Is Blogging a Woman's Sport?

I love blogging. It's basically like keeping a diary that other people can read. I always kept a diary when I was younger. I like to write and writing in a diary always felt cathartic and theraputic. Looking back on my diaries from high school and college, I often feel foolish about what I thought was important at those young ages, but they were important to me at the time. I find the same sort of cathartic therapy nature in blogging. But blogging has a crazy public aspect to it where you can get feedback from people who can relate to what you are going through or who appreciate what you are doing with your life.

I have two blogs. This one is for my writing about how W and I are struggling to start our family. My other one is really more of a day-to-day blog about our lives and also about crafting. I may start one that is purely about crafting so each blog has a definite theme and outlet for the different aspects of my life, but I need to decide if I have enough time to keep up with that much blogging.

So, far I have only met women through blogging. Makes sense really given that my two blogs are about makin babies and makin crafts. I have one guy friend who bloggs about his life, but other than him I don't really find many men in the blog-o-sphere, then again, I don't think I've known many guys who keep diaries either.

So, that leads me to the question, like diary writing, is blogging a woman's sport? Is there something inherent in being female that causes us to want to share our intimate lives with perfect strangers? It could be an interesting gender study.

Let the commenting begin!!!

Ok, ok, so I haven't been too inspired to write on this blog much these days. I think I've been trying to ignore the whole thing lately. If I keep myself occupied with other things it is easier. And as much as I love the IF blog community and its tremendous support and understanding, I've found it hard to read IF blogs lately, as it reminds me of the big decisions W and I need to make and how we are dragging our feet on it.

However, this is the beginning of NaComLeaveMo and it is my intention to try my darndest to participate. So, I am going to write something, anything to get my ass in gear.

So, here I am in Bend, Oregon for memorial day weekend and it is raining and I seem to have come down with a head cold!!! ugh! And we have tickets to see Modest Mouse tonight and it looks like the weather is going to be bad and I don't really feel like going at all.... total bummer....Since we don't have any kids I was planning a weekend of rock and drunken debauchery for this holiday weekend, but neither my health nor the weather is cooperating. So, instead of a wild weekend I find myself sitting here on the couch in the cabin reading IF blogs. Kinda depressing in a way.

What are you doing this weekend?

I Fear the Unknown

I do.
Sometimes, I would just rather not know; live in blissful denial.

Crafty Therapy

Baby Creations Mosaic
Originally uploaded by lucky lisp

I don't know if this helps or hurts, but for awhile now I have been creating embroidered onesies for my friends and family who are having babies. I really enjoy coming up with new and clever designs to put on baby clothes, but lately I have been wondering if it might be better for me to switch to adult t-shirts and create non-baby related things. Or perhaps it is a little cathartic for me to surround myself with little baby reminders. Afterall, the world is not going to stop having babies just because I don't have one. I am going to have to be around babies for the rest of my life, and I might as well help them look cool and fabulous while I'm at it.

At this time, I have more finished onesies and onesie ideas than I have friends with little babies. So, I'm going to make a little business out of it if I can. I've started a store on ETSY, and, if I get my act together, I'm going to see if some local shops want to consign my work as well. Who knows, maybe I can take this and build a little empire. Either that, or when we do eventually have a baby, it will be the most well-dressed baby in all of Eugene.

I know they're trying to make me feel better, but...

I wish that my friends and family would discuss the possibility that I might NOT be able to have kids and tell me that is OK. Instead, whenever the topic of children come up I get, "It will all work out," or "You'll have kids," or "It takes some people longer," or some other generic answer that seems to dodge the real issue. And that issue is that we have been trying for 18 months now and nothing has happened.

Yes, I know we haven't had many tests yet to determine what is going on.

Yes, I know the sooner we go in to see a specialist the sooner we will know if we indeed can or cannot have kids.

Yes, I know it may be something easy to fix.

Yes, I know there are lots of treatments out there to help us have one if there is a problem.

But, that is not the point.

The point is no one is reassuring me that it is OK if we don't have any kids right now. No one is telling me that having kids is not the end all and be all of life before we find out if it is or isn't, that there are advantages to not having kids, and if that is what life has dealt us, then that is just fine.

I think part of me is reluctant to go in and find out what is going on with our unresponsive reproductive systems because we may find out that we can't have kids, and then it will be final and our hopes will be dealt a serious blow.

Right now we are still operating on the hope that we can get pregnant. As soon as we find out there is a problem, then our hope is gone. And all the nice, reassuring things our friends and family have said to us will turn out to be just that--only nice, reassuring things.

And THEN they will tell me, "It's OK if you don't have any kids," "Kids are not the end all and be all of life," "There are advantages to not having kids," and "This is what life has dealt you, and that is just fine." And I won't believe them. Because they waited until our possibilities were limited to reassure me that I will still be a good, happy, and productive person in this world without a child of my own.

