Oh dear: Teen Mom

I already expressed my love for the show "16 and Pregnant" with the complaint that it doesn't make parenting look hard enough.  MTV apparently heard this complaint a while back, because I discovered they have a show "Teen Mom" following four of the moms from "16 and Pregnant".  It's about to go into its second season, which meant that they had a marathon of the show yesterday so I was able to catch several parts of several episodes and the last 30 minutes of the wrap up.

Of the four couples, three were in relationships with their baby daddies when the baby was born -- at the end of Teen Mom, only one is still together.  Other than the mom that gave her baby up for adoption, none of them moms are successfully completing school--apparently, watching a baby is very time consuming!  You can't study and take care of a baby at the same time!  (You also can't catch all of the Teen Mom marathon either while taking care of 1-2 kids for the record.)

Overall, the show portrayed parenting in a much more realistic light.  Kudos to MTV.

A Love Letter to: Publishers on Amazon.com

Dear Publishers:

As I've mentioned before, I have a Kindle. Which I love.  Every time I hear about a book that sounds interesting, I get on my iPhone or computer and send myself a book sample.  When I finish one book, I read some samples until I find something else to read.  As a result, I'm reading a lot more.  And I'm enjoying the books I read a lot more.

Originally, Amazon had priced all books on the Kindle at $9.99.  After the iPad and Apple came out with their own e-Reader software, allowing you publishers to price books at any price, Amazon was pressured to do the same.  And occasionally, this plan does something completely ridiculous, like PRICE THE PAPER COPY OF THE BOOK HIGHER THAN THE ELECTRONIC VERSION.

Take Eat, Pray, Love.  I'm watching a commercial for the new movie, starring Julia Roberts, and it looks like fun. It's all Julia in her perkiness.  And I think, "Hey, even though I've already decided not to read this book because of the reviews on Amazon, but this movie looks like fun, so I'll download a sample and see."  Only to discover that the cost of the Kindle version of the book is $12.99 while a paperback version is $8.25.   This book, published in 2007, is the same cost as the author's new book published at the beginning of the year and only available in hardcover.

So Penguin Publishing, I get it.  You don't really care if I read the book.  And hey, I'm fine with that.  I already rejected your book once.  Now I have a sign that it really wasn't meant to be.

Sincerely,
Me

I Am Not Cool Enough For: Noticing the Old Spice guy videos in a timely fashion

So I'm sure you are way cooler than me, but just in case, the "blogosphere" and "twitteratti" went crazy this week for the Old Spice guy who with apparently the world's best marketing team created over 200 personalized vidoes.  I love the Old Spice guy!  My man smells like the Old Spice man ("I am the man your man could smell like!")  And I complete missed my opportunity to blog about him and possibly have a response video.  Because that's how uncool I am!

Hypothetically speaking, had the Old Spice guy seen the blog entry I didn't write, I'm sure my experience would have been like @matthewsinclair who Twittered:

Feeling like the Old Spice guy! Over the weekend I went for a run, went horsehiding, and chainsawed firewood.#sadlyidontlooklikehim #true

 And received this video response:

I Am Not Cool Enough For: Parenting

I have two kids:  a 3.5 year old girl and a 3 month old boy.  And I am simply not cool enough to parent in 2010.

Fact is, in this high tech, Web 2.0 world, there's been a return to a crunchy granola hippie time and I'm frankly not cool enough to go along.  Examples:

