Edgy Mama

Here’s a shot from 2003. These are not all my kidlings. My fave costume here is the angel dalmatian boy. And that Tigger costume has been worn for five years in a row by someone. The best!

Today, my kids are dressed as Pokemon trainers. Whatever that means. Easy, though. We painted styrofoam balls and they’re wearing black. My girl let me put her hair in pigtails, which looks adorable, but if you tell her that, she’ll get self-conscious and take them down.

So what are your kids or are you dressing up as tonight?

O, and I’ve decided not to read ANY politico bloggies between now and the election. I’m done with the stridency and name-calling. Done, I tell you. Done with black vs. white, dem vs. repub, right vs. wrong. I want my world to be a nice fluffy shade of cardigan gray for the next week. Thank you.

Okay, I’m certifiable. I signed up this year. I’ve flirted with the idea for the past two years, but stopped short of actual consummation. Now I’m cosummating hard. I’m ready for a month-long roll in the hay with my novel. I’m already cursing myself.

Here’s how I plan to reach 50,000 words in one month (a month that also contains a holiday during which I’ll be traveling and my one writers’ conference of the year–and we all know no one actually writes at writers’ conferences). I’m going to write, every day during the week from 9:00-11:00 a.m. Only fiction. No blogging. No journalism. No catch-up phone calls, bill paying, housework or exercise. I’m going to write fiction.

Of course, already I’m going to have to build flexibility into this system. For example, on November 1, the first day of National Novel Writing Month, I have my non-transferable, every 12-week cut and color from 8:30-10:00, then I’m driving to Hendersonville to interview a guy for a business profile. So, on the first day of NANOWRIMO, I will have to write from 8:30-10:00 p.m. I will be grumpy as a result.

But, what the hell, right? It’s one month. Thousands of people are doing it (they’re predicting up to 75,000!). There will be parties and write-ins and lots of support.

My problem, of course, in the word production game, is that I learned, when I wrote Janus Watchers, that I can’t just write open-endedly and see what happens. I ended up writing a big-ass mess that makes me want to vomit every time I consider editing it. So today, I’m trying to get caught up in other areas of my life, and spend some time with plotlines and character bibles.

If you’re not into fiction writing, but you’re looking for a challenge, you can join Fussy’s NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and sign up to post every day in November. Fussy has designed a cool logo for NaBloPoMo.

I don’t think I can handle both writing fiction and blogging daily, but I will probably blog a bit about writing. So beware.

We’ve decided to go with T-shirts–feminine, all cotton, made by Bella. But, now, the design decision.

We have fourish choices so far:

1. The existing Edgy Mama banner.

2. This design by Syntax:

2a. This design by Syntax without the actual Edgy Mama figurine, instead I’m thinking little devil horns sprouting out of the “D” in Edgy.

3. This design by coffeehouse junkie, probably without the tagline:

4. Another design any of you would like to offer.

All designs will have www.edgymama.com on the back of the T-shirt.

So vote. Which do you like? More importantly, which one would you buy for all the Edgy Mamas in your life?

My eight-year-old girl loves to write. She’s been carrying around little notebooks and filling them with notes and story ideas since she first learned to write the alphabet. When I came home from the enviro-politico party the other night, I found this on the dining room table (her spellings):

Table of Contents
1. Dasaed(decided) baseball team name
2. The season starts
3. Meet the cheerleaders
4. The All Stars Play
5. We win.
6. Meet Chipper Jones the panda.
7. Chipper first gland slam
8. Chipper comes the captin
9. Hurrah for Chipper!
10. Chipper and Charmander friends
11. We win the World Series!
12. Congratulations.
13. Chipper and Charmander best buds

It’s a weird amalgam of her two current passions: baseball and Pokemon. I think it could work. She also has a long character list, which I advised her to shorten, but she reminded me that she needs two entire baseball teams AND a cheerleading squad for the story.

Here’s the beginning of Chapter One: Dasaed Baseball Team Name.

“It was baseball season. And you know every team needs a team name. The players were thicking about names while this meeting. Charmander thicked hard. Then the team was the Ashville Charmanders. It was the first game of the season and we were versing the Ohio Mewths. In the first inning Charmander hited a gland slam and Torchic hited a gland slam too. Win!”

Probably none of you find this nearly as charming and hilarious as I do. But isn’t she adorable? And yes, I was having a gland slam just a couple months ago. It has since been corrected with estrogen. Win!

One of my newspaper articles this week was on the subject of lead poisoning prevention. Because lead is still a serious health hazard, particularly for children under the age of six in their homes, I thought I’d share the article here!

It lists a bunch of websites, phone numbers and helpful resources (both local and national). One of the most interesting facts I learned is that it’s not always older homes that have lead problems. Homes built in the 80s are most likely to have lead soldering or leaded brass plumbing fixtures, which can poison your water. Who knew?

Just something else to freak out us parents. But good to know, nevertheless.

That seems to be the simplistic side of the message Rep. Blumenauer touted at last night’s enviro-politico get-together. He wore this adorable bike pin on his label, which he gave to Heath Shuler in a misty moment.

