Archive for October, 2007

Oct 08 2007

Any Dream Will Do

Published by Brillig under Blogginess

Remember how last week I was begging for bloggy topics? Well, y’all gave me lots and lots of fun ideas. I’m starting with my really random and almost entirely unmemorable encounter with Donny Osmond, because it was the most requested topic! Kate of What Defines Me, Luisa of Novembrance, CF of Canadian Flake, and Kate of Walking Kateastrophe all requested this story, so you can blame them…

Once upon a time, I was in high school. And I did what any good high school girl would do—I went to activities at the nearby university and passed myself off as a college student.

Among these adventures was (drumroll please….) Tunnel Singing. That’s right. On Sunday evenings, groups of BYU students would gather in a “tunnel” and sing music from the LDS hymnal. The music was beautiful, the acoustics amazing, and the eye-candy FANTASTIC. In fact, after many of these religious experiences, I may or may not have ended up making out with some guy I’d met there…

But I digress.

I went to Tunnel Singing for years, starting when I was 14, and passed myself off as a college student. Of course, sometimes I went with my older brother and his friends (who actually BELONGED there) but as they grew up and moved on, I started inviting my own friends—other high school students like myself.

One night, I invited my buddy Donny Osmond Jr. No one called him “Donny” by the way. He was just Don. He and I were never super close, though we were definitely friends. He was always dating some friend of mine, or I was dating some friend of his. We were always in the same group for date dances (including this one)—yes, friends, it was Utah. Don was a cool, zaney, whacky, and average teenager, who carried the great albatross of his father’s name. Not that he didn’t love his dad, or anything, but he wanted to be his own person and with a name like that, it was difficult. Especially in Utah. So we all helped him by not swooning over his dad or singing “And they call it ‘Puppy Love’” in front of him, etc.

Anyway, we invited Don to come Tunnel Singing with us. And we all had a great time. And then he told his parents about it, and Daddy Donny himself decided to come too!

So, we all piled into the Osmond family Suburban and headed off to Tunnel Singing. And once we arrived at the crowded event, I found myself seated next to Daddy Donny, all shmooshed up against him. And suddenly I started to think about my older sister Amy who’d had the world’s biggest crush on this Teen Idol. She’d had every LP, every pic on her wall from Tiger Beat magazine, and even Donny and Marie action figures! I KNOW!!! And here I was, shmooshed up against him!

I have to say that this was BYU—a place where every soul there would have known the name “Donny Osmond” and would have fallen all over him had he walked into the tunnel and said, “Hello, I’m Donny Osmond, you may now proceed to adore me.” But he didn’t. He was just another guy, singing like all the other guys there.

Anyway, he was very kind. Very sweet. He would lean towards me and harmonize with the part I was singing, and make me feel like the greatest vocalist in the world. But in true “friends with Don” fashion, I did my best not to swoon, freak out, or make an idiot of myself in any way.

And that’s it. I wish I could say that I’d grabbed him and kissed him, or even that I’d grabbed DON and kissed HIM—that would be worth some brownie points, right? Alas, no.

But, because I love all you Donny Osmond worshipers and I hate to leave you so disappointed, I’m including a little Donny clip for your audiovisual pleasure. Enjoy. :-D

52 responses so far

Oct 05 2007

Creating Some Buzz

Published by Brillig under Blogginess

(FOR THOSE OF YOU HERE FOR SOAP OPERA SUNDAY, IT’S DIRECTLY BELOW THIS POST!!!)

So. You’ve all heard me talk about Cre8buzz ad nauseam. Really, I’m trying cut back, I promise. But today, I just can’t help myself. See, the ol’ Buzz is going PUBLIC on Sunday.

When Kim of Temporary? Insanity invited me to Cre8buzz a couple months back, I was hesitant. I’m on Facebook and frankly haven’t loved it—haven’t been inspired by it enough to bother. But it was Kim, who I adore, so I joined and decided to see what was up.

As I looked around, I realized that I could promote this blog through them, and I thought, “hmmmm, extra traffic never hurts.” So, my sole purpose in becoming an active participant at Cre8buzz was to promote my blog.

And guess what. It worked. Every single time I post, I get a handful of new readers who tell me that they found me through Cre8buzz.

But more than that, I’ve become a part of a community that I’ve really come to love. This was unexpected. But it’s true. I have hundreds, HUNDREDS! of new friends and a deeper connection with some of my “old” friends. “Community” isn’t just a word being thrown around. It’s a true feeling there.

