Drops of Awesome

Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson

Kathryn

Guy Kawasaki – My New Best Friend

by

One fine collegiate day I was walking on BYU campus when I spotted a guy across the quad who looked SO familiar. It was amazing. I was sure I had seen him somewhere before, but not once, not twice, but over and over and over again. I felt I had seen him so many times that we had possibly been very good friends at another time in my life, possibly even relatives.

My casual glances turned into stares and eventually I made a direct beeline for the dude with one question on my mind. “Do you recognize me?” He looked so familiar that I simply HAD to discover our past connection.

As I drew closer, he began looking at me and smiling, a quizzical look on his face. I smiled and continued to close in, never breaking eye contact until I stopped, alarmed, 3 feet in front of him. It was Steve Young. No relation to Daring “Young” Mom.

My eyes widened. I turned on my heel and marched firmly back across the quad.

I’m the girl who walked up to Melissa my first 10 minutes at BlogHer and asked her name and whether or not she had a blog. Yeah, she’s tampering with a little blog called Suburban Bliss.

I got an email at the conference from my father-in-law Pops telling me that Guy Kawasaki would be at the FilmLoop booth and I should go over and say hi. “Sure,” says I. “I’ll go chat it up.”

So I walk over to the booth and start asking everyone their names. I can’t remember his name at this point but I’m sure if I hear it, it’ll ring a bell. None of their names are soundin’ familiar. So I start asking if there’s anyone else who might be working the booth later on and what their names might be. Do they know anyone else in the company with another name than the ones they’ve been listing?

The woman at the booth finally comes out and asks me why I want to know.
Me: Well, I’m supposed to meet somebody named “Guy Something”.
Booth-Lady with British Accent: You mean Guy Kawasaki?
Me: Ye-AH! That’s it. He here?
BLBA: He’ll be here tomorrow but I’m sure he’ll be absolutely swarmed.
Me: Cool. I’ll just stop by.
BLBA: He’ll really be swarmed. Would you like me to set up an appointment with him?
Me: I… I… don’t know who he… is? My father-in-law told me to say hi.
BLBA: We should probably set up an appointment.
Me: No, I really don’t have a clue who he is. I’ll just try to catch him tomorrow.

The next day in a moment of Zen I not only see Guy across an empty ballroom, but I actually recognize him (okay, how many Asian MEN were actually at BlogHer?) and yell out, “HEY! Are you Guy?”

guy kawasaki

“Yeah” he says in that there’s-a-Wikipedia-entry-about-me-but-I-still-try-to-act-like-a-regular-“Guy” tone of voice. I explain that although I have no idea who he is, I’d really like to take a picture with him to pass along to my daddy-in-law. He humors me.

Pops – This one’s for you!

Tip Tuesday — Please Don’t Bite Them Back

by

Aggressive kids.

I don’t really have them, unless you call ripping your brother’s arms off, chewing on them and then beating him over the head with them aggressive. She only really does that sort of thing when he does something really insane like look at her while she’s eating marshmallows, so I wouldn’t exactly call her aggressive. He’s only got a few arms anyway and I think once they’re all gone, the problem will pretty much be solved.

Truly though, this is a major issue that I often hear parents talking about. Either we worry that our own child is too aggressive or we have playdates with kids who gank toys, bite chunks out of other kids’ flesh or show up at your house with a fist fulla steel.

Please leave tips for either circumstance. What do you do to help tame your own child’s out-of-control aggression? How much discipline is too much? Have you found a great way to calm Nina down before she detonates her bomb of toddleric rage on the playground?

On the other hand, how do you deal with other people’s children who you feel are too aggressive towards your own? Do you think it’s acceptable to discipline someone else’s child as a form of protection? Do you think your child should fight their own battles? How do you address the issue with the other parent?

Personally, I think that biting or hitting back are a lazy way to solve the problem and may do more harm than good. A more appropriate way to manage the behavior would be to use a little love and logic parenting. “Oh, that’s such a bummer. Now you have two choices. Either you need to untie Timmy and take the play-doh out of his mouth, or you need to at least ask his mom what color of play-doh he likes being force-fed best.”

When your child is being bullied by someone else and the other parent is present, I think it’s more appropriate to mention it to the other parent than to try to attempt to discipline the child yourself. For the most part, I try to teach my kids to deal with it and stand up for themselves. That’s why I’ve hired my own professional ninja to work with them on technique and help them with their wardrobe.

Now please, tell me what you do. Not everyone has the means to hire their own personal ninja or the patience to parent with the love and the logicality.

Jack-Again and the Littlest Theologian

by

This post originally appeared on The Parenting Post on July 31, 2006.

