Jill

A fun week at NotSoSoccerMom HQ!  On Tuesday, the radio show hosted Eileen Bastien of Zumba and Dr. Craig Jacobs, a Manhattan Chiropractor.

Not So Soccer Mom Zumba Eileen & Dr. Craig Jacobs10-26-2010

Today, on the spin-off talk show, The Real Housewives of Toginet Radio, Melenie and I hosted event planner, busy Manhattan mom and co-author of If You Give a Mom a Martini, Lyss Stern of DivaMoms.com.

Real Housewives of Toginet Radio Guest Lyss Stern10-29-2010

Also, check out my Zumba fitness article for my friend Klaus in South Africa’s online fitness magazine.

http://its-a-guys-world.com/2010/10/new-zumba-fitness-post/

NotSoSoccerMom is proud to be supporting Divalysscious Moms’ Halloween Spooktakular at Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC this Sunday 10/31 by providing NotSoSoccerMom t-shirts for the fabulous gift bags.

Commenting on someone this morning I said,  ”He has no common sense.  Kids these days.”  I said this outloud and meant it.  And was immediately admonished for sounding — well, like a mom.

Guess what.  I am. And I fully enjoy the view from here on my Hell In a HandBasket Soapbox.

I’m sad people don’t get dressed up for-….really… anything anymore.  I wonder where manners have gone. I think kids should go outside and get fresh air and definitely get a ‘toothbrush for Christmas’ and walk both ways to school- UPHILL.  Breeds character. (Said from the confines of my Tempurpedic bed, while pecking away on my MAC and texting the other side of the country on my Smartphone.)

A few exceptions to my Old Skooledness.

A) We can put a MAN ON THE FREAKING MOON, but kids still wear HEADGEAR?  Teeth can be whitened in 20 minutes via laser and straightened through nearly-invisible wires.  All these advances in the orthodontic arts and yet we are still outfiting pre-teens (of all people, because THEY’RE not self-conscious) with enough cranial-orbiting hardware to build a small metallic footbridge? Got. To. Go.

B) McRib.    Here’s a little lump of faux-meat pressed to resemble RIBS…. that tastes nothing like ribs which has hung around since 1981 edging it’s way in till we finally caved and even welcomed it’s existence, much like Geraldo Rivera.  Can’t you see the McDonald’s Executives, plotting an April Fool’s Day prank circa 1990?  ”Wait, dude!  Wouldn’t it be hilarious if we relaunched McRib?   Do you think people will get the joke?”   Later: “Hmmm, Dan. Second Quarter Sales are up. We can only attribute it to the re-launch of McRib.  You just earned a $200,000 bonus. Go buy yourself a dot-com start up.”

C)   Hmmmm  (?)

Jill

I forgot C because Jerry was reading aloud another article about Juan Williams’ firing from NPR.  OH, I remember.

C) Journalism -Over.   It’s all opinion/punditry  anymore.   Juan Williams didn’t violate any ‘code of ethics’ by stating his personal opinion- for that is the very reason they hired him.    NPR can rewrite their Code of Ethics as soon as George Soros is available to proofread it.

Hypocrisy: Still very In, even after getting it’s start in the Old Skool.

I don’t know Jonathan Franzen.  He could be a very upbeat person.  But he has not helped my mood this week.

Wednesday morning, I was already annoyed.   The Sound of Music Sing-A-Long Event was a bust. No one sang. No one came in costume. My kids and I? WE sang. WE are fun. WE came to play.  But the rest of the lamo crowd of 20+ Sound of Music ‘aficionados’ who didn’t even SING or know the dialogue left me Wednesday morning with a “What’s the world coming to?” hangover.

Then I couldn’t get online.  You can imagine how that went.

That’s fine. I’ll read.  I’ll get under my new QVC Northern Lights Seafoam Green Down Coverlet (that may or may not have been ordered after a few Coronas since, in person, it resembles a bedspread I slept under in 1990 at a Days Inn in Austin, Texas.) and read.

With 100+ pages to go in Jonathan Franzen’s new book Freedom, I snuggle in.   Freedom started with a bang.  In the first 20 pages, Mr. Franzen covers 15 years, puts us IN Walter and Patty Berglund’s suburban Minnesota home, hooks us on several secondary characters AND provides dialogue and character motivation.  IN TWENTY PAGES.  It takes me 500 words to describe my lunch!

The book is about the everyman Berglands, who meet in college, fall in love, have two kids and yada yada yada.   Nothing special, right?  Which makes Mr. Franzen’s writing extra-special due to the fact that everyone from Imus to Oprah is talking about Freedom and calling it the next ‘Great American Novel’.

Religion, politics,  American ethnocentricities, the music scene, parasitic personalities, race relations, socialism v. capitalism, commercialism v. art, hard work v. silver spoon.  YUP. It’s all in there.  And More.  Depression, familial demons,  alcoholism.    Our central characters experience the joys and pain of love and sex , sibling love and hatred and marital love and hatred.  So much goes on…and yet so little. There are some bright spots and definitely some LOL’s,  but the majority of Freedom could be construed as sad or bad- depending on where you land on the Optimism Scale.

