Moving Megan to a new gym took a toll on my emotions in ways I did not anticipate. I heard through the grapevine that the girls she left behind cried when they found out we had left. I was feeling pretty sad about leaving them, too.
I also heard of other repercussions from our departure, and that some folks had printed out posts from this blog and was making a case that I was being hurtful to the other families by writing about my own struggles and frustrations with my daughter's experiences in the sport.
I spent a great deal of time last week poring over every post I'd ever written about gymnastics, trying to decide if there was indeed anything in here that was in any way slanderous or untrue. This is time that I should have devoted to about a dozen other matters that I need to attend to before I join the MOMocrats in Denver for the Democratic National Convention.
My husband wasn't sympathetic. "I've told you repeatedly, you're going to get in trouble if you write about people you know," he said.
I know. I try to be discrete. I try not to be hurtful. I aim to be informative and funny rather than controversial. But I do not live in a vacuum, and frankly, if I did -- with no family members to boast or worry about, no friends to support, no PTA acquaintances to irritate me -- I'd have no reason to keep a blog (except maybe to complain about how lonely and bored I was). But every so often, something I've blogged manages to upset someone, and I find myself wondering if I shouldn't just quit.
The thing is, I am part of several communities: The real ones, like my city, my neighborhood, my daughter's school, and her gym... and virtual ones, made up of people I know through this blog and others I participate in. Of course, now that I've been to gatherings like BlogHer and have actually MET many of the friends I first knew only online, it's hard to differentiate between the two.
I wasn't the only one dealing with blogging troubles last week. Several prominent bloggers got embroiled in another online controversy (similar to the "real world" ones I keep finding myself sucked into). Things were said, comments were pulled and feelings were hurt as several people weighed in on one side or the other.
Thank goodness I had the People magazine thing to distract me! Without something good happening in my life, I don't think I would have slept at all last week.
This was an impetus for my friend Jenn, who wrote a piece on the BlogHer site about the mom blogger community - what it is and what it takes to be part of it. (Do read it - not because Jenn was kind enough to quote me, but for the comments.)
I have mentioned in the past how envious I am of the mom bloggers who live up in Northern California, because they seem to have turned their online community into real world friendships. That's why I jumped at the opportunity to contribute to the brand-new Los Angeles Moms Blog. And yesterday, we took a major step in creating our OWN real world community, with a get-together at the home of the amazing Jessica Gottlieb (who I have a girl crush on because she has perfect legs and hair and a beautiful house and is funnier and smarter than I).
And I remembered why I keep on doing this: I love hanging out with smart, funny, articulate women. And when they are all women who blog, there's never a lull in the conversation.
I got to meet Florinda when she arrived at my house to carpool down together. We've known each other via comment and email for nearly a year, so we picked up as if we'd been friends for ages.
Kim and I both attended the blogger event at Sea World. She came late to the party because she was delivering a home-cooked meal to the family of Vicki Forman, who lost their son last month. Kim is not only compassionate and beautiful, but she makes a killer blueberry martini.
Karen is a gorgeous "recovering attorney" who looks at least 10 years younger than she claims she is and bakes the best "6 Minute" chocolate cake ever recipe here. Nina is also too gorgeous for words, and actually IS young enough to be my daughter (which would make me a grandmother, as she has two young children of her own).
Liz, Sarah and Sweat Pants Mom both share my wonder at the craziness that is Los Angeles.
And of course, we have show business professionals: Amy, and Anna, professional comedy writers and performers (and they are hysterical).
Silicon Valley Moms co-founder Beth Blecherman (who I want to be when I grow up) arranged to be down in Los Angeles for our little gathering, which consisted of just about half the terrific bloggers she and her partners have assembled for our awesome Los Angeles collaborative.
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