What I’m Looking Forward to Most in 2011

There are a lot of things I look forward to in 2011, but nothing more than my meetup with my two closest friends I’ve never seen (in person).

I know for many, if not most, people, it’s unusual to say that someone’s among your “closest friends” if you’ve never met in person, but this is actually pretty standard for me. I am an internet/social networking geek going way back. In the late-80s/early-90s, I had a little system called a “U.S. Videotel.” It only existed in Houston and Dallas, but was basically one of the earliest chatroom systems around.  Anyone who had a U.S. Videotel terminal (and in later years, a computer disk) could connect. There was an early form of e-mail, chatrooms, graffiti boards, you name it. Heck, I even won front row NKOTB tickets once for chatting online. Back in the day before anyone had even heard of internet dating and chatrooms, I fixed up my mom – who was afraid of meeting people online – with a NASA engineer with a “Who wants to date my cute mom?” graffiti post. The relationship didn’t last, but because of their one date, my mom and I were among the first non-NASA employees to try Virtual Reality. In high school, I had a group of friends I’d met in the Yak chatrooms on Videotel. Some of my friends were in Dallas, some were in Houston. After months of hanging out online, we did a meetup at the Galleria mall. That meetup became an every-other-week thing. I still have a picture of Jessica, Kevin, Rachel and I hanging out in front of the ice skating rink. Good times. And my first friends met online.

I also did online dating before there was an internet. In fact, later in life, I even dated a guy who was one of the pioneers of internet dating – a friend of mine for over a decade who revolutionized the BBS dating system only to be part of the group to first launch their site on the WWW. That same dating site was really my first social network. Instead of just meeting people to date, I made friends – lots of friends. There was a large group of us that went out nearly every week when I was in college. In fact, one of those friends recently posted on Facebook a picture of me at a New Years Eve party 15 years ago – pictures of our whole Matchmaker crew, in fact. All of this happened back in the days of dial-up. Yes, the internet and I go way back, and I can thank her for me meeting Pop Culture Dad [thanks, Match.com!].

Given my long history of online relationships, it is not unusual that at the beginning of my pregnancy, I found myself in pregnancy forums. At the suggestion of a friend, I tried iVillage briefly. It didn’t really work out for me. Soon, however, I found my home on What to Expect.com. And it was there that I met Kat and Brittney – my two closest friends I’ve never met. Heck, two of my closest friends, period.

We were all due at various times in December 2008 [even though two of us ended up giving birth in November]. We all started off active on the forums, and then Brittney sort of disappeared from them. Kat and I remained active on the boards (according to our husbands, maybe too active at times), and forged a friendship. She eventually became the Den Mother of our expecting board and a featured blogger, and somehow talked me into doing both too. It was through the featured blogger program that we reconnected with Brittney. Even though there was no “office,” Kat and Brittney were my coworkers. Most importantly, though, they were my friends. Kat and I were already frequent e-mail chatters, and eventually we roped Brittney in too. Our friendship consists at times of more than 100 e-mails a day – and it’s at the point where we apologize for having real lives and not getting to e-mails sooner.

We have “celebrated” kids’ births and birthdays together, as well as our own birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. We have helped each other through trying times and cheered each other on during triumphs. We have watched our bellies grow together and watched our children grow from itty bitty babies to sassy toddlers. We have shared every major and minor event in our lives (past, present, and plans for the future) together. We have talked politics, religion, music, television, movies – you name it. And sometimes we’re stupid and silly just for the sake of it all. We may have never met in person, but we are a strong set of gal pals.

Really, it’s geography’s fault that we’ve never met. Navigating between Massachusetts, Texas and Arizona isn’t exactly easy – particularly with six adults and five children among us. Last year on New Years Day, my one and only one resolution was that I would finally meet Kat and Brittney in person. They each made reciprocal resolutions. It’s been a really busy year for all of us (particularly with Brittany being pregnant and giving birth to the gorgeous Isla in July), so the meetup never materialized. However, in September, we decided that if we couldn’t complete the meetup by year-end, we would at least book it… And we have!

In four months, I will “meet” my good friends, their hubbies, and their children. Considering our husbands and kids already know more about each other than people we see fairly often, I imagine the meetup will feel more like a family reunion. My daughter already refers to them as aunts and their children as cousins, so I really do feel like I will be seeing family.

Brittney once said she imagines our meetup will look like this:


I imagine, given our personalities, it will look more like this:


Either way, I’m sure we’ll blog about it. Open-mouthed smile
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Quick "Review" of American Plastic Toys Homestyle Kitchen




Pop Culture Mom rating: 0 out of 5. FAIL!