I’d say Mr. Franzen is a sociological genius to sum up the last 100 or so years of American culture in only 505 (*yes, ONLY) pages through the seemingly non-descript life of a suburban couple and their two kids.

Idealism v Realism is my favorite theme in the book.  And while the Idealist character is our faultless hero, does his idealism, in the end, become his Achilles heel?  (I don’t know cuz I’m not spending the day in bed today to finish it and getting all depressed again.)

Jill

Read Freedom and let me know.  While excruciatingly well written, I need someone else to help me psychoanalyze  Mr. Franzen.  I think this book does have ‘something for everybody’….Of course I think that. I am the eternal optimist. Maybe that’s why I still liked the book despite it’s sobering messages.  And MAYBE that’s why I ordered the seafoam green Northern Lights Down Coverlet in the first place…?!  The eternal optimist in me thought it would look less Aunt Myrtle’s Room at Whispering Pines and much more Nuevo Posh Shabby Chic.   I could stand to be more little more real and pessimistic.  Score one for  Mr. Franzen.

Today on the NotSoSoccerMom radio show- Bert Fink of Rodgers and Hammerstein Corp.– the ULTIMATE Sound of Music insider helps me celebrate the Sing A Long Sound of Music Event which is in theatres two nights only—-

The show airs at 1pm EASTERN time on www.Toginet.com and

click Listen Live to hear the show!

BERT FINK is Senior Vice President of Communications for The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (RHO). Bert, the consumate Sound

of Music insider, appears on the documentary, I’LL SING ONCE MORE,which precedes the national Soundof Music Sing A Long screenings on

10/19 and 10/26. Recently he was atthe OPRAH cast reunion taping which airs 10/29 and

he’ll share a bit on that!Bert visits Salzburg at least once a year and to the Von Trapp farm inVermont each year as well.

He wrote album liner notes for the 2009 -50^th Anniversary edition of the Original Broadway Cast Album (Sony

Masterworks), and new liner notes for the 2010 – 45^th Anniversary edition of the Motion Picture Soundtrack (Sony Legacy; in stores starting 11/2/10).

He also wrote the text for a charming pop-up version of the story forSimon& Schuster (published 10/09).

Jill

Thanks for sharing my joy!

I bring you my perspective on things that happen to me.  Sure, it could be argued I put myself in the way of bizarre-ness to drum up ‘blog fodder’: 9 day trip to 4 towns of Christmas with 4 children—- OR  5am flight from Omaha with baby #4 and “Pro Mom” Me who has forgotten diapers is staring a naked baby at 3:45am in the 10 degree weather.

Yet, some ordinary situations become choice blog fodder.

Which brings me to my 3rd grade CCD Teacher status.

Two years ago, on a quest to ‘bring some holy’ to the chronically bored teens of the world, I offered to teach 7th grade.  While I enjoyed this group and the  surprisingly (!) meaningful conversations we had, the next year I taught 5th grade where I would mentor one of my own offspring in the ways of the sacraments, Gospels and commandments (oh my).

This year it’s 3rd grade. Who knew there would be rich material is such an un-assuming venue?

We offer wordy and heartfelt prayers for deceased goldfish, hamsters and ‘birds I saw in a tree’.  And dogs.  Prayers for Dogs or Dead Dogs take up at least 1/3 of our prayer time. “I want to pray for my old dog Pepper and also my new dog Mr Catsup. Well, he’s not really new. I think we got him when I was like four…. I think Pepper died before I was born though. …  Can I go get a drink?”

“This weeks’ assignment was to try and be like Saint Francis.  Saint Francis gave up worldly possessions and wealth to help others. Can anyone share how they did so?”

‘I forgot to pray for my brother’s friend Matt. He has a Guinea Pig named ‘Robocop’ who got caught in the cage and they thought he might die and then…My dog is pregnant with puppies, too and…… can I go sharpen my pencil?”

“SAINT FRANCIS knew to just be still and not worry about STUFF. Did you know God tells us in the Bible to just ‘be still’?   Even adults need to remember this.  Mrs Hickey is working on being on her computer less. So she can be still and enjoy them.”

‘Is there going to be homework? I might not be here next week cuz I have a soccer game. Can you remember to pray for my Great Uncle’s dog, Max?’

‘I gave up my DS for a week.’

“FANTASTIC! That is a lot like Saint Francis. Great!   Okay, boys and girls, as we get closer to the Holidays, we are going to go Christmas caroling to other classrooms and sing loudly songs about Jesus. Mrs Hickey will bring in her computer so we can learn songs.”

‘Mrs. Hickey, you just said you were trying to be on your computer less. Shouldn’t you leave it at home and be still?’

Jill

There’s always that one, isn’t there?  A+ for this kid.