So, it’s like I accomplished my goal of getting new people to my old blog, and then I got the delicious, and unanticipated, dessert to go with it.

(And, for those of you who are dying more some more success stories, or a better peek inside, check out the cre8buzz blog, specifically this post.)

Anyway, to celebrate their big move to PUBLIC, a bunch of us decided to have a Cre8buzz Blog-a-palooza. So, if you’re blogging about the buzz today, please enter the permalink to your post. (These will become permanent links when the list is complete.)

Aguante ‘Buzz!!!

1. Alex
2. Ritu
3. Mad goat lady
4. melody is slurping life
5. Work N Play
6. PHAT Mommy
7. Jen
8. Mommin’ It Up!
9. Mudder
10. WalksFarWoman
11. Jackal
12. Candace Martin
13. Novembrance
14. Summer @ Summer’s Nook
15. Queenie
16. LadyintheRed
17. Jo Beaufoix
18. Lynnae @ From Under the Clutter 		19. Bliss In Bloom
20. Avery Gray
21. Heffalump
22. Lisa J. Peck
23. Bucolic Scribblings
24. Radioactive Jam
25. Tristi Pinkston
26. TwistedSister
27. Peg
28. Anne Bradshaw
29. Christine
30. Kellyology
31. Jen in MI
32. The Mom Salon Daily
33. Leendaluu
34. Unquiet Heart
35. Cranberry Corner
36. canadianflake 		37. Mom Chatter
38. Assertagirl
39. Emma Sometimes
40. Marianne
41. The Farmers Wife
42. Secret Agent Mama
43. Jerseygirl89
44. Josi Kilpack
45. Annette Lyon
46. Bitsy Parker
47. Kate
48. English Rose
49. La Chanson de Phoenix
50. Stephan Miller
51. Whimspiration
52. so grateful to be mormon

48 responses so far

Oct 05 2007

The End of Ben

Published by Brillig under Soap Opera Sunday

Soap Opera Sunday, folks.

I confess, I’m starting to feel rather trapped by this soap opera.

So, I’m going to skip to the end.

“I’m leaving, ” I said.

He laughed.

“No, I really am. There’s no reason to be here anymore. I’m moving home.”

“No reason? Well… I’m here.”

I rolled my eyes. He and I both knew that what we had was a total joke.

“So, you’re running away,” he said.

“I’m not running away. I’m following my gut and getting out of here.”

“And how much of this ‘gut-feeling’ has to do with that guy you met in Park City?”

Well, he was kinda right. I’d met the most amazing boy in Park City a few months before and I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him or talking about him with my girlfriends, and Ben had picked up on all of it.

But there was more to it than that. I HAD to move back north. I didn’t know why, but my soul wouldn’t be quiet until I did. And maybe I was “running away”—I needed to get out of this mess of Ben-ness, and moving a couple hundred miles away seemed like a way to end it once and for all.

So I packed my things, loaded up my little Ford with all my crap, and without thinking about how I had no job and no where to live, I made arrangements to leave the next morning.

Sometime before my alarm went off in the morning, Ben came into my apartment, grabbed my keys, and said something about needing to borrow my car and he’d bring it right back. I must have been extremely tired or delirious, because I didn’t scream, “DON’T TOUCH MY CAR, YOU IDIOT!!!”

I got up, got ready, tied up all the loose ends, and then sat on the couch and waited. And waited. Where was he? Where was my CAR? How DARE he just swoop in and take my keys!!!!

Finally, he showed up. I started screaming at him, and he gently put his hand over my mouth and said, “I got your oil changed, because I knew you’d never do it. I had your tires rotated too—it’s a long drive. And I filled your gas tank, so you should be able to get all the way to Provo without having to stop.”

I was flabbergasted. After a minute of just staring and gawking at him, I said, “I think that’s the first unselfish thing you’ve done since I met you.”

He smiled sadly. “I think you’re right.”

That was the last time I ever saw Ben.

Once I got to Provo, everything worked out for me. I found a place to live and I got a killer job that miraculously opened up in a company that my sister worked at. They knew nothing about me, but they knew and loved her, and gave me a job I certainly didn’t deserve. Everything was like a faerytale.

And, above all else, within a fortnight of moving back north I was dating the boy I’d met in Park City. And I was head over heels in love. And I still am.
Within the year, we were married.

(Hey, I TOLD you the story ended with my wedding!)