This is going to be very quick, as there's not much to review.

I knew it was time for Pop Culture Toddler to have her first play kitchen set, so I added the American Plastic Toys Homestyle Kitchen to my daughter's Amazon.com wish list. My mother in law purchased it and had it delivered to her home, so Pop Culture Dad and I could put it together on Christmas Eve.

I knew the assembly would be a long and difficult process. I had read all the reviews on Amazon. I had expected this and was prepared for it. What Pop Culture Dad and I were not prepared for was discovering - after spending 30 minutes unhooking barely even one-third of the pieces to assemble - that NONE of the 64 screws required for assembly were included in the packaging. They were supposed to be included, but they were not there. What. The. Eff??

I'm so disappointed. We're all disappointed.

After Googling "American Plastic Toys Homestyle Kitchen screws" I discovered that the Pop Culture family isn't the only one to be screwed out of screws. Apparently, this is a recurring problem. Yes, I realize that the company (CSN Stores) will send the screws after we call them and tell them; but it's 9 p.m. On Christmas Eve, tomorrow is Christmas, and then it's Sunday. There will be almost three days before we could even speak to a live person, and even then, from what I've read, it'll be a few days to weeks before they get the screws to us. Unacceptable.

And it still begs the question: Tomorrow is Christmas. What, praytell, are we supposed to do, since Nana and Papa's gift cannot be given??? [And, no, we will not still give her the box and entice her with a picture of a kitchen she cannot have].

It's not fair that this stupid company couldn't fix their known production problem, particularly toys that they know are shipping out for Christmas. They've stolen my in-laws' gift from them and denied my daughter what was perhaps going to be her best present this year. For that, there is nothing customer service can or would do to cure the problem.

Can you tell I'm majorly pissed??

Hmm... That was a bit longer than I thought it would be...

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and Happy Weekend to those who don't! Hope you're all having a better night than me. :)
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My Holiday Wishlist (TV Edition)

