Is My Husband The Boss of Me?

November 30, 2009 by

You're wearing WHAT?!

Note before I begin:

TH is not a supporter of this blog. I mean, he supports everything I do. But he doesn’t read the blog. And he expects to not be mentioned–ever. For the unitiated, TH stands for The Husband.

So, I mention him only when necessary. That’s fair.

I had to ask for special permission to write this post. And my permission was granted–grudgingly. So I ask that if you know him, pretend you didn’t read this post. If someone tweets him or shoots out an email to him, teasing him about this post, my blog will be shut down forever.

Okay, so here’s the thing.

I’m one of those neck-swiveling wives. I’m not meek. If I think he should wash the dishes, I’m nagging. If I don’t like something he says, he’ll know it. My pointer finger has been known to be in the near vicinity of his face.

My husband is unflappable. When I’m giving lip, he ignores me. When I’m nagging, he nods and smiles and goes back to watching Meet The Press.

But when it really goes down and I need him, he’s there for me. Unwavering.

We’re both self-made hustlers. We chin-stroke often and try to figure out how to take over the world. If we ever joined forces and did a blog or a radio show or a book–we’d be dangerous. For real.

But we don’t get down like that.

It’s almost like when we leave the house, we morph into different characters—Clark Kent and Lois Lane, giving each other a sly smile from across a crowded industry party.

Damn. I’m digressing like mad.

My point:

I am a fiercely independent, hear-me-roar kind of woman. If TH says something I don’t like, maybe something like how long are these dishes going to sit here. I might snap back and say, until you wash them.

You know. That kind of thing.

One thing I’ve never given much thought to is how my look is perceived by TH.

I’m a jeans and flats kind of girl. A Little Black Dress when I have to. I do like a sky high stiletto. But that’s about as far into fashion I go.

And TH is on the same level with me. Rugby  and denim during the week. With the occasional fly blazer combo. And cleans up very nice when necessary.

So.

This weekend was his class reunion.

Y’all know what I was thinking. What the heck am I going to wear?

My shallow side took over. My husband was popular in high school. Cute girlfriends. All that. I was a mousy geek whose hair was rarely done. And I’m just coming into my own as far as confidence and fashion sense.

So, I looked in my closet to see what I would wear. I wanted to look exceptional. Not just nice. For once in my life, I wanted to make an entrance. I wanted people to nudge each other and say, who is that?

Did I already mention that I understand that I was being shallow? Okay. Good. Cause it gets worse.

Here’s the dress I pulled out of my closet:

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I’ve Been Tagged: The Honest Scrap Award

November 24, 2009 by

Chimere Norris, also known as @chimerenmktg in Twitterville, has tagged me in an interesting your-turn-to-spill-the-beans social media experiment.

I’m supposed to share ten honest things about myself. And then tag seven bloggers I love, respect and admire.

Whenever these sorts of things go around, I usually hit delete as fast as I can.

Facebook and Twitter make us transparent. Do we need to go that extra mile and tell random people 25 more things about ourselves?

I talk about my weight, my clothes, my family and my work right here on this blog. Why on earth would I share ten (more) honest things about myself?

Eh. Why not.

Herewith. 10 (brutally) honest things about myself. (Read it quick. I’m so deleting this post tomorrow.)

Thank you to Chimere for tagging me. And at the end of my post, I’m tagging seven others I’d like to hear from.

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Titles, Cover Art and Random Wonderful Things…

November 23, 2009 by

So. My novel, out in July, was originally titled No Tea For The Fever.

And that title was scrapped by the publishers. Too literary. (Ouch!)

I submitted two more titles. The answers were no. And no.

I chewed my nails, rocked back and forth in a little ball and tried not to cry.

And finally. My editor broke the news to me.

My novel would be called…

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What We Can All Learn From XYZPublicist

November 18, 2009 by

So.

Each month, I edit a relationship column for a national, women’s lifestyle publication. Sometimes I write the column myself. If I’m extremely swamped, I assign the story out to another freelance writer.

It’s one of my many hustles. And I like that I have to think like an editor. It helps me when I’m trying to pitch articles to other editors.

In my line of work as an editor, I deal with publicists, usually for authors who have written books about relationship issues or therapists, professors and other folks who are experts in relationship stuff.

There are many times that I find myself staring at a deadline and I have all my interviews completed for a story–but I haven’t found a relationship expert to interview. So I’m scrambling like mad, emailing folks to try and secure someone for my column.

(I’m getting to a point here.)

It would make sense to prepare for this in advance and line up interviews with several authors, professors and therapists.

But I don’t do that. I scramble at deadline time. Most editors do.

So. November 4th, I get an email.

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Kinky Curly: Day Three. An update.

November 10, 2009 by
parttwophoto 2

her hair was flat when she woke up. I fluffed it with a dot of mousse. That's it. Headband. Out the door.

parttwophoto 4

Team Zahara!

parttwophoto 5

I still feel weird having Tog's hair "out." But boy do I love walking out of the house without wrestling with her hair.