We’ve been fishless for months since my last attempt at explaining death to Laylee. For some reason, last week I decided we were ready to try it again. Please meet the newest member of our family:

0731_jack_again_320

Me: What should we call the fish?

Laylee: He’s Jack again.

Me: Jack-Again? That’s a funny name.

Laylee: Yeah. I called him that because he’s Jack… Again.

You see, Laylee is a strong believer in resurrection… resurrection and cloning… by a God who drives a car, sneaks around in the dark like the tooth-fairy, and can be enticed to do your bidding if you simply use “the magic word.”

Laylee: Look mama. My knee is getting better.

Me: Wow. What a great blessing.

Laylee: Last night Heavenly Father came down in his car — well he came down out of heaven into my room and he put new skin onto it. But I didn’t see him because I was sleeping.

Me: Sort of. He just made your body special so it could heal itself.

Laylee: When you go away to Calin-forna , he can come down and make me a new mommy and then when you get back I’ll have two Kathryns. And he can make another Daddy and another Magoo.

Me: He doesn’t actually really do that. Not that he can’t. He can do anything. He just doesn’t.

Laylee (having seen her first set of twins recently): But that girl had two little babies! I want us to have two Magoos too.

Me: Well, that won’t happen but I bet some time Mommy can grow a new baby in her tummy.

Laylee: Okay, but I want a girl baby.

Me: We’ll have to see.

Laylee: We can just drive up to heaven and say, “Excuse me, Heavenly Father. Can we have a girl baby please?”

Me: Then we’ll just have to see what he decides.

Laylee: But we can say “PLEASE…”

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner — Especially Not at BlogHer

by

Today, I’m catching up on all the things I missed at home, helping my mom move me into the new house. She is a whirlwind of productivity and organization. My Dad is a rock-star of building and home repair. Bob Veela should quake in his presence.

Please head over to parenting.com for my latest post over there.

The conference was a blast. I met amazing, intelligent powerhouse bloggers who have a passion for writing and are working through their blogs to make the world a better place to live. It was so fun, in fact, that Chris and I both “accidentally missed” our flights back home yesterday morning. I’ll be doing at least a couple of posts this week about what went down. I’ll try to focus on the things I learned that could be pertinent to the women bloggers who read my site and shy away from the ephemera of BlogHer, questions like:

Kathryn from Daring Young Mom and Kelly from Diary of the NelloWhy was our good friend Johnson’s baby repeatedly put in a corner? How did I end up with that tattoo on my arm? Can Kelly-Nelly be trusted to find fabulous cheesecake in the state of California? Why did Mir act as an enabler, allowing Chris and I to miss our flights? When asked on video if we’d been drinking, due to our extremely giddy behavior, did someone respond “I’m a little drunk, she’s Mormon”? (Apparently the two have a similar giggleular response.) Were we informed that this video will appear on the website of a major PR Firm?

If the Right Engine Goes First, All Passengers Shift to the Left Side of the Cabin in an Orderly Crossing Pattern

by

matchingSo, I’m on the plane, alone except for the totally cute non-couple sitting next to me… and all the other people on this completely full 2-hour-delayed flight from Seattle to San Jose. The couple next to me are wearing matching outfits, which they swear was not planned, neither are they a couple. Hmmm… Who goes on a trip, wearing khaki shorts and black t-shirts without a little advanced planning? When I say they’re not a couple, I know what I’m talking about because they quizzed me on it.

When I sat down, eavesdropped and then burst into their conversation, where they “realized” they were looking like twinners, they asked me to guess if they were related, a “couple” or what their relationship was. I guessed couple. They say “just friends” but they’re going to a garlic festival together this weekend and we all know how an experience like that can change people.

We are convinced (I can say “we” because I am also wearing khaki pants and have a black dress packed in my bag so I’m so totally part of the group now.) that our flight crew fully expects this flight to end in tragedy.

I have never heard a more detailed pre-flight safety presentation in my life. Flotation devices were demonstrated fully, along with instruction on how to partially inflate them if we were to make a water landing but were unable to escape through the standard exists for some reason so we would be able to fit through the windows, after which we should proceed to fully inflate the devices. Let’s just say that if I’ve gotta evacuate this booty out one of those airplane windows, there’s gonna be more than a life vest that needs deflating. They offered no contingency plan for this. Several contingencies were covered and the more detailed it got, the more it began to sound like the flight crew had just a little too much experience with crash water landings.

So, if I make it to California alive, I have officially been invited to a garlic festival by two hilarious people who say “This is the best part” when the engines fire up for take-off and “Engage” as the plane lifts off the ground. Star Trek quotes are fully acceptable when you’re sitting next to someone on their way to a “blogging conference”.