Heathbar still loves me, despite my feisty words on CNN. So, let’s get this race won, boy. I’m not in the mood to have my heart broken. Damn, I’m ready for this election to be over.

Blumenauer, in pumping up the party faithful, claims that the Dems could win up to 20 seats in this election (we need 15 to win the majority). All I know is that the Repubs always vote, so in order for the Dems to be in the majority again, we’re gonna have to get out the vote in a HUGE way.

MoveOn.org is helping tremendously, and now that they have an Ashvegas office, the phone banks are hopping. They are persistence personified. In the past few days, they’ve sent me get-out-the-vote e-mails from Stephen King, Al Gore, and Barack Obama (these were national appeals). I tried to e-mail the King back, but to no avail.

So, I guess we’ll be discussing politics some over the next few weeks–interspered with regular edgy programming.

BTW, the Google/Blogger merger is spazzing out our blogs. What’s up with that? What’s up with several hours of maintenance in the middle of the day yesterday? If you wanna mess with our bloggies, do it in the middle of the night, like the road construction crews, kay?

If you’re still seeing red on my bloggie, let me know. Super Eddo is working to fix my code.

Yep, I had my seven seconds of national TV headtalk last night. I haven’t found a linkee to any vid, but if I do, I’ll post it.

I’m not sure what I said because I couldn’t help but notice that my face was shiny. Where’s the make-up guy when you need him? I needed my nose powdered, dammit.

Also, I’m always surprised at how soft-spoken I sound on camera. I think of myself as an energetic talker, but I think I sound like I’m talking through salt water when I hear myself. When I’m tired, my speech really slows down, so I start sounding like a LP set on 55 (if you’re under 35, you probably won’t get this simile).

Last night’s CCN program, Broken Government, was all about Heath Shuler and Western North Carolina–much more so than I’d realized. That was the exciting part–seeing my city and mountains and friends on the screen. CNN also showed the front page of my newspaper, though that’s a bit of a contentious issue.

I did say, on TV, that I’ve heard Heath described as Republican Lite, which I think he is, but, as the show pointed out, that may be the only way a Dem can win in this district.

As I’m actually co-hosting a party tonight for Heath, I hope he’s not mad at me. This congressional race has become so nasty that there seems little room for gray. I’ve been accused of being unfaithful to Heath because I don’t share all his beliefs. Which is ridiculous. I don’t share all of anyone’s beliefs, particularly those of someone who is pro-life (yep, that may be the future, y’all: pro-life dems). But that doesn’t mean I don’t support Heath. I do. And I’ll keep giving him money and co-hosting parties, and I will vote for him. And I’ll exhort others to do the same.

Because, yes, he is a compromise. He’s not my ideal candidate. But he has a chance of winning. Which no one else has had for the past eight elections (well, other than Taylor, obviously). AND, as I mentioned before, Heath’s heart is in the right place on a lot of issues, in particular, the environment. And he’s a good person. And cute. Not that I would EVER vote for anyone based on looks (I’ve been attacked for talking about his looks, too).

This is just my opinion. If you want to debate, do it elsewhere. Here on Edgy, we’re gonna stay shiny.

Tonight. CNN. 8-9 p.m. “Broken Government.” I know my friend (and congressional candidate) Heath Shuler will be on the show, as will a number of Ashvegans, including John Boyle, political reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times, and possibly, little old me. Remember, my real name is Anne Fitten Glenn, not Edgy Mama. And if I stutter or say something dumb, you can give me hell tomorrow. And if you’re gonna be offended by my leftist leanings, too bad. We live in a democracy. Which is way kewl. Most of the time. Kay?

In totally unrelated news, I interviewed this Russian couple yesterday who’ve opened a small grocery store over off Patton Avenue. They’re importing all kinds of food, beer, and wine from Eastern Europe. Yum. Despite my protests, they sent me home with a bag of chocolates. I gave half to the newsroom, but I kept the “liquor” chocolates for myself.

I am now an addict. As I sit here, drinking my coffee, I’m wondering if it would be a problem to eat a dark chocolate infused with sugared vodka for breakfast. What do you think?

I had a looong dream starring Brad last night.

Unfortunately, it was not what you and I would hope.

In fact, Mr. Pitt was advising me on real estate investments, a subject I’m intrigued by but know little about. Sweet Brad, at least in my subconscious, has successfully made a bucketload of moola through buying and selling real estate, and he was kind enough to tell me a bit about the process.

So I woke up feeling that the cash I’m considering putting down on a green condo building in Ashvegas is worthwhile. Thanks, Brad. Can I call you if the deal falls through?

P.S. I’ve been debating whether or not to tell youse all this, but I MIGHT be on CNN tomorrow night. Tuesday. 8:00 p.m. Some show called “Broken Government.” They interviewed a bunch of people, so they may have totally cut me out. I don’t know. I won’t know until I watch the show. Just so you know. In case you want to watch, and in case I’m on, and then you can rag on me on Wednesday. XOXO.