This evening while I was in the park with Berlin, the realtor called Matt to let him know he planned on showing our current apartment to some people. Matt was in the middle of a consultation and didn’t answer his phone. The realtor came anyway.

Apparently the guy liked the apartment and put down a deposit. He’s coming back to show his girlfriend at 9 tomorrow morning. When I found out the apartment had been shown, I came screaming back to see what a disaster I had left it in.

Our kitchen is covered with full boxes, the bathroom has not been cleaned this week, our bed is unmade and there is cat hair everywhere. When I starting picking through my dresser to make sure my pearls were still there (I AM my mother’s daughter!) I saw the worst of it… my sexiest bra tossed on top of the dresser.

I’ll be sure to put that away before the girlfriend shows up tomorrow morning.

So one of my favorite things I’ve ever heard is my dad’s cell phone’s voicemail message which says “We’re currently out of pocket right now… please leave a message.” It’s super cute. But it’s true… I’ve been not-so-much here mentally. And I’ve neglected the blog because all the things that I want to write about are things I don’t want to write about here. And c’mon… have you seen the past two issues of National Geographic?

Matt and I took a date to Barnes and Noble last Friday night to just sit and read books that we don’t own and can’t get at the library. I picked up Heather Armstrong’s new book which is great (I got through chapter 5).  I don’t think it was her intention but it certainly makes pregnancy and child-rearing seem like the world’s most challenging and straight up BAD idea on earth. Think I’ll need to read me some Pushed to get another side of the story…

I’m also kinda hoping to get a copy of Tribes to read. Matt’s heading out of town this weekend for a lengthy trip to Maryland so I’ll be holding down the fort at my parent’s house (read: luxury hotel). I’m looking forward to not only some one-on-one time with my rents, but also some quiet time reading and drinking tea. So readers, what else should I add to my book list?

I love this post by Jeremy where he highlights a huge social media quandary. I think anyone who has actively participated in social media, especially for marketing and PR purposes has made his mistake… I know I have. So it’s a great reminder to build up a relationship of trust before any sort of promotion. Also a good reminder that you can’t assume you know someone based on their web facade.

Which brings me to a bunny trail. I received a letter today from Planned Parenthood asking for money. I’ve recently been hit up with a number of requests from non-profits that I am tracing back to my recent financial support of the NPCA - a great organization, but apparently one that sells their donor lists. This irked me for a number of reasons, most especially because I couldn’t disagree with the mission of Planned Parenthood more. (In fact I wrote them a note to ask that they kindly remove me from their mailing list.) I think we’ve all learned that the major issue with direct mail is the fact that you really can’t segment your audience nearly as well as on the web (although we still have a long way to go with the web) – in fact you can do more damage than good by marketing to the completely WRONG segment without even realizing it! Shame on you, direct mail.

But back to my whole social media rant… I’ve recently come to the conclusion that the web is only as good as any of us make it. Most people trawl the web rarely giving back any content or any value. And then on the other side of the fence we’ve got people who rant endlessly in an offensive manner on the web. It’s time for web users to take the conversation to the next level… a level with a mature dialog and exchange of opinions without the lashing out. All that being said, the folks I respect the most on the interwebs are bloggers who state their opinions (even when they are controversial) and are brave enough to do so. That is the role I want to fill. I no longer want to shamefully consume the web without giving back in the appropriate and challenging way. What about you? Think we can do this and turn the dialog into something more respectable?

I realized that I just sat down and cranked out this post without too much thinking or editing… but that WAS originally the whole point of blogging, wasn’t it? To maybe… not… self-edit so much? So kudos to me.

While the beef stew splutters away on the stove, I might as well take a break to tell you that yesterday we realized was the anniversary of the day we went to pick out Berlin. On our evening walk we reminisced about all the things we never thought that she’d do that she now does… like play fetch (obsessively) and jump up onto our bed to wake us up in the morning. She’s still adorably shy if the terrain isn’t familiar but she has certainly gained the confidence to start humping female dogs in the park. I had a feeling she’d lean in that direction.

We’ve never stayed put as much as we have this year, which was a pretty big adjustment. But there’s nothing in the world better than coming home to a dog wagging her tail at you.

Now if Mojo would just kick the bucket we could get another dog…

Also, I think Widmer Hefeweizen is my new fave. Not more of a fave than Berlin but definitely more of a fave than Mojo. KIDDING!

P.S. Can you believe the Twitter Christopher Walken thing was a scam? Too bad. He’s great.