Heard over the intercom as we taxied prior to take-off — “Please keep your seatbelts fastened as we are about to experience a rapid drop in altitude”… Are we traveling to California via underground tunnel? I’m not saying it hasn’t been done before but to my knowledge this is the first time it has been accomplished in a 747.

Update: I have already met several amazing women whom I look up to. Chris has been wonderful and fun to hang out with and within less than an hour of arriving in California, I was able to meet Alice. She is amazingly sweet and down-to-earth. I spent a good portion of the morning stalking Mir. The more I meet these women, the more I want to read what they have to say.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

by

And I grow in excitement for my first sollow plane trip in 4 years.

I’ll probably be checking in over the weekend so if you care to hear about my solo-adventures, please stop over for a visit. I’ll let you in on all the blogging secrets that will change our lives forever. 😉

Next week I’ll be back with a timeline for the book discussion.

Blog out!

Tip Tuesday – Small Talk

by

Being as I’m surrounded by short people all day, you’d think I’d be really good at “small talk” by now. Truth be told, what I’m actually good at is talking to small people. The other day, I actually asked one of my adult friends if she had to go potty.

Hoping not to make the same type of faux pas at BlogHer this weekend or actually ever again in adult company, I’d love advice on making small talk with strangers or new friends. How do you keep the conversation going? What are some great one-liners to pull out when you have nothing supercalifragilisticexpialidociously wonderful to say?

Here are a few tips for spicing up the usual dinner party conversation:

Instead of — “So, do you have any kids?”
Try catching them off-guard — “Dead chickens’ ghosts are haunting my new house. Do you have any thoughts on how I could wrangle them into the crawl space?”

Instead of — “You look really great tonight!”
Try personalizing the compliment — “You look so much better in person. South Beach Diet? Am I right or am I right or am I right? Right. Right. Right. Bing!”

Instead of — “You’re from Michigan? Do you know Amanda?”
Try drawing it out a little. The “do you know” game is always such a big hit. — “You’re from Michigan? I love Michigan! Start listing every person you know from there and I’ll tell you if they were my cousin’s ex-girlfriend’s college roommate or not. [wait for name] Nope. [wait for name] Nope. [wait for name] Nope”… hours and hours of fun

Instead of — “I’m Kathryn. Nice to meet you.”
Try to work on building an audience as well as a new friendship — “I’m Kathryn, the Daring Young Mom of dub dub dub dot daring young mom dot com, a hilarious little blog about this and that, my kids, yadda yadda page views per day. Nice to meet you.”

Instead of — “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. I’m a big fan of your work.”
Try to let them know just how much you enjoy their work — “I’m so glad I finally get to meet you. It feels like I’ve been living on your green leather sofa for months and months, right next to you, typing on your laptop, the iBook you just bought. That was such a good choice. I told you that, remember? Commenter #167. Good comment, right? I got like three hits off that comment. I looked up your address online but I’ve been too shy to send you anything? Can I send you anything? Or would that be weird?”

Okay now, what have you guys got for me?

Apples, Brats, and an iPod

by

This post originally appeared on The Parenting Post on July 24, 2006.

They say “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” and there are days when that thought scares me just a bit.

Actual cell phone conversation dramatically transcribed for your enjoyment…from memory…three days later:

[Standing in front of the iPod display at Target]

Me: I came to Target to get some ear buds.

Dan: Okay.

Me: I’m in the electronics section.

Dan: [silence]

Me: [silence except for the kids making motorboat noises in the cart]

Dan: Okay.

Me: I thought I would look for a cheap, like disposable-cheap, MP3 player. You know how they had those the day after Thanksgiving?

Dan: Uh-huh.

Me: They don’t really have any of those today.

Dan: Uh-huh.

Me: They have iPods. Remember how I want an iPod Nano but we can so not afford one right now but I said I didn’t like the Shuffle because it was lame?

Dan: Uh-huh.

Me: It may be lame but it’s only $70 and that doesn’t seem like much since we spent that amount buying garage floor cleaner last week that didn’t even work and we spend that much buying useless widgets and scrub brushes at Home Depot practically every day since we bought the house.

Dan: Uh-huh.

Me: I’ve worked out 3 days in a row. It gets so boring without tunes.

Dan: Would it be way too geeky to take a portable CD player with you to the gym?

Me: Yes.

Dan: Okay.

Me: That would be like carrying a ghetto-blaster on my shoulder when I ride the bus.

