Cyber-Psycho

(Hey JS, if you come across this post, please know that you are welcome here anytime!!!)

Ok, folks, once again, I have gone cyber-psycho.....

As many of you know, precious few people IRL know of my secret cyber-life.  "Urban Mom" gets to go through life with slighly fewer social filters than "Valerie" has to.  It's the fun of the blog.  I mean, it's not like I blatantly try to be offensive or anything.  I try to (mostly) be at least respectful.  But I refer to people in the Urbans' lives as I see fit here.  It's why I call Best Namma Ever!'s husband Her Husband.  It's why I call my paternal grandmother Not The Best Namma Ever!.  And whenever I tell someone IRL about this blog, I do it with the idea of "I have to see this person; do I have to adjust what and how I write to accomodate that?"  Those people IRL are then sworn to keep my deep, dark secret.  You folks out in cyber-space can tell anyone you like about the goofy mom from Chicago who essentially uses her computer to open her window and yell at whomever passes by.

So I was over on Facebook.......

FB leads you to believe that you can tinker with sublists within your list of friends.  Keep in mind that my FB list is all of about 47 people, about 1/4 to 1/3 people that I have never even met IRL.  And so I played with the sublist of ideas.  For example, I don't figure that everyone I've ever met wants to hear my thoughts on politics, so I created a list called "Politics."  I then did a "Comment if you can see this" post.  Only a few actually responded, but they were on the list.

And you know what I did next.....

I created a "blog" list.  Y'see, my FB friend Dy posts on FB whenever she does a new blog post.  I thought that this was a very nifty idea!  So I created my "blog" list -- people who do not include my immediate family or perhaps who are friends with folks who I may not want knowing my details -- and checked and double-checked it.  I then did the "come see my new blog entry" post on FB.

Except......

a family remember responded that he was confused about how to find it.

and a nice fellow mom down the block from me sent me an e-mail -- a very lovely e-mail -- responding to my blog post. (again, JS, you're welcome to the party here!)

I immediately took down the FB post.  I then kicked the blog into "private" mode as I pondered what to do next.  I've had to think carefully about what I want to do with the Urban Mom blog.  Go private permanently?  Go back through my entries and figure out what to delete or alter?  Keep going as I have been, but check statcounter.com carefully and more often?

I'm going with option #3.

For now.

Maybe few people had a chance to see the FB post.  Maybe if they've tried the link and couldn't get in, they've gone on to the next thing in their lives. Maybe I can stop ridiculously overestimating my importance in anyone's life but my own.

So that's where I've been for a few days.

And know that if you're reading this right now, that I'm very likely flattered, grateful and giddy with joy that you find me worth your time and energy.

Unless, of course, I'm related to you.

MLK here at the CDA

What to do with MLK Day here at the {Urban} Country Day Academy?

I have to be honest with you... we're not tackling it this year.

Lest you be aghast at my perceived insensitivity, allow me to explain:  Urban Kid 1 lives in a neighborhood often referred to as "Boys' Town."  She takes part in classes all over Chicago at various businesses, encountering kids from all walks of life.  Her father teaches at Great Big Urban High School, which is known for being pretty much a living, breathing Bennetton ad.  Without any intentional social engineering on our part, the Urban Kids have a pretty diverse population in their day-to-day experiences.

Today, as we Skyped with Best Namma Ever!, BNE! told us about how she was involved in committee at her church that would be getting together tomorrow with other folks of similar committees from other churches to commemorate the day.  And Urban Kid 1 asked, "what's 'black' mean?"  So BNE!, concerned that she had to correct herself, said, "oh, I mean African-American."  UK1 still didn't get it. 

I then went about naming people that we know who are African-American.  And she started to understand, but not really.  And it occurred to BNE! and me at that moment that she doesn't get the concept of race.  At six years old, she's not seeing people's skin color.  She doesn't peg people by how they look or where they live or where they go to school.  As much as she can exasperate me some days, the fact is that she has such an open heart and soul for everybody that it is going to break my heart to explain some aspects of the world.  We'll do it, of course.  But not quite yet.

So tomorrow, we enjoy her innocence and naivete for the moment.  We'll go about our regular day, unless we hear back from her buddy Maya's nanny.  At that point, we'll drop everything and go do something fun (lest my homeschool miss a "socialization opportunity" -- aka: playdate).

In the meantime, I'm grateful.  I'm grateful that her first instinct is love, and that she lives in a place and time where that's encouraged and welcomed.



I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream -- a dream yet unfulfilled... a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character...  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Out There On The Googly-Net

I SHOULD do a real post.  I HAVE things on my mind.  IMPORTANT things.  Ok, NOT so important things, but THINGS nonetheless that bang around inside my head.  But do I sit down and type it out?  NO.  Instead, I goof around watching and doing THIS kind of stuff.

Enjoy. 

BTW, have you ever Google'd yourself?  Be honest now.......

More soon.

Urban Mom Strikes Again!

A few days ago, we all piled into the car here at Best Namma Ever!'s house and toodled over to the local library.  This is a fantastic library!  It's all cushy and cozy.  There are invitingly soft armchairs and ottomans scattered about, a fireplace and a psueo-cafe area where  you can drop a few coins into a machine and get a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.  The cafe has comfy booths if you don't want to sit at one of the tables with the Frank Lloyd Wright-looking chairs.  We dropped Urban Dad in the cafe area to do some work (he always has work to do, poor thing) and took the Urban Kids into the Children's Section to see what we could tear up.