This week, TV Guide posted its holiday wishlist for television (find it at: http://www.tvguide.com/News/TV-Wish-List-1026999.aspx), while I agree with about half the list, in the spirit of the Solstice, let me share my television wishlist for the holidays:
  • I wish that the networks would actually put real programming on Fridays and Saturdays, rather than re-runs, Cops, random movies, and whatever other undesirables they have sitting in their storage room. I remember when I was growing up and ABC had a string of back-to-back family shows that ran throughout primetime on Friday nights. Anyone remember Step by Step, Full House, Family Matters and Boy Meets World? Growing up, I couldn't wait for Friday night programming to roll around. Now I couldn't even tell you what comes on Friday nights, and at the rate things are going, my daughter will grow up thinking Friday nights are now always, "What did we get from Netflix this week?" nights. 
  • Like the gang at TV Guide, I would like to see Community's Troy and Glee's Brittany have a conversation. Heck, I just want more Brittany. And Puck. When the heck is Mark Salling coming back to Glee? Make it happen, Ryan Murphy, and make it happen fast. More Puck solos. More Brittany dancing. Less Quinn and Finn singing. And please oh please more Warblers!!
  • I also wish for more Justin Timberlake on SNL. How about while we're at it, make The Miley Cyrus Show an every other week deal, kill the Target sketch once and for all, make The Weekend Update segment longer, (as much as I love Kristen Wiig) kill the deformed baby-lady skits and cut Tilly back to once a season, let Andy Samberg/Lonely Island do more digital shorts -- even better when you get classics like thisthis, and this. And can you somehow coax Tina Fey, Amy Pohler and Maya Rudolph into making trick appearances more often? The shows are just so much funnier when they're on.
  • Speaking of... Can we get Maya Rudolph a show already?
  • As much as I like Dexter, given that Deb and Dexter are probably going to want to kill each other next year (in real life, anyway) and that I won't be able to look at Michael C. Hall without wanting to punch him in the face, let's just kill the show. Take a page from Seinfeld and quit while you're ahead. Honestly, this past season was a little lackluster. Or maybe it's just because Eli Stone (sorry, Johnny Miller, whatever) can't hold a candle to John Lithgow.
  • PLEASE stop killing babies and itty bitty children on Private Practice. I get that Addison Montgomery is supposed to be a premier prenatal specialist and Cooper is a pediatrician, but my poor heart can't take it anymore. Sure, you can keep some tragic storyline involveing a child or baby every now and then, but can you please stop making this mother cry every. single. week?
  • I wish for the Psych season to be longer. Much longer.
  • Can we meet the Mother already? Honestly, Ted Mosby really isn't even most people's favorite part of the show, and I think it's been well established that most people don't care How He Met His Kids' Mother, we just want Ted to do it already. Enough with the teasing and guest starlets who could or could not be the mother. Just let Ted meet the lady and get on with their courtship story told in the backdrop of all of his other friends' lives, which are way more interesting. And, please, let Barney and Robin get back together and let it stick this time.
  • BIg Bang Theory is perfect. I don't wish for a thing except many more seasons to come.
  • Please kill Two and a Half Men so that half-a-man can go to rehab already. What? The half-man is supposed to be the kid? Are you sure about that...?
  • All I want for Yule this year are more sitcoms that are actually funny. Can we take Modern Family and multiply it by a hundred? Let's bring back smart comedies like Arrested Development and Better Off Ted. I don't care that stupid people like stupid humor. Let them watch VH1 reality tv shows. Which brings me to...
  • I'll be the first to admit, I love good trash reality TV. But there are way too many shows on these days. First, let's confine the reality shows to some niche channels, and let the four major networks vow to limit their reality programming to one day a week. Let the cable channels (like MTV, VH1, E! and Bravo) corner the market, because, let's face it, they do reality better than anyone else. But, word to the wise, Bravo -- enough with the Housewives. I'll admit it, Beverly Hills is now a guilty and welcome pleasure (especially seeing how bat-$h!t crazy Camille Grammer is), but did we really need D.C.? That was one of the worst and most pointless seasons of television I have yet to witness, and this is coming from someone who actually watched a couple of episodes of Chad Ochocinco's dating show! Shame on you, Andy Cohen, for giving the Salahis more motivation to sneak their way into political events and attempting to (nay, succeeding in) breaching national security. These people should be in jail already!
  • Stop putting good shows like Parks and Recreation on as mid-season replacements for shows that you know are going to fail.
  • Let's have more people of color on more shows and as more leads. Reality shows do not count!! Undercovers was a good show -- better than half the shows that got picked up for full seasons -- and was actually pretty race neutral if half the idiots out there who felt like one yahoo whose letter was actually printed by TV Guide (who said he couldn't "bother to care" about the lead actors, because he'd never heard of them -- never mind all of the other shows with white leads no one's heard of) had actually bothered to watch the show. It didn't deserve to be cancelled so soon. And let's not pretend that now that Outsourced (an arguably racist show depending on who you ask) is on the air, there's no longer a need for Indian actors on American television. What about Hispanics? Nearly or more than half the population in practically every major city, but their presence on network television is virtually nil? Does that even seem right or fair? And while we're at it, let's have more openly gay characters on television and more disabled characters on television. We can't sequester everyone to Glee. Basically, I would like to turn on the television and have its demographics look somewhat close to real life. Is that too much to ask?
  • Speaking of diversity, geez, can we get a non-white Bachelor? As much as I love Brad Womack coming back, let's go for some fresh meat and a little color. I'm tired of recycling people who got dumped in previous seasons (if Jake Pavalka comes back, I swear I'm hunting Mike Fleiss down). And I'm tired of it being all white guys who, you know, even if they do pick one token black, Hispanic or Asian (and you know it's always one, not even one of each) gal, she's not staying past the second round. Black guy with 25 potential dates who are not necessarily all black women make you nervous? Fine, get a blue-eyed Hispanic guy. Surely Allie and Roberto have broken up by now. Isn't he available? [Okay, I guess that doesn't fit into my "fresh blood" wish, but I would just like to look at Roberto again...]
  • And my final wish (for now) is that Dancing wtih the Stars actually make their slate of stars actual stars. I mean, Jake Pavelka, some chick from The Hills whose name I can't be bothered to know, The Situation and Bristol Palin? Seriously?!
So to all the god(s) and goddesses of the various religions and holidays, this is my TV prayer to you. Please make these things happen. And if you can't, I'll settle for more room on my DVR. With us keeping 25 episodes of Sesame Street, there's hardly any room for Mommy and Daddy's shows.
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Real Housewives Strikes a Chord - Allergies in Children




I never thought I would be inspired to write by any Real Housewives franchise other than those kooks in New Jersey; but lying here in the middle of the night avoiding sleep by watching trash TV, I'll be darned if those Beverly Hills gals didn't prove me wrong.

