I went to a cocktail party for Dress for Success yesterday,
http://www.dressforsuccess.org.
It's a group that provides suits for poor women who are going on job interviews and a whole week's worth of office clothes once they get the job, as well as job training and support. They just opened a new office in Mercer County, N.J. They showed a very touching video of women who have been helped by the group and they convinced me it's really a good way to help women. Some 20 percent of women in Mercer County, N.J. are poor so God knows anyone can offer help is doing something worthwhile. I don't know that it addresses the root causes of poverty but what organization does? Before we left, they asked us to donate or volunteer and I would like to do some volunteering and send some money although where I'll find the time or the money, I'm not sure.
But here I am at a cocktail party and I realized once again that I haven't been out in theworld much since having kids. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've never been to a cocktail party. I asked my friends if having margaritas at a local park counts but I'm pretty sure that doesn't qualify as a cocktail party. I also realized that I don't really have any power suits myself although I'm not sure I want them either. My friends and I huddled in a corner scarfing down horsdouevres and wine and chatting. We didn't network or work the room and we arrived back at home at 8 p.m. because we couldn't bring ourselves to go out late and I had more work to do. I ended up staying up late grading papers. I guess I'm not a party animal and I'm pretty sure I'm not a cocktail party animal.

Tap dancing as fast as I can

Just say no to tap dancing if you're already tap dancing too fast in life. That's what I did and it felt good although I had promised my friend I would dance my little heart out or at least give it a try. I'm already doing yoga and walking every morning and I have deadlines piling up and I'm volunteering for the school book fair and the silent auction for my choir. Yesterday, I felt my stress level rising and that old feeling of being overwhelmed returning and so I had to say no to tap dancing.
I know I'm getting stressed when I start losing things and forgetting things. I've been trying to schedule several interviews at once and I kept forgetting when they were and I rescheduled them and gave myself a lot mmore headaches. Then I left a folder in the parking lot and lost my parking ticket. I probably should have gone back to bed but I did some yoga and that helped a bit. It's the deep breathing that does it.
I also opted to not go to my choir performance tonight but instead go to a friend's cocktail party where she is launching the non-profit she is heading. To do that required several calls to a babysitter and a desperate search to drive my older son home from art. A cocktail party! Imagine! I don't think I've ever been to a cocktail party. I have asked my friends if margaritas in the park count but I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Not to sound like a girly girl but what do you wear to a cocktail party. Hmm.
Yesterday we bought the music book for Hair and my younger son and I sang together. It is such a genuine pleasure in my life and I'm glad they've been able to enjoy music with me. It's a great gift.
My older son asked me to proof his paper on Shakespeare yesterday only he spelled it Shakesphere and he said that someone was insuccessful. "It's not a word," I told him. "Yes it is," he insisted. "Look it up. I'll be you $10 it's not a word," I told him. "I don't have to look it up. I know it's a word," he said. Finally I exploded, "If you teach writing at a university, raise your hand. It's not a word." I'm pretty sure this is immature and insuccessful parenting and will lead to therapy later in life. Oh well.

I am a writer and a mom who writes a parenting column for the local newspaper and this is my first attempt at blogging. I have to admit that I'm skeptical about this new form of communicating with the world and I'm also skeptical that anyone would read this. It feels a little like throwing a message in a bottle and then tossing it out to sea.
I have two boys, ages 8 and 10, and I'm struggling with all the usual dilemmas: work versus parenting versus personal time versus sleeping time, worrying about just about everything from global warming to parent teacher conferences.
This week, I am recuperating from Halloween and still sneaking into my children's Halloween bags to steal their candy. My nightime eating habbits are definitely in conflict with my attempts to get healthy by walking and doing yoga. I'm also looking at a crazy schedule that seems destined to get crazier over the next month. My friend wants me to take tap dancing lessons with her. How do I tell her that I'm already tap dancing as hard as I can? I'm signed up to work at the PTO book fair at my sons' school but I've already had to move appointments around to do that. You get the picture.
I interrupted two moms on the schoolyard yesterday and one mom said to me, "We're talking about teenagers and sex. We're convinced all teenage girls are having sex." Yikes. I can't even go there.
On Saturday, we took the kids to see a local production of "Beauty and the Beast," and we discussed the meaning on the way home. We talked about how it's all about how Beauty fell in love with the Beast because she got to know him and she turned him back into a prince. "Is that what it was like for you and Daddy?" my younger son wanted to know. "No, your father was a prince," I said. "Then he turned into a beast after you got married," he said. We all roared with laughter.
My younger son says he wants to get married when he gets older because "I want someone to keep me company" and "I want to have children." I told him he should make sure he's in love and date a lot of girls first. He's only 8. He has some time.