————————————–

Okay, tonight you’ll have to leave your SOS posts at Kate’s Mr. Linky. I’ll copy and paste it from her when the list is complete! Hope everyone has a happy SOS!

20 responses so far

Oct 03 2007

From Behind the Stir-Ups!

Published by Brillig under Blogginess

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The big day has arrived! Our Gyno-Fest is brought to you by me and the lovely and illustrious Amy from The Butrfly Garden.

Truth is, I don’t have a lot of OB/GYN stories. There’s a very good reason for this.

See, I’ve never met an OB/GYN who I trusted enough to even allow him to touch my big TOE, let alone my… uh… yeah.

And, through extensive research and soul-searching, I decided that midwives were the way I wanted to go.

But midwives are limited in what they are and aren’t allowed to do in Utah. While some of these laws have changed and midwives now have more power, back when I was pregnant with Scooby, midwives were not allowed to prescribe medication.

And I? Well, I had a UTI and I needed an antibiotic.

So, I went in to a local women’s clinic to pee in a cup and get my meds and get out of there. I had Fluffy and Bubba with me and it didn’t really occur to me that I would have to TALK to anyone.

But, see, a doctor decided to snoop through my file, saw that I was homebirthing, and decided to come in and lecture me about it.

“I guess you don’t really care about yourself or your baby.”

I said nothing. I was already oh-so-fond of this approach—that my decision to have my baby at home with extremely well-renowned and well-trained midwives meant that I didn’t love my baby as much as some random stranger loved my baby. And I probably didn’t ever research such a major decision or anything. Or pray about it. Or follow my gut, swollen as it was.

He went on, “you know, sometimes the midwives make mistakes. And then I have to clean up those mistakes.”

I smiled and nodded, politely, but not pleasantly. I wanted to lecture him right back—tell him his C-section rate was way too high, tell him that routine episiotomies were archaic and inhuman, tell him that his bedside manner made him one of the very last people on this planet that I would want to share the sacred moment of my baby’s birth with.

But I didn’t. I wasn’t in the mood to fight. I was pregnant, irritable, chasing my kids, and in the agony of a UTI. And I could see my Rx in his hands, and if I just held out for another few minutes, it would be mine. And then:

“Thousands of mothers and babies die in our hospital because a midwife makes a mistake!!!”

That was it.

“Sir,” I said very calmly and politely, “if thousands of women and babies were dying in your hospital, those statistics would be recorded and your hospital would be ranked as one of the lowest in the country—and those records would be available to the public. The truth, sir, is that not one single mother or baby in the entire state of Utah has died because of the involvement of a midwife. You know this is the truth as much as I do. And you only wish that your own statistics were as good as my midwife’s. May I have my prescription now?”

Flabbergasted, he handed me my Rx and stammered, “Well… uh… what I meant was that if it weren’t for my intervention, they would die.” By now I was walking out, shepherding my children in front of me. But he wasn’t done with me. He followed me all the way out to the waiting room, which was packed full of pregnant women waiting to see this licensed professional.

When he could see that I wasn’t going to stop and chit-chat anymore, he screamed out at me, across the crowded waiting room, with venom and sarcasm and hatred, “Oh yeah?!!! Well, I HOPE YOU AND YOUR BABY DON’T DIE!!!!!”

SERIOUSLY? He seriously went there? He seriously said that to a pregnant woman? He seriously threatened me? He seriously thought that approach might make me rethink my foolishness and sign up as his patient instead of my amazing midwife’s patient?

Yes. Seriously.

Every jaw in the room dropped, except mine. I marched right out his door, never to enter again. And I couldn’t believe that the women in his waiting room didn’t jump up and march out behind me. Sadly, they probably didn’t think they had any other option. There they waited, lining up to pay thousands of dollars to have their cervixes checked by this classy doc.

And that, Gentle Readers, is my one and only personal story about an OB/GYN.

——————-

And now, let the party begin!!!! Do you have an awful OB/GYN story too? Of COURSE you do! Post about it, link back to me and to Butrfly, and add your permalink to my Mr. Linky (and if you haven’t already, head on over to Butrfly’s and put your post in her Mr. Linky too)! And then, make the rounds! Visit the listed posts! Check back here often to see posts that were added since your last visit! Read! Comment! Let’s help everyone to have a good experience through their terrible stories. Yeah….

