Divorce: It’s about communication

by roxannima Posted on January 27, 2012

“Stop having conversations through text.”

We hung our heads in shame, knowing full well what sort of texts we’d been sending each other the past few months. Caps were used. Exclamation points and expletives sent through unsuspecting airwaves, as if reading them on a tiny screen made them any less powerful.

Our counselor – a small, sweet thing with sincere eyes who seemed slightly unnerved by my incessant tears and gritted teeth – had quite quickly figured out what we needed.

We didn’t need a band-aid for our broken hearts; certainly we were well beyond that, considering we were already living under separate roofs. We also didn’t need some cliche, love-will-prevail song and dance about finding our way back to each other.

Even though I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, we were there to end our marriage.

Our first step on that path was to actually talk to each other.

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What’s a mommy blogger?

by roxannima Posted on January 20, 2012

At the risk of sounding insensitive – or too sensitive, as the case may be – my knee-jerk reaction is to be slightly offended when I’m called a mommy blogger. I’ve never considered myself a mommy blogger, and I don’t even like being called “mommy.”

Like most girls, I kept a personal diary/journal when I was a preteen/teen. But after high school, it felt silly. Suddenly though, there emerged an online version, on which you could write out your secrets and then receive comments from friends (or strangers, depending on your privacy settings).

Thus, in 2003, I began writing on livejournal as frankenrox. This was my first blog. I could be witty and cryptic. I could spill my guts and leave them out on the table to fester, or I could write euphemisms for what was really on my mind.

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What is customer service worth to you?

by roxannima Posted on January 17, 2012

Customer service is important to me. Good food at a restaurant means absolutely nothing to me if it’s served with a scowl.

I know others – like my dad – disagree; he doesn’t care if someone smiles or greets him warmly, just that he gets what he’s there for and can leave as fast as possible. Chris even prefers it if cashiers/waiters don’t say anything to him at all.

But I’m all about the interaction. I’m a sucker for a smile and if someone goes out of their way to satisfy a need of mine, it means a lot to me. I tip generously, and have countless times thanked managers and companies publicly. I try my very best at smiling first and acknowledging servers as people, not servants. Even in the drive-thru, if the person at the speaker asks how I am, I respond and ask back (which almost always seems to surprise them, by the way).

Which is why I’m so affected by bad customer service.

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17 miles

by roxannima Posted on January 8, 2012
RunKeeper lets me keep track of my mileage

For years, I touted a No New Year’s Resolutions rule. If you want to change something, I’d preach, you should just change it. Don’t wait for some stupid date. Just do it now, before you lose momentum.

But for tons of reasons and no reason at all, January 1, 2012, was perfect timing for me to make a few promises to myself. So I made three resolutions:

1. Walk every day.

2. Read a book a month.

3. Finish knitting Sam’s blanket.

It’s only January 8, but I’ve walked every day, and in fact tonight I hit 17 miles, so I’ve averaged more than two miles a day. I’m so incredibly proud of that. I haven’t finished reading a book yet, but I have until the end of January. And I knew goddamn well I wouldn’t get to knitting anytime soon, so I have until the end of the frickin’ year for that one (and I’ll probably need it).

Still, I’m going strong. Eight days may not seem like a lot to most people, but if you compare that to the number of excuses I’ve had to dispel in my own head – the voices that tell me I can’t do this, and so what if I don’t walk today – then it might seem more impressive.

So there you have it. The girl who never made resolutions is suddenly making an actual lifestyle change because of one.

Things just keep getting weirder and weirder around here.

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