I don’t care who you are, or if your kid is just having minor surgery, this moment right here? Never gets any easier.
Tube surgery 7/17. He’s fine. We were at the hospital because of his congenital heart disease and oxygen saturations which hover around the “I don’t know if he’s turning blue or if he just ate a snow-cone” level.
This shout out goes to all of the kids who had surgery yesterday and didn’t get to come home and sleep in their own bed.
Do me a favor, hug your kids.
The other day was not a good one.
It started with the upstairs shower leaking into our kitchen; a deep pool of water on the counter kicked off the day. After that I found a container of watermelon that had been left out all night *shudder*; then we received a giant bill from my son’s cardiologist and rounded out the day with sewage coming up the drain of our basement utility sink.
Oh, joy.
After all of that, let me tell you what I didn’t want to do: MAKE DINNER.
What I wanted to do was run away from my house of horrors and go get a drink! And that’s exactly what I did.
Lucky for me, there is an Applebee’s within walking distance of my house. I called a few people, told them to meet me there, and by the time the three of them arrived appetizers had already been delivered to the table!
Lots of appetizers. And, we ate every bit of them.
To compensate for the indulgence of tortilla chips, I ordered the Skinny Bee Margarita (YUM).
Though there weren’t a lot of vegan options on the menu, the waitress was more than accommodating and the manager brought me a list of foods that were meat and dairy free. There were also handy lists for food allergies.
I ended up with this spicy and delicious Sizzling Asian Shrimp and Broccoli (minus the shrimp).
You may also notice there is a beer there. It was spicy. I had to! Plus, the margarita was part of the appetizer.
Some people don’t have to worry about eating meat though. Color me jealous. I’m not going to lie. I stole some of those fries.
Then everyone else ordered this for dessert. This is a picture from Applebee‘s website, because I didn’t have time to take a picture before they started tearing into it.
By the time I got my phone out to snap a picture, it looked like this. Notice how they left one bite of cookie on the plate:
All in all, we had a few drinks, a lot of food and a ton of fun. I love living in a neighborhood where there is a restaurant that I can take my family to or meet a few girlfriends for happy hour. It was the perfect way to end my day on a high note.
Applebee’s knows the value of meeting friends at the end of a stressful day. After all, they like to say: “Life is Better Shared.” They also know sometimes friends can’t meet face-to-face, and they want you to be a part of their online circle of friends. Find them on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube or Tumblr!
Applebee‘s and BlogHer want you to end your day on a high note too, because they’re giving one lucky reader a $150 Applebee‘s gift card! To be entered for a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post and answer the question, “When’s the last time you had a girl’s night out?
Can someone please tell me how this happened?
I read that headline on the ABC News website and wondered if Friday the 13th had suddenly become April 1st. If I were the boss of the USOC, someone’s head would roll. Like a ball. Probably made in China.
AP Photo
And, really, Ralph Lauren? What’s with the jaunty beret? Don’t you know what everyone thinks of when they see a beret? Hint: It’s not the United States. Pourquoi, Ralph? Pourquoi?
America is not about a double-breasted jacket either unless, of course, it’s 1985. America is rugged, scrappy and enterprising. We do not need to borrow style from the French, nor should we have our manufacturing for a quintessentially patriotic event shipped to another country.
We haven’t even seen the opening ceremony and Team USA has already lost the first round of competition. This does not bode well for our gold medal count.
In the ninth grade, I was in a public speaking class made up of students from every grade in my high school. This meant that as a terrified freshman, I had to get up and talk in front of a room full of people, including seniors. It was awful.
It was also one of the best things that ever happened to me.
The public speaking teacher made us tape ourselves and going back through those tapes is like listening to a butterfly emerge from a cocoon; a cocoon that said, “Like” a lot. A whole lot.
I never had a problem when I taped myself singing Barbra Streisand’s “Memories” in our half bathroom as a 5 year old, but put me in front of an audience at 14 and there was no chance of me belting out a tune, because I could barely talk. My speeches and stories ended up a jumbled mess of nervousness that were half Cindy Brady on a quiz show and half Miss Teen USA, circa 2007. Such as.
But, blogging has changed something in me, and my job most certainly has. I “talk” to tens-of-thousands of people every day now and I’ve learned that if you are truly authentic, it’s not so scary. Though, I’m not going to lie, speaking in front of roughly 4,000 people last summer was enough to give me nervous poops. See? Authentic.
In a few weeks, I’ll be in NYC to speak at BlogHer’s annual conference again; first as a Pathfinder (a HUGE honor) and then as a moderator/panelist on how beginners can leverage Facebook and Twitter to increase traffic and engagement on your blog. Did you hear that? That was my mom saying, “You lost me at traffic.”
In the planning of the all-day Pathfinder workshop and the social media panel, I find that I’m not nervous in the least. Instead, I am excited; practically bursting at the seams to talk, share, listen and learn. I will be among the best and brightest bloggers in the world and I will stand before them as my authentic self. Well, unless I run into Katie Couric or Martha Stewart in the green room, in which case I’ll freak out and sweat a lot. Fair warning, ladies. Especially you, Katie.
It feels good to not worry about public speaking anymore and it feels great to know that I have the confidence to say so.
It’s, like, going to be totally great!
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