On episode 7 ("My Mansion is Bigger Than Your Mansion"), Kim [you know, the non-wife Housewife whose two claims to fame are starring in Escape from Witch Mountain 40 or so years ago and being the aunt of Paris and Nicky Hilton] takes her daughter to the doctor. Her ex-husband had, against her wishes, bought her daughter a new puppy. Soon after getting her cuddly new gift, the poor girl started waking up with her eyes swollen shut and her arms covered in rashes. The doctor confirmed Kim's suspicions that the culprit was an allergic reaction to the dog. They had to get rid of the dog and fast. Kim was nervous about getting rid of the puppy, because her daughter had become extremely attached to him.

Boy, did this all sound familiar.

My daughter has been suffering from eczema and seborrhea since she was a month or so old. We have been following a regimen prescribed by her pediatrician, including a prescribed steroid cream and nightly doses of Benadryl. Despite all of this, lately she seemed to be getting worse.

After weeks of watching her mutilate herself to get to the rashes, Pop Culture Dad and I decided to see a specialist. The first time we met with Dr. B, the allergist recommended by Pop Culture Toddler's pediatrician, he couldn't even run the allergy tests. Her skin was so rashed up that he said not only would they not be able to read the results, but she would just be more miserable, and he was not going to put her through that. Dr. B gave us a long list of things to do to help PCT's skin, including three new medications. He told us if we did even half of what he recommended, we would see improvement within four days.

We did everything he recommended, and PCT's skin was better in three days. After a couple of weeks on Dr. B's plan, we went back in for the allergy testing. Because PCT was barely two years old at the time, Dr. B decided not to run all of the skin tests -- just the 16 most common allergens. Within minutes, four of the test samples lit up.


Numbers A7 and A9, the worst of the two, were cats and dogs, respectively. F4 and F6 were eggs (whites and yolks). A lesser allergen was F3, cow's milk -- to which PCT was highly allergic until just a few months ago. The diagnosis was pretty clear: get rid of our dog and cat, and my daughter's quality of life would greatly improve.

As several people who've known me for decades pointed out when I made my frantic Facebook post looking for someone to adopt our pets, I've almost never been without a pet. I got my first dog at age 6 and had her through college. In addition to my beloved terrier, I've had several cats, other dogs, fish, birds and guinea pigs throughout my life -- that's not even including our animals on the ranch.

Through unplanned circumstances, PCD and I had finally narrowed our number of pets down to two -- the English Mastiff he's had for 11 years (four jointly with me), and the cat I've had for seven.



We weren't entirely surprised by the allergies, since both PCD and I are allergic to cats and dogs [however, we have respiratory reactions, which we can easily fix with OTC medication]. I was still somewhat surprised, though, given the number of things I had read that said children who grow up with pets tend to have less allergies to them. Leave it to us to be the exception to the rule...

Emotionally, the diagnosis was hard. Pop Culture Toddler is beyond attached to these animals. We are attached to these animals. They were our children before we had a child.

However...

Here is where Pop Culture Dad and I differ from Kim's ex-husband, Russell. When Kim told Russell about their daughter's allergic reaction, he made all kinds of excuses ranging from "Well she's not coughing right now" to "How can you be sure it's the puppy?", all because he didn't want to be the one to take the puppy away and find it a new home. PCD and I, on the other hand, cried about it, and then immediately started making preparations to find new homes for our pets. See, as hard as it is to lose a pet, it was a million times harder watching our daughter suffer. And in the contest between her comfort and our pets staying here, there was no contest.

That all being said, finding homes for older pets, particularly when everyone you know already has at least two, is easier said than done. It took us nearly a month to find a home for our cat, which is actually pretty funny when you consider she is now living with my mother.

The dog has been trickier. It's a pretty hard sell to convince someone to take in an 11-year old, 145-pound dog, who is the size of a small pony, and suffers from arthritis and various other joint and muscle problems. If we took her to a shelter, she would most certainly be put down. Even though we know we may have to put her down soon [particularly if you listen to the evil vet at Banfield who told my husband various statements to the effect that "she should not have lived this long" and "let me be clear, we will not prorate the annual wellness plan if she dies"], we don't want to expedite that process unnecessarily. Since our dog barely moves and will probably not be around much longer, the solution for now is to basically quarantine her from Pop Culture Toddler.

PCT misses our cat dearly. She often asks "Where's Maxie?", and when we tell her that Maxie is with Nonna, she insists we call my mother. Tonight she demanded of my mom that "Maxie come home!". One day, when she's not having a flare up, we may take her to visit Maxie; but we're not at that point yet.

I'm sad about losing my pet of seven years, but it had to be done. No matter how much we love our fur babies, our bio babies come first. Maybe by the next episode, stupid Russell will have learned that.




Posted from my iPhone, so please forgive any ducking typos.
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