43 responses so far

Oct 03 2007

They Were Just Saying Thanks For The Candy

Published by Brillig under Blogginess

First of all, thank you thank you thank you to all of you who responded to my last post. You gave me a lot of fun ideas and even more support. Thanks, y’all.

Some of the questions I got in comments and in emails made me realize that I’ve always been so obnoxious in “about me” sections that some of you who’ve been hanging out here for a while, but especially those of you who are new, really don’t know very much about me!

So, once and for all, I’m going to write a real “about me”. You’re so excited, I can feel it. It’s located as a sub-page to my “all about Brillig” page. If that’s too confusing, just click here. I warn you that it’s long, and possibly very boring…

Thanks to all of you, I now feel as though I’m brimming with topics. That is no longer my problem! Instead, my problem is time. I have already devoted the rest of my days this week to other delightful projects. What are they? Oh, I shall tell you!

TOMORROW! I have mentioned this already, but I want to make sure you DON’T MISS IT!!! Tomorrow is a big day here and at Butrfly’s place. We will be hosting our one-time event called, “From Behind the Stir-Ups—Your Worst OB/GYN stories.” We want you—yes YOU to participate! Here’s how it will work. You will write your own story about an awful (or hilarious or bizarre or whatever) experience with an OB/GYN and link it back to me and to Butrfly. Then, you’ll go to Butrfly’s place and put your link in the linky list and then you’ll come to my place and do the same. That way, we will have two wonderful lists so everyone can read (and comment on, because we’re good sports like that) all the stories. This is gonna be SO MUCH FUN! I can hardly wait! Look at the button that Burtfly made for this special occasion:

ob_stories2_large.jpg

Use this picture to preface your own post, if you so desire!

(TELL me you aren’t already laughing your head off!)

(By the way, the earlier you get your link in, the better your exposure will be… Just something to think about.)

And then Friday I’ll do a Flashback Friday, using one of the ideas provided by you, my Gentle Readers.

And then the weekend will naturally be devoted to Soap Opera Sunday, and perhaps some stuff about Cre8buzz going public.

So… next week… I will answer some of your questions and refuse to answer some others. :-D And there will be lots of linky love, believe me!

Okay, really fast, before I sign off, I need to tell you a little story that happened today. My little Bubba has a friend named Caleb who lives very near us. Bubba was on his way to go play with Caleb, but he came home early because, “Caleb’s mom won’t let us play today because Caleb and I were peeing on the Candy Guy’s hands.”

WHAT???

The Candy Guy is a sweet old man who gives the kids candy when they go to his house. The kids adore him (of course) and I approve of it all and it’s all good. And really pretty darn cute.

So when I heard Bubba’s report on why Caleb was grounded, I immediately called Caleb’s mom to get the whole story.

Apparently, Candy Guy has some cement imprints on his front porch of his grandchildren’s hands. Treasures to him and his wife, of course.

And, so, how do Bubba and Caleb thank him for his kindness and generosity?

Apparently, they whip out their little thingers and fill the little hand imprints with their pee.

Sigh.

Boys.

Sigh again.

(Bubba got a VERY strong talking to, by the way, and will have to go and apologize to Candy Guy. As funny as it may be, it’s also so hideous and disrespectful and disgusting and no son of MINE is going to behave this way! No sir!!!)

And with that, I wish you all well. See you tomorrow!

16 responses so far

Oct 01 2007

Choose Your Own Adventure

Published by Brillig under Blogginess

I’m in a slump.  It’s possible you’ve noticed.

When your blog starts to feel like a chore rather than a delight, you know something’s up.  For months, I’ve LIVED for blogging—writing and reading.  But lately I’ve been avoiding it, writing only the essentials, like Soap Opera Sundays and Wordless Wednesdays (which require no writing…).  I’ve even ditched Flashback Fridays lately.

I know.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to say.  It’s just that I don’t have anything to say it about. 

No, I don’t think that makes sense either.  I’m just grabbing at straws here.

So, is it totally lame to ask you all for a little push?

Yes.  It is.  I know it is.  But the life of my blog is in your hands.

It’s like a “choose your own adventure” story!

I need topics.  These can be random topics.  They can be things you’ve been dying, DYING to know about Brillig—because I’m sure you have a long list of things that keep you up at night:  “Oh, if ONLY Brillig would enlighten me on THIS topic!”

Anyway, there’s linky love for anyone who inspires me.   And since I know that many of you would do ANYTHING to bump up your Technorati, I figure this might inspire you to inspire me.

How inspiring.

51 responses so far

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