Same Time Next Year

THE ANTS:

We keep a pretty close watch on the little guys is the truth, don't let them get too comfortable. It's finally springtime in Chicago, the temps are high in the sixties. So they like to stop by and see what's happening inside the house, you know, see what's cooking.

Good for them, but not so good for those of us who are forever entertaining. And there's that awful feeling all the time that there's an ant up our sleeve.

I tell my son to zip-lock all things food, or refrigerate everything, and he's pretty good about it, has joined the holy war against the invaders. We make it our business to finish all the leftovers and chips, sweets especially.

He's a scientist but took his first social science class this year, an introduction to psychology, so he's interested in this networking the ants have down to a science, wants to master this. Leadership is big in all the schools these days.

I tell him that with them it's all about passing along information. And they love to meet under tents.

But their brains are so small, he objects. Wait, do they even have brains?

Yes, and their brains, like ours, are driven by food, sugar, really. But they don't hoard. As soon as they find something decent to eat they report back to tell the other peops in the hood where to find it. These people haven't a selfish bone in their bodies.

People? Bone?

You know.

He buys me more traps for Mother's Day and a really good Mother's Day card, which all makes sense at the time.

Anyway, like the well-bred guests that they are, they were out of the house in three days. I imagine they'll be back same time next year.

therapydoc

BlogHer

One of the things about being out here on the Internet, for a person like me, is the fear.

I worry that if twenty, or a hundred, or a couple of thousand people or even more, read what I write, that the odds are pretty good that I'll upset someone. And this doesn't sit right with me, makes me want to pitch the whole thing.

An email conversation with a cousin (Let's call him Mike):

Mike: Great post on the family blog! I love the pictures.

Me: Oh, I didn't post them. E. did. But speaking of blogs, if anyone should write a blog, it would be you. I happen to know that you're a writer and as a rabbi, too, you
actually have something to say. Why don't you read this guy (I link him to a blogger rabbi).

Mike: I KNEW it would be dangerous contacting you!

See? He's scared, too.

Readers of this blog who email me about their problems usually get back a prefabricated answer, although I try to personalize it and will sometimes hypothetical-ize it.

I go into why I can't address personal problems on the blog or by email. I just don't want to get into trouble, you know. Sure, it's lame. No guts, no glory. But people need their own face time with a flesh and blood therapy doc, and that's basically what they hear from me.

Apologetically. I have an entire lecture about pat answers.

Speaking of apologies, validating comments is hard! And here I wrote that entire post about validating what people say. Ugh. I stay up night wondering, honestly, where people have gone. Sorry, sorry, sorry, guilty as always. Please forgive.

But here's another thing. I've never officially linked to BlogHer!

The Unstory

The other day, cruising the blogs, avoiding responsibility, I noticed someone had linked over to BlogHer. Now, two years ago, when I first started blogging, BlogHer was the first website out there that really helped women network with women. Empath Daught had told me how to find it. It was a dot.org at the time, not a dot.com.

Anyway, BlogHer linked back to me, as is her nature, many times, and I never properly thanked her (them, really), not even in the monthly Back 'acha posts.

Total ingratitude. Such an oversight. How these things happen, I don't know. A person gets momentum and sees forward, not back. Wasn't it Bob Dylan who said, Don't Look Back? Why would I listen to him?

But now, well, here's a chance to make up for it. I'm going to direct all of you there! To BlogHer! Even men! Especially men. Sure, why not? At the risk of losing you forever to the many amazing BlogHer bloggers, check them out.

And we'll get to my apologies for not answering email and not validating your comments,and on and on, another day.

Here are only a handful of the women to watch at BlogHer.

Mir Kamin chimes an objection to people who worry about men with cameras around children in bathing suits. Not everyone's a pervert, she's thinking. I'm glad. But what if just one. . .

Lisa Stone I think Lisa founded BlogHer. She's so accomplished she's scary. Reading her bio makes a person proud to be female, related by some speck of DNA.

Nordette Adams tells us about a police officer who lost it in the carpool line. You can read Nordette here. She'll tell you about septuagenarians (a theme, lately) having babies. So it's not all about raging, here.

You think that I talk too much about sex? Find Liz Rizzo at Everyday Goddess and sure, at BlogHer, too.

Just a start. So many more.

therapydoc