is a single mama in the city, super-savvy editor, writer, video host and shameless shoe whore.
Well, hello there.
Tuesday, September 5, 2006 Welcome to Sassafrass. Come on in.
Grab a Diet Fanta and the bag of blue tortilla chips on the counter. Let's get cozy.
Yes, this is one of those 3 million mommy blogs floating around out there, making you feel comfortable about your obsessions and minor paranoia that your lack of interest in coloring just one more Elmo and Zoe playing hockey will lead to therapy bills that make college tuition look like a good trip to the dollar store.
This is one more place where I get to write about all the stuff that is important to me or crosses my mind, and where you read, laugh or fire back, and then check in tomorrow. This is the little space where I spill mama-brags about how hilarious and amazingly adorable my child is, and where my husband gets a Most Frequent Commenter award just to get out of making after-news runs to 7-11 for jasmine green tea and Dove bars.
This is my little piece of heaven where I am sessy as hell, smart as a whip and people say, "Dude. You've got to read this chica's post on RockStar. It is effing hilarious, papi!"
But why why why?
About two years ago, I hired an artist to create a small business website for me. OK, so "hired" might be a stretch. I promised him that my husband would barter out his time with personal training, which never happened. The whole arrangement fizzled out, which was really not that unexpected and really was OK since the artist is the brother of one of my best friends.
Hired? Not ever in my budget. Asking an artist to complete a concrete project on my aggressive schedule? Not penned into my calendar.
The artist/best friend's brother did give me some great parting advice about meta-tags and other cyberspeak that I cannot remember, did not write down, and honestly, sunk in like the instructions the Polish lady at the produce market yells at people choosing seedless watermelons. After our decision to abandon the project (mostly his) and farewells to fitness (still his), he forwarded me the link to his blog.
Do know I had and have absolutely no hard feelings toward Best Friend's Brother. He is one of the nicest guys and most talented artists I've ever met. He doesn't need to be designing my website. He needs to be hanging his paintings in galleries in River North. He is a survivor, a sweetheart, a hugger. But when he directed me to his blog, he made me cringe.
All I could think as I dutifully clicked through to photos of his artwork, a modest About Me section and a few cheery comments from college buddies still living in Wrigleyville was: Good Lord. Does everyone have to have a freaking blog now?
I made my way through an overly-simplified web hosting template program to create a website for myself. Other than headaches over trying to override a system set to size 9 Ariel font, it costs me very little. It is up and it will do.
I got it up in time to launch my own art business (you see? my artist cracks are justified after all) and soon after, to land a writing job that would require me to put my brushes away for a bit. The job is for a much bigger, slicker website and for the most part, is blogging. Blogging there led to blogging here on my own time, in my own space, on my own not-so-aggressive schedule.
The cosmic answer to my own question is apparently, yes. We all do need our own freaking blog.
My name is Jessica Ashley. I am a feminist mama, a crafty maven, a grrrl who gets all kinds of riled up. I'm a wife, a reality TV junkie, a shoe whore who collects shoes that make no sense to wear to playgroup. I don't have a housekeeper and I will never.move.to.the.suburbs. I swear and I enjoy it. I teach my toddler dance moves courtesy my nights as a clubber with a gold card, perched on a big black amplifier pedestal. I laugh. A lot. I love big and I get geeky with a quickness. I am analytical, artistic and intellectual. I am bootylicious and brave. I am serious and an incessant sassafrass. I am my own best audience.
And really, are there better reasons for beginning a blog?
I'm glad you've joined me. Let's keep this badgrrrl going, shall we?
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