring my then-heartthrob Jeremy Irons), the set design—featuring modern Italian furnishings—to me epitomized elegance and sophistication.

My 1980s wardrobe was comprised of boxy clothing from Esprit, which— back then—was actually a decent brand. Whenever I’d trek up to the Bay Area to visit my friends at UC Berkeley, I’d make a point of going to the Esprit Store, the company’s flagship establishment, which I thought represented the ultimate in hip fashion. I once went on a shopping spree there and bought an oversized black and white checked blazer (complete with very large shoulder pads, making my figure look distinctly triangular); a pair of fitted red and black checked pants; and a baggy goldenrod and black checked lumberjack shirt. To complete the look, I cinched the jacket with a big, wide black leather belt. For shoes, I wore red, pointy flat pumps, which are responsible for the toe calluses I still have today!

Guest Post by Writer Dad: Media Then and Now, Who Wins?

I'm taking a little blog break for the next couple of weeks but not to worry, you are in very good hands. I've lined up some of my favorite bloggers to mind the store. They'll be showing off their mad writing skillz while I'm away. Their assignment (because I'm a sentimental person and I've been feeling nostalgic lately): Write about the 80's. Anything goes.

Please welcome Writer Dad to CityMama. I "met" him because he commented and as I do with every commenter who leaves their blog URL, I followed. And I read. And I liked. And now here he is musing on one of my favorite topics, the media.

Media Then and Now, Who Wins?

I wasn’t born in the eighties, but it was the decade of Dallas and the DeLorean where I drew many of the things that make me who I am today.

Back when Michael Jackson was a God instead of a monster, and Madonna was a vixen rather than a mommy turned author, I could barely imagine that the little me wandering through the yuppie years would one day be holding hands with his own offspring as we toured a brave new world that made the bleeding edge technology of the fax machine look like the near obsolescence of my grandma’s rotary phone.

Guest Post by Debbie of I Obsess: Music Videos Make the Heart Grow Fonder

I'm taking a little blog break for the next couple of weeks but not to worry, you are in very good hands. I've lined up some of my favorite bloggers to mind the store. They'll be showing off their mad writing skillz while I'm away. Their assignment (because I'm a sentimental person and I've been feeling nostalgic lately): Write about the 80's. Anything goes.

Taking us back to that time we first saw that music video, you know THAT one, is my fellow MOMocrat, the beautiful (inside and out) Debbie who is one of the most talented, whip-smart people I know.

Music Videos Make the Heart Grow Fonder

We bounded down the carpeted stairs in the seventies split-level and into the basement, with its gigantic mural of a forest scene emblazoned on the rear wall.  The TV and shiny-new, hi-tech VCR were propped in a corner on a shelf that buttressed Amy’s older sister’s bedroom door, through which one could see impressive older-sister groupings of high school paraphernalia like high heels, lacy dresses, a boyfriend’s letterman jacket, pom-poms, white custom roller skates, posters, magazines, and makeup displayed on a small table, the pink-and-white Love’s Baby Soft perfume prominent in its midst; and we snuggled into the lumpy rec-room couch after Amy had fetched the remotes for both units. 

She explained, in clipped seventh-grade style, that we’d be watching a wicked-cool video she’d taped from MTV.  I kept my sixth-grade excitement repressed, something I’d been learning to do around Amy in recent times, even though she’d been my friend since I could remember, and it felt unnatural, like a strangely ill-fitting shirt. It choked me, the feeling, but I wanted her to keep liking me, so I choked willingly. 

 

Guest Post by Mike Adamick of Cry It Out: On Want, Or Tales from the Cabbage Patch

I'm taking a little blog break for the next couple of weeks but not to worry, you are in very good hands. I've lined up some of my favorite bloggers to mind the store. They'll be showing off their mad writing skillz while I'm away. Their assignment (because I'm a sentimental person and I've been feeling nostalgic lately): Write about the 80's. Anything goes.

Like yesterday's guest poster, Jessica Ashley, Mike Adamick and I also used to work together. Mike is one of the most talent writers I know, but don't take my word for it:

On Want, Or Tales from the Cabbage Patch

It's almost like a slap in the face, 20 years later, to live in a house filled with Cabbage Patch Dolls. As a child, I wanted nothing more than a real, live Cabbage Patch Doll -- a cellophane-enshrouded cherub to call my own. I didn't particularly care that my parents would have to wait in line 30 days to purchase one -- really, that was a win-win scenario, considering I'd get a doll and they'd be gone for a month, leaving three boys to fend for themselves.

Honeycombs for dinner? Don't mind if I do!

Sure, part of me worried that once the toy store opened, they'd be involved in a deadly stampede you were always hearing about -- "Area Woman Crushed to Death as Patrons Grabbed Dolls from her Dying Clutches" -- but it seemed like a small price to pay. Yes, I'd lose one parent but also gain one Cabbage Patch Doll, so naturally it was a wash. At times when I really thought about it deep down, when I contemplated the Fates and considered what it would be like to go through life with only one parent, I would put my fist to my chin, furrow my brow and wonder which one could better withstand a bum's rush like that.

Link Love for 8/25/08

Sneaking in to share some linky goodness:

My Monday Normal Green column is up on Tonic News Network.

Over at blogs.com, check out my Top 10 Political Blogs Every Progressive Mother Should Read

Okay, back to the 80's! Bye!

