Glee Give A Note

As I have talked about here before, the city I grew up in and loved has changed over the last few years.  There were so many more opportunities for kids in Cranston when I was small. 

Starting in 1st or 2nd grade you could take fiddlesticks or the recorder - and then move on to the violin, flute or clarinet.  In 4th or 5th grade you could be in the chorus.  I went from the recorder to the flute and sang in the chorus.  In junior high (yeah we didn't have the middle schools then) I didn't play the flute for very long, but the chorus was my passion.  For 3 years we traveled to Florida, DC, Toronto and Boston... not to mention singing all over our own state.  I loved every moment of it.  In high school sports became more of my thing and I no longer had the time for music - but it didn't mean that I didn't miss it.

My boys are now in the Cranston public schools and at the elementary level there is no music now.  No learning to play instruments.  No chorus.  And it is so sad.  We have some local groups that have managed to start offering them after school for some of the older children, but it is not the same.  The middle school and the high school have also had severe cuts to their music programs. 

Cranston High School East has entered the Glee Give A Note project.  All you have to do is watch their video and hit the vote button.  Three schools will win a grand prize of $50,000 for their school music program and I would love to see Cranston East be one of them.  It won't help the whole city but it would be an incredible boost for the school that I loved and graduated from.             

Please click the link and vote today.     

Not only a mom

Feeling beyond frustrated this week.

Last night I took the boys to the rally at Cranston East to support the Cranston Public Schools.  It was hard for them to last the whole hour but I felt good being there, like it was where I had to be with them - whether we stay in Cranston or not, this is where I grew up.  I came home prepared to blog all about the rally.

Something happened that took me right out of the blogging mood shortly after I walked in the door.  I checked my cell and realized I had gotten a DM from another blogger that I had been cut from the Triberr tribe I had been on for the last week or so because they were cutting back on the mom stuff.  I was so mad it actually surprised me.  I had not sought out this tribe, it was a blogger I sometimes chatted online with who told me about it and invited me to join. 

I did have some reservations about all the auto tweets going out from my account.  I worried a little I would lose some followers...which I believe I did.  But my blog views?  Soared through the roof.  Higher than I thought possible in such a short period of time.  And some of the other bloggers in the tribe were really nice and supportive on Twitter.  While I wasn't tweeting out the same kind of things I was writing I still thought it was kind of cool we all seemed to be writing about different things.

No one likes to be rejected, I get it.  If you ask Al he will tell you it's one of the things I hate most (and while I don't usually admit it he's probably right).  What upset me most is that I was cut from what I was invited to join... and so soon...for writing 'mom stuff'.  It's not like they didn't know what I blogged about in the first place.

Now I seriously mean it when I say I am not trying to start Internet drama... because I'm really not.  This is just me venting it out... in word vomit.  Which is what I seem to do a lot of lately.  I check Facebook and see the person who cut me from Triberr posted to someone to join a group being created called:

"Not another mommy blogger." It involves Twitter and sharing great tweets. It's a group for women who are cool enough to think beyond the diaper.

I can not even help it, it kind of cut me to the core.  While not directed at me I still take it personal.  I AM a mom.  A mom who has spent the last 3 days chasing after 2 four year olds and 1 five year old who have:

dumped out the shampoo bottle in the sink just to fill the bathroom with suds

dropped a tube of Desitin in the toilet and took turns peeing on it to see what would happen

turned the outside hose on the house and open windows and tried to claim the water was not on

used my eyeshadow and mascara to 'decorate' a sink

managed to destroy a playroom, basement and 2 bedrooms during a playdate

AND MORE!  In just 3 days.  But I'm going to stop here for now.

The point is yeah, I write about what happens to me every day... which involves me being a mom and the things my kids do.  But if you keep reading it's not ALL I write about.  And it's not the only place that I write either.  Buy-Her is an online shopping blog...which you know, isn't about things we buy for our kids, but the things we buy for ourselves.  I'm about to cover Providence Style Week.  I could go on.  But I also know it doesn't matter.  Wasn't the right fit and I'll find where I belong I guess.

I just don't like feeling judged on one aspect of my life.