As I checked in on Urban Dad in the cafe later, I noticed a Suburban Dad sitting at a booth with his two young daughters, each of whom had their own cute little netbook.  They also each had a cool little carrying case, which I've yet to procure for my own new little netbook friend.  Now let me preface the rest of this by saying that his two young daughters were both older than Urban Kid 1.  And Urban Kid 1 is six.  And she's figured out the Santa thing already.  I'm not judging or anything... I'm just saying that this is my humble micro-cosm...

So I ask Suburban Dad, "where did you get the cases for their netbooks? I just got one, but don't have a case for it yet."

Youngest Surburban Kid -- who is at least a couple of years older than Urban Kid 1 -- says brightly, "Santa brought them!"

Suburban Dad tells me without blinking an eye that they got them at American, which is where they got the computers.  He is friendly throughout the whole chat as I explain that I saw only computer sleeves at Best Buy, but that I liked that his Suburban Kids' cases had two pockets for power cords, etc.

We end our chat on a friendly note, and as I walk away I cringe as I hear a disheartened and confused little voice inquire, "I thought you said that Santa brought them......"

Yes, my work here is done.  On to create another awkward moment elsewhere. 

Because you know I will.  (*sigh*)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Urban Kid 2!

Three years ago today, our youngest -- and last-minute -- tax deduction came into the world.  And in a strange turn of events that I have yet to see in a shortie, Urban Kid 2 is denying that the day is happening!  She began her day by rolling over on her stomach, shoving her head under her pillow and declaring, "it's not my birthday!"  And all day long, she has denied the day.  I have a "Today Is My Birthday" button that I let each Urban Kid parade around on their special day; Urban Kid 2 has tried several times to take it off.  When we ask how old she is, she insists that she is still two.

Yes, my Urban Kid 2 is all girl.  Denying that her birthday is happening and lying about her age!

Frankly, it's an approach that I'll likely copy at my next birthday.........

Happy New Year, Everyone!



PS: Sorry about the privacy thing.  I had to hand over my new little Asus friend to my future BIL for an overnight visit. I became concerned about if he could see what websites I'd surfed.  And siit'nce my little corner of the blogosphere here is my deep, dark secret, I had to take a small precaution.  Hopefully, he did not also stumble across the "How To Make It Look Like An Accident" website that I was perusing.  (Ok, really, I'm over-exaggerating terribly on that one.)

PPS: Uptown Girl, I love my new little Asus 1005!  Try to get a six-cell battery, as it lasts almost as long as I'm on line.  And indulge in upgrading it from 1GB to 2GB -- speeds things up and makes streaming video nice and clear.

Going Private For 24 Hours Only

Hi All!  I'm going private with the blog, but only for 24 hours.  Will be back shortly and will openly available.  If I don't catch you beforehand, Merry Christmas!

Checking In Before Checking Out

Oh my GAWD, where have I been???

New Year's Resolution:  Be a better blogger.  Well, better about blogging.  Whether I yammer on about anything all that interesting is clearly subjective. 

Latest here:  I have a new little friend.  It's an Asus Eee PC 1005HA netbook.  It was on sale at Best Buy.  I scored it in a deep red with a 6-cell battery.  I can now be one of those cool people I see in the lobby of my gym clicking away on their laptop.  Or at the coffee shop.  Or even in my living room.  But you see, we don't have a wireless router, and I'm not all that interested in getting one.  I figure I'll use my new little friend where there are secure networks.  So while I click around at home, it's only on places that do not require a password.  Shame.  I can see something like 20 networks on my screen!  But they're password-protected... the nerve of people, huh?  I even saw one that said "REALTOR_NET," which it turns out is my real-estate landlord who lives above us.  Did he pick up on my casual mention that I saw his network?  That I only do password-related stuff when not at home?  Did he offer his password to his favorite tenant ever?  Hmph. 

Also, we're packing up to head to Best Namma Ever!'s house for Christmas and probably New Year's.  Urban Kid 2's birthday is 12-31, so we may stay to celebrate.  Lord knows that no one else is going to consider hanging out with a toddler and her family to be a rockin' way to spend NYE!  And it's nice at BNE!'s.  We relax.  We have built-in babysitters.  We see movies.  Sleep in a bit.  It's all good.

The Urban Kids are overpacked.  I'm overpacked.  (can you tell we're driving)  Urban Dad has packed up all sorts of schoolwork to take along (some things don't stop until June).

I hope to blog a bit more from Best Namma Ever!'s.  SHE has a wireless router.  And after Pink Power Ranger's computer geek fiance gets my new little friend all suped up (Windows 7 for free!) and installs the extra memory that I've ordered, then no one else will see that I have my deep, dark secret blog.  Which is good, because I may or may not have referred to PPR's fiance as her "weenie boyfriend" in the past. (ahem)  But more on my evolving feelings on that situation later.

But hopefully not too much later!

In the meantime, Merry Christmas, if that's your thing.  And if it isn't your thing, well, I'm sharing the love anyway!

As Urban Kid 2 is saying lately, "Police Navidad!"