Just some randomness while I await the change to my new website. Thanks again for hanging in.
Peeves
1. Losing my Audiobook place on my iPod. Takes ages to find it again. This is the worst … my absolute number 1 peeve.
2. Juice box company repackaging a 10 pack as an 8 pack for a higher price. Then adding back the two juice boxes and slapping a sticker on the package that says “20% more free!!!”. (also looking at you cereal makers!)
3. The moment when I realize I forgot a lesson I have already learned.
4. Seeing one of my kids in a too-small or stained item of clothing I meant to discard or donate, but instead washed and dried, again.
5. Loud talkers at the gym. Especially when they are on their cell phones.
6. Walking to class sans tissues, and having to sniffle my way through most of it.
7. Promo codes. I have never been offered one of these in my life. Dammit.
8. No hook (for my coat or bag) on a public bathroom stall door.
9. My cats crying to go outside at 6:00am and then taking their sweet time while I stand with the door ajar in our usual 5 degree temps.
10. Glasses, period. Example: accidentally washing my face or falling asleep with them on; sliding down my face; getting raindrops on them as I walk to class; losing them, you name it. Hate wearing glasses.
Pleasures
1. My youngest, an 8 year old boy who sometimes feels too big to hold mommy’s hand, absently grabbing my hand on a walk
2. The moment when I realize a book I am reading is going to be awesome.
3. When someone clicks the “Add to Any” button to subscribe to this blog.
4. Seeing my dogs, standing on their hind legs, wagging their tails, looking out the window at doggie daycare when I pick them up.
5. Finding out one of my students has gotten into the grad school of their choice (this week: two pre med students got early admission to Tufts!)
6. The sound — and sight, when I am lucky — of a black capped chickadee.
7. Watching something absolutely trashy on TV as I fold laundry in the relative quiet and solitude of my bedroom on a weekend afternoon while all hell is breaking loose downstairs
8. Realizing I’ve accumulated enough quarters to buy myself a Vitamin Water from a vending machine on campus
9. Trolling the charity used book bin at my supermarket and actually finding a treasure
10. Seeing my husband in his assistant soccer coach uniform. I thought I married a bookish Jew. Where did this hot jock come from?
Blogging:
1. The way to grow your blog is to post good content
2. Occasional drama is unavoidable: better to visit it than to host it
3. Twitter, while enjoyable, doesn’t really help me with blogging. I’ve nuked my Twitter account 3 times, and each time have seen my stats and comments go up during the period I was Twitter free, probably because I had more time for better and more frequent posts.
4. Your blog readers are not necessarily your friends. They just read your blog. They may not even like you, impossible as that seems. 
5. Don’t be afraid to ask experienced bloggers for help, on anything from handling code to an out of control discussion thread.
6. Trolls must be ignored. No matter how skilled you think you are, you can’t reason with them, because they are not arguing with you in good faith. Ignoring works wonders, though.
7. Be natural. Don’t strategize when it comes to frequency of posts or content or comments. Do what feels natural, or blogging will just become another chore. You can’t predict what people will like or what you will find gratifying anyway, so save yourself the wasted energy.
8. Taking back anything you say on the internet, including on your own blog, is like trying to get the pee out of a pool. Think twice before hitting send.
9. There is always room for another blog, another voice, another point of view. Be confident in your own voice and welcoming of others’ voices.
10. Blogging is an incredibly rewarding activity.
Hmm, interesting points in the blogging section. Yes, twitter is such a time suck but sometimes I get things out of it that I don’t get from blogging. Like quick of conversations you don’t always get in a blog.
I always google for promo codes. Retailmenot and google are your friends!
Know what I find so hilarious at the gym? These people who sweat enough to make a puddle on the floor and then I find one of them smoking a cigarette as they walk to their car after an intense workout.
Ah, the 8 year old hand-hold is a treasure indeed.
Don’t even get me started on the amount of tuna in the can these days.
1. My youngest, an 8 year old boy who sometimes feels too big to hold mommy’s hand, absently grabbing my hand on a walk
Best thing ever. I miss that so much.
I hated blowing my nose during a lecture. So awkward.
Type your comment here@heidenkind: Had an awkward experience that I still remember to this day. We had assigned seats (easier for them to take attendance) and we were like all squeezed in together. One day, I had a coughing fit and had to get up and leave the lecture hall because my eyes were watering from trying to hold it in. It was one of my worst nightmares to get up during lecture and having all 200 eyes on me as I left (at least that was what I had perceived)
You must have been the person I was thinking of when I admired the tawny chest of a blackcap chicadee on the suet feeder this morning. The feeder is right outside the window by the breakfast table, but we don’t always see interesting (or any) birds. This morning’s visitor seemed important and now I know why.
Oh, these lists! Wonderful. I love black capped chickadees, too. I read that they have to eat every day, even in the worst winter storms, so I always think of them when I fill my birdfeeder. Or, feel bad when I leave it empty.
Also. Good point on being natural with blogging, and teh drama. (“better to visit it than to host it”) LOL. Indeed.
Hey, I put your link on my sidebar and it doesn’t work!
I love black-capped chickadees, although we don’t have any out west. I miss cardinals, too. But I don’t dare have a bird feeder, because it just becomes a two-stage cat feeder, and I hate that. I have to settle for watching birds when we visit Scotland, where we have many feeders and no cats. I can see chaffinches, my very favorites, as well as wagtails and siskins. And, of course, the variety of tits. The man can sit there and say “Oh, great tits!” and it never gets old.
Thanks for the Blogging tips. I was feeling rather discouraged today and number 9 really helped:
There is always room for another blog, another voice, another point of view. Be confident in your own voice and welcoming of others’ voices.