Guest Post by Jessica Ashley of Sassafrass: Once Upon the late Eighties, I was a club girl

I'm taking a little blog break for the next couple of weeks but not to worry, you are in very good hands. I've lined up some of my favorite bloggers to mind the store. They'll be showing off their mad writing skillz while I'm away. Their assignment (because I'm a sentimental person and I've been feeling nostalgic lately): Write about the 80's. Anything goes.

Kicking off my righteous 80's series is my friend Jessica Ashley of Sassafrass. I met Jessica when we both worked together and honestly, I'm not sure I would have lasted as long as I did at that place if it weren't for her kindness, humor, and mad IMing skillz. Let's start this week off correc' with my grrrrl, Grrrlfriend Jess.

I'm not quite sure if I am more proud of that now than I was then, but back in those days, I took great care to slick back the hair, precisely powder my already fair skin to a matte porcelain and paint on scarlet red lips to babydoll perfection and make myself as Robert Palmer Addicted to Love video-ed as a high schooler could. Today, I take great care to mention that oh-so casually at playgroup, preschool, Starbucks, when I meet a dreamy guy or catch up with someone on Facebook. It's not that I'm living in the past (no, really). It's just that there's a lot more to me that the lady stuck behind a laptop twenty hours a day, the mama trying to convince her kid that no, that really is a carrot-shaped French fry, the fiercely focused woman in and out of offices and divorce court and Trader Joe's and conference calls. I'm not a Crocs mommy and I do put on mascara and heels to walk forty steps to my living room workspace every day and that projects a bit of who I am today. But what it doesn't show -- and what I feel compelled to drop in as my other parent friends are talking about big claw-like bangs done up with White Rain and a crusty pick -- is that I once rocked the platforms of the underage clubs with the cool kids.

Taking you back to the 80's while I take a blog break

Ever since I started this blog back in the spring of 2004, I've never taken a real break from writing. While I may not post daily, I've blogged CityMama regularly for over four years.

Now comes the time where I find that I need to step away for a couple of weeks while I tend to other things, namely: back-to-school stuff (Bunny heads to first grade this week), celebrating my 14th wedding anniversary, my job (hiring 30 more bloggers for Savvy Source), holding down the MOMocrats fort while half of our talented writers attend the DNC in Denver, and really enjoying Labor Day weekend by not working.

I'm so happy to be taking this break. I know it's cliche, but it some ways CityMama feels like a third child. Even while I doing other things, I know it needs tending and loving attention and that can be a distraction (sometimes, unwelcome) for me.

While I'm away, I've lined up two week's worth of my favorite bloggers to house-sit for me. I hope you don't mind. This is another thing I've never done before, but just as I wouldn't leave my baby alone for two weeks, leaving my blog untended for that long seems...well, kind of sad. And lonely.  The topic I gave the bloggers is "The 80's" and I told them that anything goes. What they came up with is amazing.

I'm a sentimental person by nature, and have been feeling a little nostalgic for that decade lately. Maybe it's because 80's fashion has been everywhere in your face lately. It might also because my 20th high-school reunion came and went last year. (Me attend? Um, no.) Could it also be that I'm a year and change away from turning 40? That might have something to do with it. Whatever the reason, the 80's have been on my mind.

The 80's encompassed my junior high to early college years. Needless to say, that was a pretty formative time. It was all boys and music and school. Sometimes in that order. It was also about first jobs and self-discovery and learning about what's important in life. Or starting to, anyway. It's these themes that my guests have covered without any prompting from me. I read their submissions and was blown away. So much so in fact, that I've been thinking that this series needs to be a book.

We'll kick things off tomorrow and I hope you enjoy spending the next two weeks reliving the 80's with my blog friends. I'll see you in September!

Cheers,
Stefania

Mexican-style Grilled Corn

My favorite way to eat corn is boiled with butter and salt and pepper. I like it plain so you can really taste the sweetness.  This, however, is a very close second. Or maybe a tie for first.

Grill corn:

Smear corn with mayo (or my fave: mayo mixed with Sriracha or Tapatío sauce) the roll in finely crumbled cotija cheese:

Squeeze a lime over it (and add extra hot sauce if you're me) and devour. Wallie says, "It's deee-lishiss!"

Ethan's Star Wars Celebration

My bro emailed to let me know that my nephew lost his little friend Ethan (and Ethan's grandpa) in a tragic accident. Ethan had been begging his parents to watch Star Wars and they told him he could watch the movie on his seventh birthday. He would have turned seven yesterday. Ethan's parents are asking everyone to watch Star Wars (IV, 1977) in celebration of his birthday. I didn't know him or his family, but my heart breaks for their loss. Having a family movie night tonight? Consider watching Star Wars. :-)

Please spread the word.

(Back-to-School) Things I Love

There are so many terrific back-to-school (heh) guides out now that there's no sense trying to reinvent the wheel. I just thought I'd share a handful of things that make my life easier (and my kids happier) now that school's about to start.

Jelly Headbands. Easy for my 6-year-old to put on herself (after she brushes her own hair) and comfortable enough to wear all day. Her hair is wild and straw-like from all the swimming she's done this summer, but at least it's out of her face. Locally I source them at Honeys and Heroes. (My mom thinks it's a terrible name for a store, and yeah, okay, it is, but I prefer to think of the girls as the "heroes." They have a colorful selection of jelly headbands.)

Vans. Until my kids can tie their own laces (we're working on it), I refuse to put them in lace-up shoes. They wear slip-on tennies and Vans fit the bill. The shoes are well-made, the styles are abundant, and the price is right. To keep them clean, I give them a good spraying with moisture-/dirt-repellent spray before the first wearing.