Dan: [laughing the I-can’t-believe-you-just-called-it-a-ghetto-blaster-and-since-when-do-you-ride-the-bus? laugh]

Me: I’m not asking you to tell me to buy it. I know we don’t have the money and I really want the other more expensive one anyway so I’d never be happy even though this one would be really nice right now.

Dan: Uh-huh.

Me: I just want it.

Dan: Uh-huh.

Me: [silence-ish]

Dan: [silence]

Me: [silence-ish]

Dan: [silence]

Me: [silence-ish]

Dan: [silence]

Me: I just really kind of want it.

Dan: Some guys just came in and I need to help them with something.

Me: Yeah, you should work.

Dan: Yeah.

Me: I just want it, you know?

And I hang my head in shame remembering that the little sponges in the big red cart witnessed all of this. I have worked really hard to teach them the difference between needs and wants.

Finding a potty when “it’s coming, it’s coming, aaahhhh” = need.

Finding an electric pony when you just really feel like a good ride = want.

Bread, peanut butter, and ketchup-sauce to render any food edible = need.

Fruit snacks, cereal, and filet-mignon shaped like the left earlobe of your favorite Disney princess = want.

I really want/need the kids to grow up to be people who do not feel fulfilled by stuff, who don’t buy in to the get-it-now culture that constantly bombards them. I want them to live free of pressure to be like the “cool” kids and always have the latest toys and games, to know that their real worth comes from who they are and how they treat other people. As adults, I want them to be responsible with money and free from excessive debt.

What does it show them when I stand like a brat whining and drooling in front of an item I don’t need and can’t afford? The truth is, we’re so freshly signed to this new mortgage that we really don’t know what we can or cannot afford and we’re spending money like crazy trying to get the house fixed up so we can live in it comfortably. Today is not the day for the buying of the iPod.

Now I know this. If I did not know this, I would have purchased the iPod instead of having a 10 minute conversation with Dan about it, wherein I tried to trick him into pressuring me into buying it so I had no choice but to cave in and indulge.

I’m sort of hoping the guy at my gym who drives the Beemer with the vanity plates that say something redundant like THS CAR IZ XPENSIV will see me on the elliptical trainer with my ghetto-blaster on my shoulder, take pity and decide to buy me an iPod next month instead of paying to renew his plates.

Blog out! I’ve gotta go make me a mix tape.

It’s Monday

by

Most days we have a conversation like this at least twice.

Laylee: What day is it today?
Me: It’s Monday.
Laylee: But what is it TO DO?

I’ll tell you what it’s to do. From now on, Monday is to check out my new blog over at Parenting.com. Please head on over there and check out my new weekly project.

Daring Young Mom readers get a sneak peak of the blog that officially launches this coming Wednesday. Please show the love by going over and checking it out. Four other bloggers join me for what should be a fun weekly read.

In other news, the fun, lovely and talented Chris from Notes From the Trenches, the blog formerly known as The Big Yellow House, has launched a new blog at www.inthetrenchesofmotherhood.com where she talks about the joys and complications of raising seven children. More of Chris can only be a good thing so go take a look, every day, for the rest of your life.

Books, Books, Books

by

This fabulous post by Dandelion Mama reminded me that I was going to invite you all to read a book with me this summer. The summer is still scorching hot (It was 107 degrees in Karli’s backyard last week and don’t ask me if I’m wearing clothes right now.) but it’s almost over so we’d better get cracking.

Remember when I asked everyone for their favorite book of all time or at least their favorite book at the moment? I’ve made a comprehensive list of them here.

From that list, I selected several books we could choose from to read together during the month of August. And here they are in no particular (besides alphabetical) order:

The Blue Sword — Robin McKinley
A Circle of Quiet — Madeleine L’Engle
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister — Gregory Maguire
The English Patient — Michael Ondaatje
Freak the Mighty — Rodman Philbrick
Hold On To Your Kids — Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté
The Known World — Edward P. Jones
The Ladies Auxiliary — Tova Mirvis
Lonesome Dove — Larry McMurtry
Obasan — Joy Kogawa
Secret Life of Bees — Sue Monk Kidd
The Time Traveler’s Wife — Audrey Niffenegger
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Betty Smith
A Walk in the Woods — Bill Bryson
Watership Down — Richard Adams

Click here to vote (You don’t have to sign up for anything. Just close the window when you’re done.) for the one you’d be most interested in reading and discussing. Also, please look over the big list of DYM readers’ favorites and leave a comment on this post if you have any fabulous books you’d like to add.

I’m about to embark on my first solo travel in over 4 years and am giddy with glee. Even harder than deciding what to wear is deciding what to read on the trip. I’ll leave the voting open until Wednesday morning at 10:00am PST so I can get the book in time to read at the airport.