Top Ten Reasons Not to Have Kids (in no particular order)

My sister recently commented that this blog made her sad. She got me to thinking. I guess I do tend to write on this blog when I am feeling down or frustrated or overwhelmed by all the complicated feelings I have been experiencing while W and I try to start a family. It was not my intention, however, to be a big sad-sack. So, I've devoted this entry to explore the more positive reasons for being without child.

1. No Kids: Perhaps the best (and worst) thing about not having any kids, is not having any kids. I feel this way especially when I visit with my friend Julie when both her 4-year-old and her 1-year-old are having simultaneous meltdowns. Or when I want to do something spontaneous with my mom-girlfriends and they need an hour to gather together the kids before they can get out the door.

2. My Marriage: W and I already have a fabulous marriage. And I can't imagine much that would drastically change our relationship, but I do imagine that kids would change it in smaller, day-to-day ways. Just the amount of time we spend together would obviously be effected. So, not having kids would allow us to keep growing as a couple and be selfish in the development of our marriage.

3. Eating Out, Shopping, Traveling, and Generally Spending Money on Myself: As a young couple in downtown we like to go out to eat and frequent the shops. We both admit that we spend way too much money on food and drink. Our favorite place is Davis' Restaurant and Bar, where our good friend Chris is the bartender and we know most of the regulars. We are there at least once a week, but more often, several times a week. We also like to take small trips to the mountains or coast on weekends. This is one nice thing about not having kids and many of our friends with kids envy our ability to go out when we please and have seen the latest movies in the theaters.

4. Watching Inappropriate Television: I'm an admitted TV junky. The worse it is, the more I like it. So, one nice thing about not having kids is I can watch as many episodes of Celebrity Rehab or The Girls Next Door as I want without having to censor it. Perhaps this one backfires on me a bit, because if I did have kids, I would probably benefit from not watching so much television. Could go either way.

5. Sex: This is probably the main reason my husband would vote for not having kids. It is a concern of mine too. Frequency, quality, quantity, all change after having kids. Without kids, W and I are free to get our freak on and have as much sex as we want, whenever we want.

6. Sleep: This may be in a tie with number five in W's mind. I don't need as much as he does, but I do like to get my full 6–8 hours.

7. White Furniture: Obvious.

8. Language: For those who don't know me very well, I swear like a F*%#ing sailor. It started in the fourth grade. It was my way of rebellion, as I was otherwise a total goody-two-shoes. Peppering my every-day language with the f-word would pretty much have to stop if I had kids. Not a big deal really, but a bad habit I would have to break.

9. My Career: I have to be a working mom. We are a two income household and not much is going to change that. And, I love my job very much. I would not want to give it up. If we have a kid, my work place is super supportive and will allow me to work from home and also bring a baby into the office. But, I know that if I have a kid, my career will be limited in many ways, and I would not excel in the company as quickly. Not having a kid would allow me to really develop my career to its fullest potential.

10. Pets: I have always thought that if we didn't have kids we would have more pets and do more things to help with the worlds animal population. We love animals, and without kids we would definitely be able to do more for our pets. I have always worried about how my beloved cats would react to me having to shift much of my attention away from them and on to a baby.

11. (bonus entry) My Willingness to Sacrifice Myself for Others: This is a great attribute for moms to have of course, but it often happens at the detriment of a mom's own self. I know I would give everything to my child without thinking about myself, 24/7. But, I don't want to loose myself in the process. Without kids, I can be selfish and concentrate on making me the best me there is.

A New Year, A New Home, and A New Outlook

W and I became home owners this weekend. We bought a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in downtown Eugene. It has an amazing view of downtown and the surrounding hill sides and mountains.

It gets an amazing amount of light. And most importantly, it is all ours. We can do whatever we want with it. We now have a space to make our nest. And a nest is exactly what I hope it will become.
Someone once told me that babies usually wait to come into a settled atmosphere. Meaning when my life was "settled" I would finally get a baby. Now, I'm sure she was trying to make me feel better about not being able to get pregnant quickly, cause I have known many people who were NOT settled and baby didn't wait for them, but there may actually be a kernel of truth to what she said. It would have been exceedingly much harder to be pregnant and/or have a little one in our noisy, dusty, cramped old apartment, and while we did live there for nearly 5 years, I never really felt like it was "ours." So, maybe owning our own place will bring about a sense of stability to our lives that wasn't there before.
More than anything, owning our own home gives me something to focus my energy on. Painting, remodeling, decorating, and other new home owner responsibilities give my brain a preoccupation that has been previously filled by trying to get pregnant. Perhaps by not focusing on the fact that we aren't getting pregnant will in fact cause us to get pregnant. For me, the things I most desire come to me when I am least expecting them. With my attention fully focused on our new home, I'm hoping that a little someone sneaks up on me.