• Nursing in public.  I breastfeed but don't nurse in public.  Not with a blanket, not without a blanket.  I don't find it comfortable.  I'd much rather breastfeed at home on my couch with a bunch of pillows.  And though I'm pumping at work now, once I'm over this whole breastfeeding thing, I'm giving the baby formula.  I'm not even going to pretend I'm going to do this for a year, as recommended.
• VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarian).  I had a C-section with my first baby (not intentionally) and I had a C-section with my second baby.  I didn't try to have a vaginal birth and I certainly didn't try to have the baby at home (as did two people I knew the same month my little one was born.)
• Vaccinations.  I vaccinate my kids, using the schedule provided by my doctor.  I don't create my own schedule or skip vaccinations.
• Baby wearing.  I have this giant Moby Wrap.  I've worn it twice.  And I didn't get it from Amazon, I got it from this natural store which I had never even seen before (I looked up where I could get the wrap), so it was organic cotton, making the cost per use $35 a wearing.  And I've never been to a baby wearing group.  
• Baby food.  I'm not going to make my own  It's Gerber all the way.  And I'm probably going to use the non organic kind too. 

Despite my uncoolness, my kids are happy, healthy, and delightful.  

Why aren't you watching this?: The Fabulous Beekman Boys

I have no idea what Planet Green is, but it's apparently a TV channel that I get that has my new favorite show:  The Fabulous Beekman Boys.  It is Hil. Arious.  Two city boys, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, a writer and former drag queen, and Dr. Brent Ridge, a former VP at Martha Stewart Omnimedia bought a mansion in upstate New York, and they've since decided to farm.  Hilarity ensues.  Dr. Ridge is total type A, and admits everything they know about farming, they learned from their employee Farmer John and the internet (at one point, the llama seems sick and Josh is googling to determine if they fed the llama something poisonous.)  Dr. Ridge wants the tractors to line up and the pigs clean for a party.  He's my kind of guy.

Not enough screen time is given to Farmer John.  I wish they had pictures of this guy on their web page that I could show you but he's this big, hulking guy who has a teeny girly voice, and begins crying when thinking about his goat herd, and how he wouldn't be able to keep them without Josh and Brent.

The only problem about this show is Husband spent weeks building this raised garden in the backyard and constantly wants me to go to a place called The Natural Gardner.  The last thing I need is for him to think we need to get a country house or farm, and this show isn't helping that situation.

I Am Not Cool Enough For: the Twilight Saga

I read Twilight.  I wanted to like it.  I really did.  But I didn't.  There was a lot of staring.  A lot.  And it's a book, so all that staring was quite impressive.  And there was so much missing in the dialog, apparently you were supposed to infer things by the staring, soI kept thinking that I missed a page or something (this was also after I had bought a book that had been mis-bound and so it literally skipped from one part to another, so I was particularly sensitive about this.)

I found the whole thing so boring, I've lost interest in typing about how boring it was.

I did see the movie.  It was just like the book.

Why aren't you doing this?: Seeing a movie at Gold Class Cinema

A Gold Class Cinema opened up near the house.  Word got out pretty quick that tickets were $30 a piece.  My first thought was, who the hell would ever pay that?

The answer is me.  And I'm only going to see movies there going forward (though I discovered that tickets are only $22 if you sign up for their free club).  Here's why:

• Husband always wants to get to the movies early to pick a seat.  Like an hour to 45 minutes early.  It's excruciating.  When you buy tickets for Gold Class, you get to pick your seats online, so there's no point in going early.  That's an hour of my time back, which is worth at least the cost of one of our tickets.
• The theatre sat maybe 40 people, tops, in recliners grouped in twos.  
• The seats were these squishy soft recliners that reclined all the way back.  One of the arms opened up for storage, and I could put my giant purse in it.  
• Husband said out loud that he wished he would have brought a jacket because it was cold in the theater.  They brought him a blanket.
• The theater serves food and drinks, and to order, you press a call button and someone comes and takes your order.
• The tray between the two recliners (for you to put your food and drinks) has a small light so you can actually SEE your food.  There's nothing more annoying than ordering a salad at a theater that serves food and then you can't see it.  

I only see 2-3 movies a year, and this is totally the way I'm going to see them going forward.  We went to a different theater a few months ago and the whole time I kept thinking that the movie would be so much better in my living room on our giant TV with Blu-Ray.  Since there's no call button at my house, Gold Class is the way to go.